The vice-president of PAOK will not take over the reins of EPO if he does not receive guarantees from AEK that he will manage the federation smoothly
The claim of the SL1 championship by the Big 4 slowed down the developments regarding the persons who will take over the management of EPO in the post-Baltako era. The elections will be held in about two months and the “allies” PAOK and AEK have not finalized their new agreement on how the EPO will be managed in the four-year period 2024-28.
The only thing certain, if the balance in Greek football does not change, is that the next president of the EPO will be chosen by PAOK PAOK, and the vice-president of Makis Gagatsis has already expressed interest in being a candidate. The progress of the “double head of the north” in the championship and especially in Europe “postponed” the final decisions by Ivan Savvidis.
M. Gagatsis has discussed with the major shareholder of PAOK the possibility of his “transfer” to EPO and Savvidis is initially positive, however the green light has not yet been given. If Savvidis says “yes” to Gagatsi’s candidacy, then he will set some conditions on the side of AEK in order to continue the alliance of the “two-headed” in the matters of the federation. The first and basic one will be to have the upper hand in the EPO, that is, to manage it without a backlash. The CEO of PAOK is not going to succeed Baltako in an environment where he will be dependent and will not be able to manage in the way he wants. Savvidis is also in this rota, as it emanates from the “bicep of the north”.
The sin
The last one to go with fanfare (and the backs of the Mitsotakis government) to the EPO was Thodoris Zagorakis, who when he found out that he was a pot president and could not manage, resigned. M. Gagatsis is not going to enter this process.
The AEK – PAOK alliance with the support of Panathinaikos and the catalytic intervention of FIFA in 2016 turned Greek football upside down, as the system that had plunged it into corruption was uprooted and therefore the championship was discredited, which had been since November. Everything has changed since 2017 and since then the title has been won by Olympiacos, AEK and PAOK, while in the last two years the Super League has been extremely attractive and the championship is claimed by the Big 4. For the last seven years, EPO has been consistently controlled by ” two-headed” and despite the protests of Olympiakos at regular intervals in the championship, there are no refereeing “crimes” and in no case is the title decided by the whistles. This is also the positive sign of the PAOK – AEK alliance in the EPO.
Domino
The question that is now being asked by the presidents of the associations of football clubs, who make up the largest part of the electorate of the EPO, is “what will happen if AEK does not accept the conditions that the PAOK side will set?”. At the moment, the specific question cannot be answered because Dimitris Melissanidis and Ivan Savvidis have not spoken. When they talk, any agreement or disagreement will be finalized for the next day of the federation. In the event that the two major players reach an agreement, then it is expected that key persons in the EPO and in its main committees will also change. Otherwise, PAOK and AEK will go their separate ways, although this is considered almost unlikely.
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