Greece to Try Olympiacos FC Boss Over Policeman Killed by Hooligans

Greek tycoon Vangelis Marinakis, president of the football team Olympiacos, was referred to trial on Thursday for allegedly supporting a criminal organisation and inciting “sports-related violence” linked to the killing of Georgios Lyggeridis, a police officer, in December 2023.

The Athens Judicial Council of the Misdemeanours Court ordered trial for Marinakis together with Giannis Moralis, Kostas Karapapas, Michalis Kountouris and Dimitris Agrafiotis, all members of the Olympiacos management board.

Marinakis, whom also owns English Premier League club Nottingham Forest, accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of attempting to use the Greek justice system as a weapon.

“The Prime Minister, together with …the Mitsotakis system media crutches are attempting to blackmail me and hold me hostage, once again instrumentalising justice,” Marinakis said in a press release published on the Olympiacos website.

“This is a coordinated effort to silence me but a hopeless one. It is not, after all, the first time that such an attempt has been made. Political and economic interests have tried the same unsuccessfully in the past through fabricated cases and accusations that fell with a bang. The evidence is overwhelming and demonstrates that the first victim in this case is justice itself and its institutions,” he added.

Police officer Lyggeridis, 31, was fatally injured by a flare thrown by brawling Olympiacos fans during a fight outside a sports stadium in Athens on December 7 in 2023, where a volleyball match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos was being held; he died 20 days later in hospital.

The trial for Lyggeridis’s death started in February. Besides Marinakis and the four others, 142 more people are being accused of felony and misdemeanour charges.

In 2011, 70 people were linked to one of the biggest football match-fixing scandals in Greece. Among those charged was Marinakis. On the proposal of the prosecutor, he was acquitted.