Greek referees end strike, league resumes next weekend
Greece’s Super League referees decided on Friday to end their strike and resume officiating the country’s top division that will return to action on Saturday, January 12 after a forced three-week shutdown.
The attack on FIFA-badge referee Thanassis Tzilos last month had his colleagues up in arms, this being the latest in a series of attacks against Greek referees, without any of the culprits ever brought to justice.
However authorities have this time identified a 46-year-old man, known for soccer-related offenses and allegiance to a specific soccer club, as implicated in the attack that had Tzilos spend a night in hospital with head and knee injuries.
At the meeting the representatives of the referee association had with the Super League and Deputy Minister for Sport Giorgos Vassiliadis on Friday they received assurances that convinced the majority of them to resume their duties in the top flight.
A vote among referees produced a 42-31 result in favor of ending the strike, with the strong minority insisting on a tougher stance, according to reports.
The postponed 15th round of games of the Super League is now scheduled to take place on January 12-13, although Olympiakos has challenged that decision, saying that it is the 16th round that should take place that weekend and the 15th should be staged in midweek later on, Olympiakos’s case will be heard by the Court of Arbitration of the federation on Monday.
On January 8-10 the first-leg games of the Greek Cup’s round of 16 will take place as normal.
