By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a written statement following the 12-month ban that EuroLeague Basketball sanctioned him with, Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos said that a voting will be organized where fans of the team will choose whether the club will continue, or not, playing in EuroLeague.
Giannakopoulos mentions that he will first exhaust all possibilities of “finding his right” in the EuroLeague Appellate Body, hoping that the judge will “for the first time be independent and not a representative”.
Giannakopoulos also says that if the fans vote for the team to continue participating in EuroLeague then he will leave the club since he “won’t have any place” within it.
The complete statement by Dimitris Giannakopoulos is as follows:
“In general admission, in recent years, Panathinaikos has suffered continuous and blatant injustices by EuroLeague on every level, off and on the court. Despite all these, we have fully respected and complied with the sanctions that have been imposed and surpass 1 million euros in fines, showing respect, primarily towards the principles of the club and then to the organization.
However, defending my family is for me a red line that I will never violate or withdraw from it.
After the game vs. Fenerbahce, I personally received threats and curses against me but also against my family, from thousands of Turkish citizens. I felt obligated to defend my family, something that I will do again in the future, if and when it is necessary. I’m clear on it. I don’t negotiate it and I won’t turn back.
I never offended or insulted EuroLeague and its fans during this effort, something that was also confirmed by the Turkish club (Fenerbahce) via an announcement. On the contrary, I showed them how much I respect them through my positions.
Without having any jurisdiction, the disciplinary judge of EuroLeague basically “penalized” my effort to defend my family in my personal Instagram account, by imposing an illegal and excessive penalty to me for a matter that is clearly personal. A sanction that will certainly be dropped in civil courts, when they will take place.
As (a member/fan of) Panathinaikos, I have learned to operate without obedience regardless of price and cost.
If my decision was completely personal then I would have already pull Panathinaikos out of this parody. However, because we are all passerbys in Panathinaikos, the fans of the team will take this decision through an organized voting. If the fans choose that we stay in EuroLeague, I will longer have a place in the club. If the fans choose that we withdraw, Panathinaikos will participate in another European competition and at the same time, we will continue our fight for cleansing in European basketball.
Out of respect towards the fans of Panathinaikos and since I don’t wish to immediately put them in front of such a dilemma, I will first exhaust all possibilities to find our right in the EuroLeague Appellate Body, hoping that for the first time the judge there will be independent and not a representative.
However, regardless of what the Appellate Body of the EuroLeague will do, I make clear to every direction that I have already filed a lawsuit and a litigation against EuroLeague for offending my personality rights and for personal data infringement after their defamatory announcement they made ten days ago towards me.
I’ve also instructed our legal department to proceed with legal procedures:
To investigate, for all the 16 teams to find out, where does the money from the EuroLeague TV agreements are going and if their distribution is truly fair.
To shed some light on where the money that was given last summer to the teams in order to stay in the competition was found, without an increase in the income from sponsors.
To finally find out if it is legal that the General Shareholders Assembly don’t have the right to elect a CEO in an Anonymous company, to assess and evaluate him.
To find out how “independent” are the independent disciplinary organs of EuroLeague.
In any case, Panathinaikos won’t become what you want the club to become. And that is a commitment towards the Club, the History and, above all, our fans.
PS. 1 We anxiously anticipate seeing if this particular judge showed a similar sensitivity when a large group of fans and… persons connected with Fenerbahce, cursed me throughout the whole game during the recent match vs. Panathinaikos, without any provocation or reaction from my side.
PS.2.: To my persecutors… Hubris, Atis, Nemesis, Tisis.”