The president of the Greek football club Olympiacos, Vanguélis Marinakis, who also chairs the English team Nottingham Forest, was charged on Tuesday with financing a criminal organization and inciting sporting violence, as part of a judicial investigation into course concerning the murder of a police officer by supporters of the team last December.
Alongside Marinakis, who is also president of Portuguese club Rio Ave, four other Olympiacos leaders were indicted, including Yannis Móralis, who is not only vice-president but also mayor of Piraeus, according to the Skai news portal .
On December 7, 2023, a group of Olympiacos ultra fans left a volleyball match in Athens to attack riot police stationed outside the stadium with flares and Molotov cocktails.
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During the riots, a 31-year-old police officer was hit in the thigh by a flare, leading to his hospitalization in intensive care, where he tragically died three weeks later. Organized groups of Olympiacos supporters were allegedly involved in the incident, according to local media.
Marinakis, who was also president of the Greek football league (Superleague), was forced to resign, while the Greek government ordered all football clubs to install surveillance cameras in stadiums and implement personalized ticketing systems.
Days after the attack, authorities arrested 167 people suspected of involvement in the officer’s killing, 25 of whom were remanded in custody, including an 18-year-old accused of throwing the flare .
The majority of the accused are leaders of the official Olympiacos supporters group, ‘Gate 7’, charged with belonging to a criminal organization that orchestrated and carried out the murder.
However, the prosecutor in the case is also investigating the possibility that this organization is ‘discreetly run at the highest level by members of the management or executives of PAE OLYMPIAKOS (the football club)’, according to a file leaked to the press after the murder.
Thus, the prosecutor requested charges against Vanguélis Marinakis and the four other leaders for the alleged crimes of financing a criminal organization and inciting sports violence, as reported by the Ieidiseis portal.
