Evangelos Marinakis to stand trial as part of sports violence probe | OneFootball

Olympiacos president Evangelos Marinakis and four board members will stand trial on misdemeanour charges as part of a probe into sports violence, following a decision by a Greek judicial council.

Marinakis, who also owns Nottingham Forest, has strongly denied the charges, accusing Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his media allies of blackmail.

The 57-year-old billionaire is facing trial along with Olympiacos vice-president Giannis Moralis, the club’s CEO Dimitris Agrafiotis and vice-presidents Kostas Karapapas and Michalis Kountouris, and a number of supporters, according to Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

The charges relate to an incident in 2023, four days after Olympiacos drew 2-2 away to Volos, when a riot police officer was fatally injured by a flare in clashes with a group of Olympiacos fans outside a volleyball game in the Piraeus suburb of Renti.

Responding to the accusations, Marinakis, who is the founder of the Alter Ego Media group, protested his innocence and criticised the Greek government in a lengthy statement issued on Olympiacos’ website.

“A panic-stricken Prime Minister and the scandalously favoured media cronies who depend on the Mitsotakis system for their survival are trying to blackmail me and compromise my independence, weaponising the justice system once again to do so,” he wrote.

“Their efforts constitute a coordinated attempt to gag me, but one that has no chance of success.

“Similar attempts have been made unsuccessfully in the past by political and financial interests, but their fabricated cases have always collapsed spectacularly. The evidence is overwhelming: the real victim in this case is justice and its institutions.

“Olympiacos and myself are their overt targets, but their true goal is to erode press freedom, media independence and ultimately democracy itself. And these are values on which Alter Ego Media, the major media group in Greece, will never compromise.

“My message is this, and it is clear: I am not afraid, I will not be blackmailed, I will not negotiate, I will not back down, I will not submit. The truth will come out. Democracy will prevail. Ultimately, we will prevail (as we always do).”

Marinakis purchased Nottingham Forest in 2017. The Premier League club declined to comment when approached by the PA news agency.