December 5 – Greece’s PAOK Thessaloniki have sent an angry letter to Greece’s public broadcaster complaining of ERT’s decision not to broadcast live PAOK’s Conference League match against Eintracht Frankfurt on 30 November 2023.
PAOK were blacked out while Greece’s two other club representatives in Europe – Olympiakos and Panathinaikos – both had their games aired. Olympiakos played against Freiburg in Germany, while at the same time Panathinaikos played with Villarreal in Spain.
PAOK won their game 2:1 in Germany.
PAOK said that they are being treated as though they were a “foreign team” and vowed to take action against ERT.
“It seems inconceivable and unjustifiable to us, on a day when the Public Radio Television has delegates to the away games of Olympiakos (in neighbouring Freiburg) and Panathinaikos (in Villareal, Spain), to defiantly ignore the effort of the most successful, in European tournaments, Greek team,” said the PAOK statement.
“We believe that we don’t even need to argue more about the injustice towards the hundreds of thousands of North Hellas and expatriates, who once again felt like second-class citizens in terms of rights, while they are considered equal in their financial obligations towards Public Radio and Television…”
“Reserving all our legal rights, we inform you that we stop any gesture of goodwill towards ERT crews and will henceforth accredit only those we are legally obliged to accredit.
“Unfortunately, there are many signs that you treat PAOK as a foreign team, which we will not allow from now on.”
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1713954196labto1713954196ofdlr1713954196owedi1713954196sni@o1713954196fni1713954196