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Charlotte Duncker in The Times today.
For those travelling to Greece next week…
Of the 44.5 million people who viewed the inflammatory — and quickly infamous — tweet sent by Nottingham Forest after their defeat by Everton on Sunday, few will have thought the words came from the club’s social media manager.
“We warned the PGMOL [Professional Game Match Officials Board] that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times,” it read. And it came directly from the top, from the co-owner Evangelos Marinakis, who was watching the game on a stream in Greece while he was waiting for his other team, Olympiacos, to kick off.
Marinakis, 56, had to be persuaded to tone down the post, which has created a week of debate, statement, counter-statement and threats of legal action, bans and fines. His chagrin against officials is not new. More often than not, messages filter down from the shipping magnate about missed decisions or those he feels to have been incorrect.
The list of those decisions is long. To name a few: the last-minute winner conceded against Liverpool; Willy Boly’s second yellow card against Bournemouth; and, against Manchester United, two seemingly incorrect calls, when Joe Worrall was sent off and Marcus Rashford was awarded a penalty.
His fury towards officials is derived from his relationship with Olympiacos, as a follower and then owner. He is a lifelong fan of the Super League side. His father, Miltiadis — who started the shipping company, Capital Maritime Trading, which Evangelos has grown to a fleet of 120 ships — bought the club with ten other ship owners in 1979, when corruption was rife in the Greek game.
Some would argue that not much has changed. Regardless, it established his belief that football matches are not just won by the best team, but are inseparable from scheming and politics. In 2010, Marinakis Jr bought Olympiacos outright with the aim of making them one of the best teams in Europe. In the 14 years since his takeover, they have won ten championships. He has also become one of the most divisive figures in Greek football.
In documents seen by The Times, Marinakis is mentioned in evidence about the way the club’s ultras, Gate 7, operate within the city of Piraeus and across sport. It was claimed during the investigation that the most dangerous supporters are given accreditation for certain home games and free rein of the stadium. The three witnesses had to be placed on a witness-protection scheme over fears for their safety for speaking out against the group.
The report made reference to a game against AEK Athens last April, when Olympiacos supporters and senior management were not happy when the away side scored a third goal and the signal was given from one of the leaders of Gate 7 for fans to throw balls on to the pitch. The AEK players needed a police escort when they left the field as objects were hurled at them from the VIP section. Marinakis was named in the report as being involved with this activity.
There is a long list of violence, felonies and misdemeanours that have been linked to football hooligan groups within Greece, including a bakery belonging to an “uncooperative” referee being blown up, intimidation of officials and injuries caused to opposition fans and police. They are nearly exclusively related to protesting against unfavourable results or decisions in games.
In 2015, before he bought Forest, Marinakis was banned from football while he was investigated for being the head of an organisation that carried out match-fixing, fraud, extortion and bribing and intimidating referees. He has always strenuously denied any involvement and the allegations have been dismissed.
“The things I am accused of couldn’t be further from my mentality and the way I operate as a person,” Marinakis said in 2017. “They are not only untrue, they are unthinkable. I do not answer publicly, by choice. Maybe it is a mistake, since others speak all the time, but it is not in my philosophy to feed the small-minded, vicious cycle of unsubstantiated yellow rumours. I prefer justice to take its course, no matter how long this will take in Greece.”
Nevertheless, he is the owner of a football club in a country where it is commonplace for the integrity of referees to be called into question, often in extreme circumstances. In 2018 the PAOK owner, Ivan Savvidis, stormed on to the pitch armed with a gun to remonstrate with the referee.
In a letter to the Greek FA in December, the Super League referees complained about their treatment. “In the past years Greek and foreign referees have been a permanent target, a punching bag and a scapegoat in shifting responsibilities,” they wrote. “Announcements that go unpunished, bullying, threats, verbal and physical attacks — these are just some of the issues that have made football toxic.”
By these standards of violence and intimidation, an angrily worded tweet about an official’s allegiance costing them points is relatively tame, which an X account named Gate 7 pointed out on Sunday. “English football fans have probably never read an Olympiacos 500-word press release after a poor reffing performance,” they tweeted. “This right here is light work. Welcome to show time!”
Marinakis is undoubtedly a determined man. He is estimated to be worth about $3billion (about £2.4billion), and when he bought Forest for £50million in 2017 he declared his aim was to bring back the glory days and get them back into Europe. Tattooed on his left arm are the words: “Dream, Love, Create, Fight, Survive, Win.” And so he has little time for people who are not capable of contributing towards his sole aim: winning. Hence why the officials have been coming in for stick.
At Olympiacos, a former player told of how, after defeat by Panathinaikos in the derby, Marinakis arranged for the ultras to stand outside the dressing room armed with weapons. If the team were to lose again, he warned, he would let them in.
At Forest, staff know to tread carefully around him after a defeat. During Steve Cooper’s time in charge, Marinakis cut a meeting short after the person he had invited into his office spoke too effusively about the Welshman. The meeting ended before the drink that he had ordered had been delivered. During the loss against Arsenal at the City Ground, he smashed the TV in front of his seat. After the 5-0 defeat by Fulham, his accreditation was found in a bush near Craven Cottage.
And yet, he does appear to have a softer side. In Piraeus, the port city on the edge of Athens where Olympiacos are based, he put in place a welcoming committee for refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. At his request club officials arrived at the port to distribute clothing, meals and toys to children. He has also personally funded projects including soup kitchens, new football pitches and playgrounds across the city. It was Marinakis’s idea to play a “Stop War” friendly against Shakhtar Donetsk, inviting the Ukrainian team to stay for as long as they required free of charge.
Among Forest fans, it is his drive and determination that stands out. He has pushed Forest back to the Premier League and given them fresh hope. He has invested hundreds of millions since he took over, made major upgrades to the training ground and has ambitious plans for the City Ground. He is fiercely committed to the Forest project and every time he is spotted on the pitch before a match, he is applauded. Clearly, for Forest fans, his will to win is to be prized, but for everyone else — in England, at least — it can stray too far.
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