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GreekReporter.comGreeceGreece's Panathinaikos FC Chief Looks for Financial Support

Greece's Panathinaikos FC Chief Looks for Financial Support

alafouzosYiannis Alafouzos, president of the Panathinaikos Alliance, said the football club is in debt and he is not getting the financial support expected from fans.

Alafouzos spoke to the members of the alliance saying that when he became chairman the club was 40 million euros in debt, which is down to 10 million euros now. The Panathinaikos major shareholder said he has put 23 million euros in the club so far.

“We had about 40 million euros in debt, today we have fewer than 10 million of debt and most of that is owed to the tax office. Since 2012 we have paid 23.2 million euros in taxes,” Alafouzos told the members of Panathinaikos Alliance
“Despite all the difficulties, we have achieved our goal which was not to let Panathinaikos collapse and to have a good presence on the field,” he said.
The club is facing a severe financial penalty after the recent incident when before a derby with arch rival Olympiacos, fans shot flares with a flare gun at the opponent team during warm up. The game never took place, resulting in angry fans vandalizing the field and attacking police with flares and rocks. The total losses estimated at 1.2 million euros, with Panathinaikos making an appeal.
The Panathinaikos chief set up the alliance in 2012 in order to “ensure the stability of Panathinaikos ownership status, the financial viability and prosperity of the club as well as to safeguard and preserve the club’s cultural inheritance and tradition.”
He said he was hoping he would get more financial help from members and supporters, but that wasn’t the case.
“Unfortunately we have few members in the alliance. I had hoped for 40 to 50 thousand members, but we have less than 10,000. We had hoped for financial injections, but unfortunately because of the financial crisis in the country this was limited. For this reason I was forced to invest 23 million euros of my own,” Alafouzos said.
Alafouzos took over the popular football club in 2012 after the violence that erupted during a derby against arch rival Olympiacos left the club without leadership. With him at the helm, Panathinaikos has won one Greek Cup and has finished second behind Olympiacos in the Super League the last two seasons.

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