Things get violent during players' strike in Greece

It was only a matter of time.

It started yesterday and today the police special forces intervened, in order to remove the protesters from the game of AEK vs Ikaros, the 1st day of the regular season(2010-2011) in Greece. A group of members of the  Hellenic Professional Basketball Players Association(PSAK) gathered in the middle of the court in order to delay the game or stop it if possible. 

Police special forces were already present at the scene and tried to forcefully evacuate the group of 20 or so players that were sitting in the middle of the court. After about 15 minutes of "prodding" by the police special forces the players decided to leave themselves. Eventually the situation diffused and the game started but not before things got slightly out of hand as you can see in the video found at the end of this article.At the moment the Greek league is being ridiculed around the world because the people who run the league, directly or indirectly, are still doing nothing. Another member of PSAK resigned today, that was Demos Dikoudis, who had a heated debate with the president Lazaros Papadopoulos. One might say that things will start moving towards a certain direction when it serves someone's agenda.

What will come out of all this is yet uncertain. The players' association is losing members, its unity has been compromised and the powers that be are still waiting for the dust to settle before they just pick up the wreckage. Basketball used to be the number one sport in Greece once upon a time. It's the only team sport that gives Greece medals consistently yet it has been abandoned in such a way that created one of the most corrupt pro leagues in Europe. It managed to find its way back to the limelight again, but this time through conflict and violence. However they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity.





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Lazaros Papadopoulos to leave PAOK - Chaos in the Greek league

The Greek players strike has just started in Greece but it seems that unity is absent on their camp.


Lazaros Papadopoulos(2.13-C) is going to leave PAOK according to basketnet.gr. The president of the Hellenic Professional Basketball Players Association, also known as PSAK in Greece (www.psak.gr), will be leaving the team of PAOK according to the article. Papadopoulos has not played a single game for PAOK yet and he probably won't even get to play one. PAOK played against Panathinaikos yesterday using only his 5 non-Greek players.

The article says that Papadopoulos is aware of the heat that he has brought down on his team for declaring the strike and standing by it. Other members of the Association were too scared to go against their wealthy bosses (Olympiakos and Panathinaikos) and defied the strike decision. They were also scared about the loss of their earnings by stating, "who's going to compensate us if we go on strike".

Obviously the loss of their earnings concerns them more than the plight of their fellow players in the lower leagues that don't even have medical insurance when they play. It was another day that damaged the integrity and the dignity of the suffering Greek league. At least Ioannis Bouroussis submitted his resignation as the vice-president of the Association that was the only right thing to do. He chose money and obedience over his fellow countrymen after all. Others weren't so courteous.

What happens next? All the possibilities are open to exploration at this stage. It only took one day to debunk all the "Greek icons" like Diamantidis, Papaloukas and Spanoulis. It also took only day to display the true bosses of the league. To them no other team matters.

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Lockdown in the Greek League, the players are on strike

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse.


The Hellenic Professional Basketball Players Association, also known as PSAK in Greece (www.psak.gr) have declared that the are on strike. What follows is a loose translation of their announcement.

The General Assembly of the Hellenic Professional Basketball Players Association decided to go indefinitely on strike. The votes were 151 in favor and 24 against this decision and the strike affects the players of the A1 and A2 leagues. We Hellenic Basketball Players do not accept to be ridiculed by the Greek State as they have already agreed in writing to meet all of our demands. This was done 10 months ago.

The Association's decision is to go on strike until our demands are enforced as actual laws. We hope that this decision will be supported by the Teams Association(ESAKE) and also all the rationally thinking team owners, so that we can all together demand the changes that Greek Basketball needs. In any case, even if it's just by ourselves we will demand our rights.

Our list of demands.
1. Insurance cover for all professional players.
2. Full medical cover for all professional players.
3. The reopening of the mutual fund.
4. The right to be employed if our current teams do not pay us.
5. Immediate decisions from the Economic Dispute Committees.
6. Setting up the Collective Employment Agreement that was disbanded in 2008.

source : psak.gr



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