“This meeting haunted my career. » Greek referee Giorgos Kominos admitted this Saturday to having made a decision that changed the final result of the match, out of fear for those close to him. It was during the PAOK Salonika-AEK Athens meeting. The strong man of PAOK, Ivan Savvidis, entered the pitch during this meeting in March 2018, gun in his belt, to threaten the referee who had just refused a goal to his team, due to offside, in the 90th minute.
The man in black then changed his decision, awarding the goal to PAOK, who should in principle inherit first place in the Super League, with a 1-0 victory. But the referee was unable to convince AEK to return to the field so that the match could be legally finished, with the players refusing to resume the match after the incident.
His wife threatened
Giorgos Kominis explained to the media betarades.gr that he had indeed changed the outcome of the match, out of fear for his family. He says he was “disgusted” when people outside the locker rooms threatened his wife, under the indifferent gaze of the police.
Afterward, “people followed my wife to the supermarket when she was eight months pregnant. I’ve never told anyone before,” he added. He also assured that the linesman had told him “word for word ‘the goal is out of play'”. “But who can refuse it here? “, he suggested, referring to the PAOK audience.
The incident led the government to suspend the Greek championship for almost three weeks. Ivan Savvidis, an influential Greek-Russian businessman, was initially sentenced to twenty-five months in prison. A sanction reduced to eight months by an appeal court last May. Kominis was removed from the referees list two years after the incident.