Paper Presentation I:
The Market and the Law
Thursday, April 8, 15.15–17.15

Christos Anagnostopoulos University of Salford, UK
P. Alexopoulos Greece

As in most European countries, football in Greece is not only the most popular sport, but it is also a sport with remarkable social, economic and political dimensions. Responding to the demands that so-called ‘football commercialisation’ has brought along, over the last three years or so Greek professional football has experienced numerous changes - manifesting themselves in many aspects such as institutional and club ownership structures, immense sponsorship deals, stadium developments, and enormous TV rights contracts. Within such a context in flux, a new organising football body has been formed (the Super League) by sixteen ‘shareholders’, the member football clubs playing in Division A and whose membership in the league is dependent upon the performance of their football team in the championship. Since 2006, the Super League has therefore been assigned that responsibility and has been given all the necessary authority to accomplish the effective and responsible management of professional football which falls within its competence, always in the framework of the state laws, the articles of association, and the regulations and aims of the Hellenic Football Federation.

Given the serious financial problems Greek football clubs are confronted with, as well as the pressures imposed from UEFA (i.e. Licensing System), the Super League has put great emphasis on the creation of a uniform accounting, management and auditing system for monitoring and controlling all members. Yet the exploitation of radio, television and internet rights as well as the distribution of their product among their members has been, arguably, the main driving force behind its initial inception. This paper therefore is mainly concerned with the current status of professional football in Greece in an endeavour to shed light on issues related to organisational, financial and its wider business-like implemented approaches.  Taking into account that studies that look at Greek football have not penetrated the international scholastic football community, this conference provides the perfect platform for such issues to be further discussed.