Saturday, September 03, 2011

Sporting news

As Swinton lift the Championship Division One trophy despite losing to Rochdale in their final game, it is pleasing to read that there is a worse run sport than Rugby League.  The Greek football season has kicked off. This is despite the fact that only thirteen of the sides that make up the sixteen-team top division are known.

The story goes like this. Volos, the nearest team to here, who sparked much celebration in the spring by winning Europa League qualification in their first season in the top division, lost their place and were relegated to the fourth division, together with Kavala, due to the failure to break ties with owners implicated in match fixing. This caused a little local rioting and a court case. The first led to some tear gas being let loose by the police, the second to an injunction preventing their replacement. So the two teams promoted to take their places, Doxa and Levadiakos, have not had their licences approved. In the meantime, Iraklis avoided relegation last season but were then relegated because they submitted a forged document. Now they have won their appeal and so will stay up. That means that Asteras Tripolis, who were relegated, but then allowed to stay up because Iraklis were relegated in their place, have now been told that they have been relegated after all. Needless to say, Asteras Tripolis are also appealing, so nothing has been resolved. With all this in the air, the season actually started.  Interesting.

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