Paniliakos FC

Paniliakos FC Fan Blog

Arsenal’s new summer signing Sokratis Papastathopoulos has spoken about his close friendship with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from their time together with Borussia Dortmund. The Greece international became the club’s third signing of the summer transfer window after making the switch from Dortmund earlier this month and he has since been reunited with former teammates Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Speaking to Arsenal Player, Sokratis admitted that he had good bond with Aubameyang on the pitch, considering both of them joined Dortmund in the same year (2013). Meanwhile, he added that the two were unable to speak German during their maiden campaign but they could gel together as they were well-versed with the Italian language.

Jack Rodwell has been forgotten man over the last couple of seasons and he could end his association in English football by making a move to Greek club AEK Athens in the summer. After Sunderland’s relegation into the League One, it looks highly unlikely that Rodwell will be able to extend his contract with the Black Cats. Last season, Rodwell had just one victory with Sunderland – as a starter – throughout the campaign. Sunderland have been dropping down the English footballer faster than a rock and they now find themselves in the third tier of English football.

A number of Sunderland players have been linked with moves elsewhere. Rodwell, himself, was linked with a move to Bolton, but plenty of financial issues at the club has resulted in them all being called off. MLS clubs have also shown interest in the midfielder who is capable of playing in a number of positions. Now, AEK Athens are close to signing him and this move could become a huge positive for all parties concerned. After staring at the possibility of playing in League One only a few months ago, Rodwell could be playing in the Champions League. It is widely expected that he will be ready to accept any offer from AEK Athens, who are ready to pay only around £ 30,000 per week for the midfielder.

FIFA has given a stern warning to Greece that the nation will be pulled off from any international competitions if the domestic game in the country continues to be hit by violence and match fixing issues. Greece has been a struggling country when it comes to dealing with this plan. Just as the nation has collapsed, there is a danger of Greece being taken out of the international scenario. The Greek league has been recently suspended after being found guilty of match fixing. While further problems came in the form of PAOK showing violence in a recent match, the international governing body of football has decided to come in with a stern warning.

FIFA has claimed thatGrexit is now a distinct possibility. This has been debriefed to the sports minister of Greece and the Greek soccer Federation president. Greek football has been plagued by a lot of violence issues throughout the last decade. The matters hit headlines recently when PAOK team owner threatened the referee with a gun in his strap. The PAOK team owner decided to take things into his own hands after watching an inconclusive decision from the referee. This would have directly affected his team’s chances of going top of the table. The PAOK team owner faces a ban of at least five years along with a fine of € 50,000. PAOK are also starring at the prospect of relegation.

Greece national team coach Michael Skibbe claims that Saudi Arabia will undergo a difficult World Cup 2018 campaign. Saudi Arabia were able to claim a 2-0 victory over Greece in a recent friendly match between the two teams. After the appointment of Juan Antonio Pizzi, Saudi Arabia seem to have made a lot of strides that hold them in good stead going into the World Cup 2018. The opening match of the tournament will witness Saudi Arabia taking on hosts Russia on June 14.

Greece was able to end a run of three consecutive matches without a victory by beating Egypt 1-0 in a friendly match. This was the first victory for Greece since October. Michael Skibbe was quite happy with the manner of the performance, while Nicholas Karelis scored the only goal of the game in the 29^th minute. The 2004 European champions had a lot of pressure coming into the game, as they had poor form for the last few months. This would not be a good sign as they have already missed out on World Cup 2018 participation.

Greek football is all set to resume from this week after being absent from action for the last three weeks. All forms of Greek top-flight football were left suspended after a club owner carried a pistol to challenge the referee in a recent match. PAOK owner came onto the pitch with a gun to his belt. This forced the Greek football authorities to suspend the league from March 12.

The future of football in Greece has been quite bleak due to several political and financial crisis that had hit the country. However, Stelios Giannakopoulos believes that there could be a brighter future for football in his country. Stelios who had ended his playing career back in 2010, worked as head of the Greek PFA. During that period, he was also working on getting his coaching badges.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has decided against the loan exit of Konstantinos Mavropanos after he made a huge impression on his first training session. The Greece youth international joined the Gunners from PAS Giannina for £2.2m earlier this month, and Wenger initially suggested that the centre-back was not ready to handle the rigours of the Premier League.

However, the French tactician made a surprise decision to place Mavropanos on the bench for Wednesday's goalless versus Chelsea in the League Cup semi-final, and he has opted to keep him at the Emirates for the campaign, he said: "I personally want to keep him until May. The first signs have been so encouraging so we will keep him until May [the end of the season]."

Barcelona full-back Nelson Semedo has revealed that his side's 0-0 Champions League draw versus Olympiacos felt more like a defeat. The Catalan giants failed to score for the first time in a Champions League group stage game in five years after they were held by the Greek champions at the Karaiskakis Stadium.

Speaking to BeIN Sport, the Portugal international described how sharing the spoils felt like a defeat for the Spanish outfit, he said: "This feels like a defeat for us. Obviously you can see from our performance we tried to score goals and even though we got a point it feels worse, but we can only keep working. We are not focused on results in other games, we concentrate on our own position and what we can do within the group."

Greece national team coach Michael Skibbe is disappointed with FIFA deciding to ban Kostas Manolas from the World Cup qualification game against Croatia. The Roma defender has been suspended on grounds that he has been intentionally seeking a yellow card in order to avoid suspension in a crucial match. However, Skibbe has decided to disagree with this decision and the claims that the one match suspension for the defender is not for an illegitimate reason. Kostas Manolas picked up a yellow card for time wasting in the recent 2-1 victory over Cyprus. However, the aspect of time wasting is a common situation when the team has a slender advantage like in the case of Greece.

Yet, FIFA decided to punish the defender even though he had already sat out of the final group match against Gibraltar. This was a meaningless game with Greece managing a comfortable 4-0 victory as expected. However, FIFA felt that Kostas Manolas was deliberately looking to avoid this game in the hope of being ready for the game against Croatia, which has far more greater implications with regard to qualification to the World Cup 2018. Skibbe says that it was natural for the player to attempt to waste some time in order to seal the game against Cyprus. He felt that there was no need for an extra suspension.