Panathinaikos banned from European football for three seasons
Tuesday 24 April 2018 22:04, UK
Former Greek champions Panathinaikos have been banned from European competition for the next three seasons they qualify after failing to meet financial requirements.
The former European Cup finalists have fallen on hard times in recent years, undergoing several changes of ownership structure and suffering dire financial problems.
UEFA said the club was given a March 1 deadline to settle issues with creditors but had failed to do so.
"The Adjudicatory Chamber confirmed that Panathinaikos FC is excluded from participating in the next UEFA club competition for which it would otherwise qualify in the next three seasons," UEFA said in a statement.
"The Adjudicatory Chamber also ordered that the amount of €100,000 (£87,500) as part of the total fine of €200,000 euros is no longer suspended and is due immediately."
Panathinaikos are currently in 10th place in Greece's Superleague standings. They were found in December to be in breach of the overdue payables requirement of UEFA's club licensing and financial fair play regulations and were fined.
That fine was suspended, pending the March deadline.
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The Greek championship has this season been tarnished by crowd violence involving several clubs and there have also been investigations by prosecutors into corruption.
Play was even suspended for weeks after PAOK club boss Ivan Savvidis stormed onto the pitch with a gun in his belt during a league game against AEK Athens last month.
FIFA has threatened to exclude Greece from international competition and will discuss the state of Greek football in the coming weeks.
