By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Five Panathinaikos and Greek national team players have sent a letter to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Deputy Minister of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports, Giannis Vroutsis.
In the letter, they expressed their full commitment to the national team while criticizing the “uncontrolled actions” of the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK) and officiating, according to ieidiseis.gr.
The five players are: Kostas Sloukas, Dinos Mitoglou, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Vassilis Toliopoulos, and Alexandros Samontourov.
“Your Excellency, Mr. Prime Minister, Honorable Mr. Minister,
With this letter, we would like to express, as players of the Men’s National Basketball Team, our devotion and genuine love for everything it represents. We have proudly and faithfully participated for many years, fully aware of our duty to our country and desiring to lead it to the top of Europe and the world, where it rightfully belongs.
However, we must also share our deep concern regarding Greek officiating and its current standard. Anyone who has followed basketball over the past four years can see that there is a serious issue with the performance of referees. The primary party responsible for this is the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK) and its administration.
We received countless messages from tens of thousands of fans, who urged us not to participate in the national team due to this problem and the blatant injustice our club has suffered in domestic competitions—perceived as a way for the EOK administration to avoid benefiting from any success we might achieve.
Despite this, we have decided to respond to the national team call-ups, as we have never set conditions for our participation with the national team. As proud Greeks, this summer as well, we will compete for our country and its emblem, for Greek basketball and its fans. Any success we achieve will belong to and be dedicated to them—not to the Federation’s administration.
Faced with this unpleasant situation, we do not want to stand idly by. However, our job is to play basketball. For that reason, we send you this letter, hoping that you and the other responsible bodies of the government will address this serious issue, so that those who do not truly care about the good of Greek basketball stop acting without oversight.
Given that you are both familiar with and fans of our sport, with the utmost respect for your work and sincere appreciation for all that you offer, we kindly ask that you personally engage with this major issue, so we don’t witness unpleasant developments at every level in the future.
With sincere appreciation,
Kostas Sloukas
Konstantinos Mitoglou
Panagiotis Kalaitzakis
Vassilis Toliopoulos
Alexandros Samontourov.“