Greek referee Giorgos Kominis, who oversaw a suspicious match in his country in 2018 in which a club owner stormed the pitch with a pistol, admitted he conceded the match-changing goal out of fear for his family.
Yesterday, Saturday, Kominis told the Betadress website that he “felt sick” when people outside the changing room threatened his pregnant wife while police did nothing.
In one of the most controversial matches in the history of the Greek Football League between PAOK Thessaloniki and AEK Athens, Ivan Savvidis, the owner of PAOK, stormed onto the field to confront the referee in protest against his team’s goal being disallowed in the 90th minute.
Asked whether he changed the result in PAOK Thessaloniki’s match with AEK Athens, in which the winning goal was initially disallowed due to offside, Kominis responded out of fear for his family: “Exactly.”
“That match haunted my career,” Kominis said.
He continued: “I lived in fear. People followed my wife to the supermarket when she was eight months pregnant. I never told anyone about this before.”
Kominis said the assistant referee told him: “Literally the goal was offside. (But) who here can cancel the goal?”, referring to PAOK’s home fans.
PAOK owner Savvidis was initially given a suspended 25-month prison sentence for the incident.
In May last year, the Court of Appeal reduced his suspended sentence to eight months and Kominis was removed from the bench two years after the incident.
Source: AFP