Athens (AFP)

"Clean up Greek football": this is the objective of the declaration of intent signed on Tuesday in Athens by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and UEFA, in the presence of the vice-president of Fifa Greg Clarke.

"We have made a political decision to clean up Greek football for good, and we look forward to your help in carrying out this mission," said the head of government to Aleksander Ceferin, the boss of UEFA.

The executive and apex body of European football "wish to encourage cooperation and dialogue in order to resolve the deep and persistent problems of Greek football", in the words of the statement initialed on Tuesday.

UEFA must deliver a study within three months outlining areas for improvement for Greek football.

Among the issues addressed will include governance, integrity (fight against corruption, match fixing or doping), strengthening the anti-defamation arsenal or even arbitration.

Ceferin said he wanted Greece "to become one of the best countries again, as in 2004" when the national team won the Euro to everyone's surprise.

The meeting between the Greek Prime Minister and the bodies of world football took place two days after a summit match under high security between Olympiacos and PAOK Thessaloniki.

The opposition of the two great enemies took on an unprecedented scale in December, when the Piraeus club accused the owner of his rival of holding shares in another first division club, Xanthi, an illegal practice punishable by relegation. Seized, the delegation of professional sport concluded that the irregularity.

But faced with PAOK protests, and anxious to preserve social peace in a polarized country, the government hastily passed an amendment to avoid the descent of the Black and White club, transforming the applicable sanction into a withdrawal from 5 to 10 points.

The government is torn between two otherwise powerful club and media presidents whose interests extend far beyond football.

In 2018, images of the president of the PAOK revolver with a belt on a field to contest an arbitration decision had gone around the world.

As for the boss of Olympiakos, close to the ruling New Democracy (ND) party, his name is associated with a drug trafficking case and a match-fixing scandal.

© 2020 AFP