| November 13th, 2002 Olympiakos FC have announced that they give up trying to convince the Greek Olympic Committee (GOC) to let them reconstruct KARAISKAKI STADIUM. The reason stated in the club's announcement is that the GOC never gave a real answer to their proposal. After a long period in which letters were sent and conferences held at the GOC headquarters, the Committee told Olympiakos one week ago that it was unable to assess their proposal due to lack of data. It is worth noting that this proposal was originally put on the table in July 1998! The final paragraph of the club’s announcement and reply to the GOC reads: "… because of all this we would like to let you [the GOC] know that we are not going to continue participating in these procedure. It is nothing but procrastinating and pointless talking. Your only aim is to deny Olympiakos of our natural home. Your actions are an insult to this club and to the city of Piraeus. You have caused (and will continue to cause) a huge loss to the Greek State and by doing so you pose a serious problem to the Olympic football tournament of the 2004 Games." What is still to be seen is whether this is just a tactical move by Olympiakos or if it is the end of a very long saga. Whatever the case may prove to be, things are really approaching the "point of no return" with regard to the Athens football tournament venue for the 2004 Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee stressed less than a week ago that the final decision has to be made in December, when a FIFA delegation will be visiting Greece for this exact reason. Relevant articles: Cabinet meeting over new stadia of the Athens "big 3" (22/9/02) Olympiakos return home in football and basketball (24/2/02) Karaiskaki Stadium will host the football final in the 2004 Olympics (23/01/02) Olympiakos look set to return once again to Karaiskaki (2/10/01) Olympiakos abandon Karaiskaki and will build new stadium (31/8/01) |