OFI agreed upon a deal with former Xanthi coach Yiannis Matzourakis yesterday.

After the sacking of Frantisek Straka, OFI had played three games with former assistant coach Pavlos Adamos as caretaker.

The wins at Panserraikos for the league and at Agrotikos Asteras for the cup had kept Adamos at the helm, but the loss at Levadiakos last Sunday and the prospect of facing Dusan Bajevic’s AEK this weekend reportedly convinced OFI owner Fanouris Vatsinas to act.

Mantzourakis was dismissed earlier this season from Xanthi in an abrupt end to his third spell at the Thrace club. The 59-year-old has also worked at Aegaleo, Pierikos, Larissa, Olympiakos and Veria in Greece as well as APOEL and Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus.

Separately, high-profile law-yer Alexis Kouyias tried to buy out Vatsinas’s majority stake in OFI earlier this week. After making three offers that ranged from 4.5 to 8 million euros, Kouyias quit trying, suggesting that Vatsinas does not want to sell the club, despite pressure from fans to do so.