Panionios owner accepts his share of blame
The soap opera continues at Panionios soccer club, with its owner making accusations against former coach Takis Lemonis, claiming his own share of responsibility and confirming Yiotis Stamatopoulos as the manager for the rest of the season. Two days after the resignation of Lemonis and the club’s president, Fanis Gallis, and just one day after sacking the rest of the board, Panionios owner Constantinos Tsakiris issued a statement yesterday admitting his inexperience in accepting his part of the blame. He also hinted that Lemonis’s demand to dismiss certain board members was unacceptable but conceded that the coach did have a point. «The demand by a Super League manager with just three weeks at a club for the dismissal of the chief executive officer and the sporting director is as illogical, unfair and as disrespectful as the board asking the coach to field specific players,» said Tsakiris, who reiterated that a new board will be elected on December 29. He also promised to become more involved in the club than he has been up to now and stressed that Stamatopoulos is not a temporary or caretaker coach, but the official manager of the team until June. In his first press conference as Panionios coach, Stamatopoulos said yesterday that it is a great honor for him to have his post and that he has no personal problems with Lemonis. At Wednesday’s board meeting, Lemonis quit after the board rejected his demand to sack Stamatopoulos.
