Cyprus Times

HARSH Announcement Regarding EPO and Lanua

Published January 13, 2026, 19:07
HARSH Announcement Regarding EPO and Lanua

Following the PAE's statement, the Olympiacos veterans also took a stand on the refereeing issue. The club's administration had warned the head of the KED, Stephane Lanua, that he must respect the agreement of the 'Big-4' for the appointment of foreign referees in their matches. A day later, the Central Committee of Referees announced Alexandros Tsakalidis for tomorrow's cup derby at 'G. Karaiskakis', with Slovenian Jung as VAR. The announcement issued by the former glories of the Piraeus club in the afternoon of Monday, attacks the president of the EPO and the chief referee. The announcement: “Those of us who are the History of Olympiacos, the Veterans of the Legend, the most glorious part of Greek football, are surprised and appalled by the farcical things happening lately in football with referee decisions and a chief referee who ONLY AIMS TO HURT OLYMPIACOS. A President of the EPO, a young man who we thought could help football move forward, has proven incapable of doing so and together with the French Lanua who was supposed to fix the refereeing, they are the two responsible for the farcical things we see in the stadiums every week with a series of announcements from all the teams! In tomorrow's crucial cup match against PAOK, the appointment is incomprehensible for someone uninformed and a trap for anyone who knows football. A referee from Halkidiki who has lived in Thessaloniki all his life is called upon to referee a team from Thessaloniki in this climate! Together with him, VARist Jung from Slovenia, who has been the referee in 5 Olympiacos matches in the past with a result of 4 defeats and one draw. Probably those statistics appointed him. And this appointment is just another link in a chain of challenges and we call on the Olympiacos fans to be absolutely calm tomorrow in the stands and to help our team! The time has come for OLYMPIACOS to respond (competitively and institutionally) to those DWARFS who thought they could take on GIANTS!”