No ban for Greece from 2002 World Cup

Greece has escaped a ban from the 2002 World Cup qualifiers from world governing body FIFA.

"The imminent suspension of the Greek FA from international football activity has been averted with the signature of a Joint Declaration by the Greek Government, the Greek FA and FIFA," FIFA said in a statement released today.

The compromise worked out today by FIFA president Sepp Blatter after a meeting with sports minister Georgios Floridis and the Greek FA president Konstantinos Alexandridis and General Secretary Vassilis Gagatsis contains the following elements:

All parties undertake all efforts so as to negotiate in good faith solutions to solve issues of common interest. These negotiations are to be conducted within a three month period.

A working party to be set up including representatives of all parties involved in the signature of the Declaration.

The Greek FA's legal scope of action to be brought into line with the FIFA Statutes while at the same time taking into account the guidelines of the Greek Government for national sports policies.

All decisions regarding potential sanctions against the Greek FA are put on hold for the duration of the mentioned deadline of three months.

Greece play World Cup qualifiers against Albania on June 2nd and England on June 6th and are bottom of group nine standings with three points from their opening four matches.

Greek Sports Minister George Floridis denied the claims made by FIFA in March of political interference.

The Greek government wants to bring in new laws on dope testing players and the selection of referees after recent scandals and revise the financing of clubs to try and prevent corruption in the professional leagues but FIFA responded angrily to what they see as a political challenge from Floridis and his colleagues.

Greece risked a ban from the 2002 World Cup qualifiers by FIFA in the continuing row over political interference in the running of the game.

A March 31st deadline was set by FIFA for a compromise or all Greek national teams at every level of the game would be banned and World Cup qualifying group nine be thrown into chaos but this expired and was extended to last Friday.

A 30 page fax from the Greek FA was sent to FIFA president Sepp Blatter to outline its position.

Recent corruption scandals involving the bribery of match officials in Greek football have caused the government to look at ways of breaking up the current ruling structure of the game.

Sports Minister Floridis met club chairman in February to discuss crowd violence and corruption.

The president of the EPAE or Union of Professional Soccer Clubs - Victor Mitropoulos has recently faced fraud charges with Floridis claiming the soccer boss was involved in money laundering for organised crime and illegal transfer payments.

Panionios president Achilleas Beos has accused Mitropoulos and his brother - both of whom have links to Olympiakos - of choosing clubs for relegation and then fixing matches to ensure demotion and promotion issues at the end of recent seasons.

Mitropoulos is to appear in a court case over financial deals ten years ago when he was president of the Egaleo football club. He has denied any wrongdoing.