Evangelos Marinakis is at the center of a 'fake news' scandal. The founder and chairman of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp has received a long list of apologies in light of a recent fabricated article that was published on multiple news sites.
Publishers of 'fake news', with their unsubstantiated and badly researched claims can cause a great deal of harm and hold the power to derail an individual's entire career in moments.
Marinakis, however managed to combat this epidemic. With the help of his legal team, he managed to get justice by getting all outlets to ultimately withdraw the piece and admit their wrong doing. This a major feat in the era of 'fake news'.
Evangelos Marinakis False Accusations:
Evangelos Marinakis has been accused twice of entering the referee’s locker room at halftime during the football cup final and reprimanding the team. One time, between Olympiacos and Asteras Tripolis and an additional time during the match between Olympiakos and Burnley.
It was reported by multiple publications that Evangelos entered the referee’s room at half-time to complain about the decisions that the referee had made. The referee, Thanasis Yiachos was criticized of failing to penalize a player with a red card, allowing reasons of bias and favoritism to affect his decision making.
The referee was to award the other team with a clear penalty. The referee apparently ignored the handball that the Olympiakos defender had stopped, a move that was a clear goal.
Aristidis Korreas, a prosecutor that deals with sporting issues received a number of complaints from the Asteras team, and as a result of this, decided to launch an investigation in to the matter.
He called in the referee and as well as the five assistant referees who worked on that day and asked them to give evidence before the Central Refereeing Committee (KED), a necessary step for the investigation process.
The referees claimed that Evangelos Marinakis had stormed into their room and expressed his displeasure at their performance in the first half. This is apparently against the rules of the Hellenic Football Federation. The rule states that nobody is permitted to enter the referee’s dressing room at half time.
This case was revisited a number of times. What they ultimately discovered was that the claim was completely groundless and in November 2017, the judicial council of court of appeals rejected imposing provisional custody on Evangelos Marinakis.
The Greek Supreme Court also vindicated him on 26th March 2018 after confirming that the allegations against Evangelos were unfounded. The same allegations were made in August during a Europa League match between Burnley and Olympiacos. Once again, were proved to be lies.
The Apologies:
The writers themselves chose to come forward to offer personal apologies to Marinakis. Writer Turf Moor, from the English Tabloid newspaper, The Burnley Express, admitted his error over the false publication in a written statement. https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/clarets/apology-mr-evangelos-marinakis-1-9379206
The Daily mail also published an apology on the same day (20/9/2018). In it they claimed full responsibility and offered to bear all legal costs. The newspaper also subsequently posted an additional article containing all of the necessary corrections and clarifications. https://www.to10.gr/podosfero/europa-league/388460/daily-mail-apologized-vangelis-marinakis/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/article-6182911/Clarifications-corrections.html
The World News newspaper was another publication that tried to correct their ways and revoke the article. The outlets admittance over the false allegations was heartfelt. https://worldnews.easybranches.com/sport/football/evangelos-marinakis-an-apology-1699727
In addition to that, the author from the tribal football media site, Paul Vegas wrote a personal an apology over the incident.
https://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/evangelos-marinakis-an-apology-4250417
The Sports Droid site that based their article on the 'Tribal Football' source, and explained how sorry they were over the published misinformation. (http://www.sportsdroid.net/scrapes2/evangelos-marinakis-an-apology/).
Lastly, The Kathimerini English republished an article that included a clarification in the original posting. The clarification, which is written in below the original piece, states that Marinakis entered the referee's locker room at halftime to wish the match officials “good luck” and for no other reason. (https://www.ekathimerini.com/151667/article/ekathimerini/sports/cup-final-referee-says-olympiakos-chairman-entered-his-locker-room-at-halftime/).
To conclude, Evangelos Marinakis was falsely accused for blasting the referees for their performance, according to him, he only entered the referees room at halftime in order to wish the match officials good luck and nothing more. He had no issue concerning the players performance, nor did he express any anger as the referees falsely claimed. Evangelos Marinakis’ name has thus been cleared
