2024-04-07 12:18:18
While PAS plays the day after tomorrow in Heraklion with OFI for the 3rd matchday of the play-offs, believing in a miracle for survival, in Ioannina the topic of discussion and reflection is the next day that emerges, after the announcement by the brothers Panagiotis and Yiannis Christovasilis that it was closed their cycle and they leave.
What the world wants to know most is whether there is interest from entrepreneurs to deal with PAS and whether the historic group falls to the right investor who will have the financial means to give it the lost luster. Much is being said and heard in Ioannina about potential buyers of PAE PAS Ioannina, but there is currently nothing on the horizon. The landscape will become clearer when the battle for staying is finally decided and it becomes clear in which category “Ajax of Epirus” will be next year. This is of great importance, because the difference in financial and other data in the two categories is huge.
The Christovasili brothers, disappointed by the disapproval they heard from some fans in the last two games in Ioannina with Atromitos and Panaitolikos, the slogans against the family on the walls of the city and for other reasons of their own, have now decided to permanently withdraw from the team. They may not have been so clear in their intentions ten days ago, with president Panagiotis Christovasilis saying at the press conference that “they will only give the team to whoever has the vision to take it higher”, but now they do not put any filter on the evaluation of potential buyers, writing features in the announcement “However, we believe that the time has come for the club to turn the page. So we grant the PAS to anyone who asks for it so that it can lead them to the next day. We will not stand in the way, facilitating the change of ownership.”
There is sincerity in their intentions. It is not a maneuver that major shareholders are used to making when they are in a difficult position to obtain the alibi “I am leaving but there is no one interested in buying and I must stay”. We had seen this work in earlier times with great frequency in Ioannina as well. In this case we understand that the Christovasili brothers really want to leave. This year has not gone well for them. They made mistakes, relied on the wrong people or fell prey to bad advisors, didn’t plan well and found themselves in front of them. In case of relegation the team will be in a difficult situation and will experience a harsh reality. A relegation always leaves open wounds, especially in teams without great financial potential such as PAS in the current phase. The Second National League is a suspicious and degraded league, with bad refereeing (without VAR and TV image control), with a lot of background, little income compared to the Super League. If in the Super League 4.5 million euros in revenue are guaranteed from television, OPAP, support from UEFA for infrastructure, in the Second National League or Super League 2 as they call it, the revenues from television and grants do not exceed 300,000 euros. How the teams sustain themselves is another story. Those who know football and both divisions closely, say that it is easier for a team to stay in the Super League (A National League) than to make a championship and get promoted from the B National League.
Waiting for the new investor….
From there, we will wait for the next day’s developments and whether there will be the right investors with the corresponding financial surface, to take over PAS Ioannina and give it the shine it deserves. PAS is an attractive group, it lends itself to many things, it has people, history, a very strong name and at the same time it can support the businessman who will take it over, to invest in business and in other sectors in Epirus. But things are not as easy as they seem in the world and there are not many entrepreneurs willing to invest in an area like football with the background and so much going on, with undoubted results and the risk of losing money and hearing disapproval. . “Osana” from “crucify him” is very close. There are well-known and successful businessmen who were enthusiastically received by the fans in teams they took over and were later booed and kicked out by the same fans. Greek football has many idiosyncrasies and does not operate according to entrepreneurial rules. A businessman can spend a lot of money on stadiums, players, training centers and on the other hand have to deal with “shacks”, backrooms, gangs, controlled referees, team alliances. If there was so much willingness of big businessmen to deal with Greek professional football, there would be real investors and other historical teams with dynamic and big names in Greece that collapsed. There are also exceptions, where the right people have taken over teams and taken them to great heights, even if they are not from the areas where the teams are based. They are few and far between and you need luck to find them.
I hope a sustainable solution is found
Let’s hope that a businessman-investor will be found for PAS who will make the people of Epirus and their team proud. It will have a lot of support from the public, from local bodies, as the late Giorgos Christovasilis had in the early years. It is historically right for this team to find a financially strong businessman, to show their potential and how far their ceiling can go. The Epirotians benefited Greece, they restored the Greek nation, let someone now be found to benefit PAS Ioannina as well. The person who will invest and raise the city and PAS high, will enjoy the appreciation, embrace and love of the local community. The presidents of the group have always been prominent personalities and institutional figures for Ioannina. It will be the same now if he makes the right moves and is a trustworthy person. Will that person, that right investor, be found? Difficult, but let’s hope so. If such a good case, which looks like a lottery, does not happen, very difficult days will come for “Ajax of Epirus”.
The successful Giorgos Christovasilis
As for the Christovasili era, we think that the circle was closed from May 14, 2023 when the late president had passed away, with the positive and negative points. If he had lived, the team would not have reached its current level. He certainly ranks among the top team presidents, regardless of whether he sometimes disappointed and alienated people. But in the era of Giorgos Christovasilis great successes were recorded. He took an unreliable and degraded team, which from 1984 onwards steadily declined, having very few good moments. Giorgos Christovasilis established this team as a Super League team, led it twice to the semi-finals of the Cup, for the first time in Europe, emerged as the first provincial team and had a continuous presence in the big division. And because History is written with events, all of the above make the tenure of Christovasilis at PAS Ioannina and the late one of the group’s leading presidents highly successful.
As in life, so in football, everything has a beginning and an end. Let’s hope that the new cycle that will open at PAE PAS Ioannina will be much better. The city and its people deserve it.