Levadiakos has announced it will take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the Hellenic Football Federation's Appeals Committee ruled in favor of Asteras Tripolis, ending the club's participation in the League Phase of the Superbet Greek Cup.
Levadiakos had beaten Asteras Tripolis 2-0 in their cup tie and had qualified for the League Phase, but the Arcadian club lodged an objection alleging the irregular participation of a player identified as Kobnan.
Appeals Committee Overturns First Ruling
The Appeals Committee reversed the initial decision, which had favored Levadiakos, and ruled by a 2-1 vote in favor of Asteras Tripolis. Levadiakos said it would nevertheless continue the dispute at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the international body based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that adjudicates sports disputes.
In a statement headlined "A monstrous decision that offends common sense, we are appealing to CAS," the club, PAE Levadiakos, said it had been informed of the Appeals Committee's ruling, which by a 2-1 vote overturned the first-instance decision that had favored the team in the cup case against Asteras Tripolis, referred to in the statement by its sponsored name, Asteras Aktor.
Club Calls Decision a Dangerous Precedent
Levadiakos said the ruling represented an unprecedented and blatant distortion of the substance of the case and created an extremely dangerous precedent for Greek football.
The club said it had played and beaten Asteras Aktor 2-0 and had celebrated what it called an absolutely fair qualification to the League Phase of the competition. It said it was then punished for a data-entry error that was not caused by the club itself but by the Hellenic Football Federation's own registration system.
Levadiakos also noted that the second-instance committee, chaired by deputy president Angeliki Makrygeorgou, whose vote determined the outcome, had ruled by majority rather than unanimously. The club said this was unprecedented for that committee's decisions in recent years.
Case Heads to Lausanne
Levadiakos said the matter would not end with the Appeals Committee's decision, adding that it was self-evident the club would take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Superbet Greek Cup is Greece's national football knockout competition, and its League Phase groups clubs before the tournament moves into a direct knockout stage. Levadiakos plays its home matches in Livadeia, in the region of Boeotia, while Asteras Tripolis is based in Tripoli, in Arcadia.
