Costas Aslanidis (; 1919 - 1984) was a Lieutenant Colonel and the Secretary General of Sports during the rule of the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...

. Aslanidis was a controversial figure throughout his tenure as secretary general. On 30 January 1968, in a speech at the Alexandrion Melathron of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, he alleged that corruption was rife in Greek sports. He mentioned that

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

had paid off referees and linesmen, that Aegaleo FC defender, Tzekos Balarinis, had accepted a 7,000

drachma Drachma may refer to: * Ancient drachma, an ancient Greek currency * Modern drachma The drachma ( ) was the official currency of modern Greece from 1832 until the launch of the euro in 2001. First modern drachma The drachma was reintroduce ...

s bribe to throw his team's game and that Ethnikos' star goalkeeper, Kostas Vallianos, had also accepted bribes to throw his team's games. Aslanidis went further and blasted

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

forward,

Giorgos Koudas Giorgos Koudas (; born 23 November 1946) is a Greek former international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the greatest Greek players of all-time, he spent his entire career at PAOK. Being the most capped play ...

, for wanting to leave his team for Olympiakos. Aslanidis imposed complex rules for transfers in the Greek League: No player could transfer within his own division and no player could transfer to a higher division. However, Aslanidis made exceptions to his own rules, most noteworthy of which was the transfer of Aspida Xanthi forward,

Antonis Antoniadis Antonis Antoniadis (, born 25 May 1946) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a striker. He scored 243 goals during his 22-years long career. He started his career in 1964 playing for Aspida Xanthi before moving to Panat ...

, to

. Aslanidis was instrumental in having the Champions of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

play in the Greek

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

between the years 1968 and 1974. Olympiakos Nicosia FC were the first champions to participate and

APOEL APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

the last. The latter club was the only Cypriot team not to be relegated. Throughout his tenure Aslanidis insisted that athletes be well-groomed and clean-shaven. Aslanidis fled to Italy following the collapse of the Junta in 1974 and then moved to Brazil. Later, he returned to Greece where he died.

References

Hellenic Army officers Leaders of the Greek junta {{Greece-mil-bio-stub