Olympiakos owner Marinakis handed five-month pitch ban after ref row

Athens (AFP) – The Greek Super League on Tuesday banned Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis from entering the field of play for five months after being found guilty of verbally abusing a referee.

The league’s disciplinary committee also ordered Marinakis to pay a 30,000 euro ($36,100) fine and fined his club 7,000 euros.

Olympiakos announced that they will appeal the decision.

The 53-year-old media mogul and shipowner, who also owns English club Nottingham Forest, was handed the ban after abusing referee Tassos Sidiropoulos in the aftermath of a 1-1 draw with Aris Thessaloniki last month.

Greece’s most successful club, Olympiakos have a 14-point lead over Aris at the top of the Greek top flight.

Marinakis was one of 28 people in late January to be acquitted of corruption charges relating to allegations of match-fixing between 2012 and 2013.

He was cleared after months of hearings, with the court ruling that there was no evidence for the two charges attributed to the defendants — participation in a criminal group and match-fixing.