[MGSA-L] SPECIAL SPONSORSHIP FOR GREEK SOCCER TEAMS <vbg>

June Samaras june.samaras at gmail.com
Thu Oct 18 18:36:18 PDT 2012


I have always enjoyed seeing amazing instances of Greek ingenuity when
under pressure
Here is a neat example <;-0

JS
============================

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1193095/brothels-rescue-cash-strapped-greek-soccer-team?cc=5901

Greek team turns to brothels as sponsors
October 17, 2012

By Associated Press
LARISSA, Greece -- The world's oldest profession is giving a whole new
meaning to love of the game.

Players on a cash-strapped Greek soccer team now wear pink practice
jerseys with the logos "Villa Erotica" and "Soula's House of History,"
two bordellos it recruited as sponsors after drastic government
spending cuts left the country's sports clubs facing ruin.

Other teams have also turned to unconventional financing. One has a
deal with a local funeral home and others have wooed kebab shops, a
jam factory and producers of Greece's trademark feta cheese.

But the amateur Voukefalas club -- whose players include pizza
delivery guys, students, waiters and a bartender -- has raised
eyebrows with its flamboyant sponsorship choice.

"Unfortunately, amateur football has been abandoned by almost
everyone," said Yiannis Batziolas, the club's youthful chairman, who
runs a travel agency and is the team's backup goalkeeper. "It's a
question of survival."

Prostitution is legal in Greece, where brothels operate under strict
guidelines. Though garish neon signs advertising their services are
tolerated, the soccer sponsorship has ruffled some feathers in the
sports-mad city of Larissa. League organizers have banned the pink
jerseys during games, saying the deal violates "the sporting ideal"
and is inappropriate for underage fans.

Batziolas acknowledges the sponsorship took his team by surprise.
"They didn't believe it in the beginning," he said. "But when they saw
the shirts printed, they thought it was funny."

“
If we don't help our scientists and athletes, where will we be? Greece
has educated people, cultured people and good athletes. It's better to
help them than take our money to Switzerland.
”

Near-bankrupt Greece is struggling to meet creditors' relentless
demands to slash spending and keep the euro as its currency. As Greece
heads toward a sixth year of recession, drastic budget cuts have
hammered many ordinary people: Retirees have been left to cover their
own medical expenses, children have lost school bus services, and
sports teams have scrambled to find sponsors as businesses close under
the burden of emergency taxes.

Brothel owner Soula Alevridou, the team's new benefactor, has already
paid more than 1,000 euros ($1,312) for players to wear her jerseys.
The team is appealing the game ban, but that doesn't worry the
67-year-old Alevridou, who says she's only in it because she loves
soccer.

"It's not the kind of business that needs promotion," she said,
dressed all in white and flanked by two young women in dark leggings
at a recent game. "It's a word-of-mouth kind of thing."

Her businesses, plushly decorated pastel-colored bungalows where 14
women are employed, have weathered the country's financial disaster
far better than most, and she readily acknowledges her success.

"If we don't help our scientists and athletes, where will we be?" she
asked. "Greece has educated people, cultured people and good athletes.
It's better to help them than take our money to Switzerland."

Alevridou watched in disappointment as her team lost its fourth
straight game, 1-0, despite her promise to players of "a special time"
at her businesses if they won.

"There's a lot still missing. We have no midfield," said Alevridou, a
slightly built woman with a husky voice. "Many of our boys have jobs
that keep them working at night. And if we have a game the following
morning, they can't have a real presence on the pitch. ... They need
more help."

They aren't the only team suffering. Greece's Amateur Athletics
Federation suspended all its activities for several weeks earlier this
year to protest funding cuts. And even the major soccer clubs sent
most of their star players abroad this summer in the face of financial
trouble and poor attendance, with fans no longer able to afford
tickets.

Government cuts have hurt most of the teams in the amateur league in
Larissa -- the majestically named Olympus, Hercules, Fearless and
Sagittarius clubs, as well as Voukefalas, named after Alexander the
Great's horse.

The impact of the crisis on sports is a major local concern. The town
of 200,000 fielded the only professional club to ever break big-city
domination of the league, winning the national championship in 1988.
In 2007, Larissa FC also rebounded from bankruptcy for victory in the
prestigious Greek Cup.

Voukefalas says it needs about 10,000 euros ($13,120) a year to meet
expenses, and Alevridou has promised more cash.

"Here is where it all begins, with amateur sport. It's where the
talent is bred," she noted. "I am a Greek woman, and I love my
country."

She watched quietly, holding a cigarette and wearing a straw fedora
with a leopard print band, as her team struggled.

"The team will get better," she said. "I'm certain of it."

--------------------------------------

June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com



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