Hellenic Football Federation

Hellenic Football Federation

UEFA
File:Greece football association.png
Founded	1926
Headquarters	Athens
FIFA affiliation	1927
UEFA affiliation	1954
President	Vassilis Gagatsis
Website	https://www.epo.gr/Home.aspx?a_id=256

The Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) (Greek: Ελληνική Ποδοσφαιρική Ομοσπονδία) is the governing body of football in Greece. It organizes the football league, Hellenic National League, whose first division is named Alpha Ethniki (i.e. 1st National), the Greek football Cup and the Greece national football team. It is based in Athens.

History

The Hellenic Football Federation was founded in 1926, by a decision of the three major Unions of the country (Athens, Piraeus, Thessalonica). Its foundation marked organizing the Greek football according to international standards. From that day on, H.F.F. has developed into the biggest sports federation of the country, with the "king of sports" occupying the first place in sports' fans preferences, as it does worldwide.

As of 03/07/2006, the HFF has been suspended by FIFA from international football. In other words, neither the Greek National Team, nor Greek Club Football teams are allowed to compete internationally. This is due to a controversial law introduced by the Greek government over a year ago, which gave the government powers to influence affairs of the HFF.

Text from Statutes

• The Federation was founded in the year 1926, by the three Unions of Football Clubs of Athens, Piraeus and Macedonia-Thrace, is a Private legal entity, a non profit association, which, according to Civil Law, has its registered offices in Athens under the name of Hellenic Football Federation.
• H.F.F. abstains from any political or religious matters and prohibits any kind of political, religious, national or racial discrimination.
• The term of H.F.F. is unlimited.
• H.F.F. is the sole and exclusively qualified competent authority for representing the Greek football. It is a member of the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the European Football Federation (UEFA). Amongst its obligations is to accept the statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of FIFA and UEFA and to ensure that all of the above are also being accepted by everyone, in the field of Greek football�

A look into football

• Football is -by far- the first sport in the world
• It has more than 200 million active players, whilst more than 1,5 billion people are involved with this sport
• It constitutes a highly emotional vehicle, through which enterprises and organizations convey and communicate their principle values and commercial messages
• It ensures immediate reciprocity for its sponsors

Milestones

• 1926: The foundation of the Hellenic Football Federation is a fact
• 1927: The Hellenic Football Federation becomes a member of FIFA
• 1954: The Hellenic Football Federation becomes one of the initial members of UEFA

Historic events

H.F.F. has organized major football events with huge success. The most important "moments", as to the participating clubs, are:

• 1973: Cup Winners Cup final, Milan-Leeds United (1-0)
• 1983: Champions League final Hambourg-Juventus (1-0)
• 1987: UEFA Cup final, Locomotiv-Ajax (0-1)
• 1994: Champions League final Milan-Barcelona (4-0)

Organisation

Organizational Structure

The structure of H.F.F. is pyramid shaped. It is based on 2.000.000 football players and 5.773 football clubs, 3.700 from which are actively participating in official competitions of every kind, that take place throughout the country, covering all ages. The clubs come under the fifty three (53) Regional Unions of Football Clubs. The professional competitions are being organized by the Professional League (Greek League). H.F.F. is the supreme football authority, the one that all the clubs and professional teams come under and forms the top of the pyramid.

The General Assembly, convening once a year, is actually the H.F.F. parliament. It is the Assembly that -according to the Statutes- decides on everything about Greek Football. They can change the Statutes and the regulations of the Federation, enforce new ones, audit the financial review for the previous fiscal year and the budget for the year to come, vote (every four years) and monitor the Administration's work.

Divisions

The divisions of H.F.F. are: The Sporting Division, the Management Division, the Finance and Marketing Division, the International Relations Division, and the Press and Mass Media Division.

Committees

The operation of H.F.F. relies on the above mentioned divisions that function on the responsibility of their respective managers, as much as, the Committees of the Executive Board, which, according to the Statutes of the Federation, are the following:

• The Disciplinary Committee (first and second instance)
• The Appeal Committee
• The Financial Dispute Resolution Committee (second instance)
• The Central Referee's Committee, which comprises three members and controls the entire referee field in Greece
• The Players' Status-Transfer Committee

Standing Committees

1. Regulations Committee

  2. International Relations Committee
  3. Technical Committee
  4. Greek Cup Committee
  5. Procurements Committee
  6. D΄ Division Committee
  7. Selections Team Committee
  8. Mass Media and Public Relations Committee
  9. Legal Matters Committee
 10. Violence Committee
 11. Medical Committee
 12. International Amateur Football Committee
 13. Amateur Football Committee
 14. Licensing Committee
 15. Football Managers Committee
 16. Training Board
 17. Futsal (indoors football) Committee
 18. Finance Committee
 19. Statistics and Stadium Committee
 20. Youth Amateur Football Committee
 21. Women΄s Football Committee 

Finally, it must be mentioned, that H.F.F. is responsible for Doping Control in all the championships.

External link

• Official Site