Vangelis Liolios: “They want to destroy me” – What he says about the witnesses involved

In an effort to challenge the charges against him, Vangelis Liolios submitted a written defence memorandum to the investigating judge, seeking to portray himself as the victim in the alleged basketball match-fixing case.

Referring to specific individuals and incidents, Liolios, who was subsequently remanded in custody, submitted a lengthy defence memorandum to the 9th Regular Investigating Judge, describing the indictment as “vague and unsupported by evidence”, while also referring to specific individuals whose names appear in the case file.

According to reports, the resigned president of the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK) claims that there is an organised plan aimed at his personal and professional destruction. Referring to the 49 acts attributed to him, he states: “I have absolutely no involvement whatsoever, let alone participation or direct perpetration.”

According to the memorandum, the case file contains no evidence that he personally intervened in refereeing matters, while he argues that his criminal implication is the result of an effort to remove him from the leadership of the Federation and damage both his business standing and personal reputation.

The detained former EOK president also speaks of an “orchestrated campaign” against him through media reports, directly naming Panathinaikos BC and claiming that certain officials and team owners aligned themselves with the club because, as he alleges, they shared common interests with it or were, at various levels, controlled or influenced by it.

The complainants

With regard to the witnesses who testified before the sports prosecutor, Liolios seeks to rebut their claims, stating:

“I never met with any referee apart from institutional meetings with refereeing bodies. My accusers have submitted to the case file reports from sports websites, reputable and otherwise. They have submitted defamatory articles against me, yet in no report, on no website and in no defamatory piece is there even the slightest suggestion that I met privately with any referee. There is no private photograph of me with any referee, because it was a firm principle of mine not to develop personal relationships with referees.”

Specifically, the memorandum refers to Maroussi BC owner Dimos Stasinopoulos, with Liolios claiming that he had attempted to blackmail him.

He states: “Stasinopoulos, therefore, acting as a common blackmailer, was the first to attempt to demand unlawful benefits from me.”

More specifically, Liolios describes a meeting which, according to him, took place in April 2026 at the offices of the Hellenic Basketball Federation. According to the memorandum, Stasinopoulos allegedly complained about Maroussi’s treatment by referees and attempted, as Liolios claims, to blackmail him by referring to private messages exchanged between Liolios and Ilias Papatheodorou.

As for the other witnesses involved in the case, Liolios turns against them, accusing them of lying.

More specifically:

– Regarding the businessman described as a key witness, Liolios challenges the testimony he gave before the sports prosecutor, concluding:
“Everything that can be verified from what he says is proven false. The individual is unreliable, his life and conduct are steeped in illegality, while some of his claims border on the ridiculous. The teams with which he has been involved over the years either moved from Keratsini to Larissa or ended up with empty coffers.”

He adds: “After my second election, as he himself admits, he asked me to give him a position with the national team, and I literally threw him out of my office, believing that it would have been, at the very least, dishonourable for Greece’s beloved national team to be served by that particular individual.”

– Regarding the referee described as a key witness, Vangelis Liolios categorically states that he does not know him.

“I must make it absolutely clear from the outset that I do not know this gentleman. I would not even recognise him by sight and I have certainly never spoken to him, never met him and never had any contact with him,” he states.

Liolios also argues that the messages submitted by the witness to the sports prosecutor differ in content from those held by Liolios himself, while others, he says, are fragmentary.

– Regarding Maroussi coach Ilias Papatheodorou, who is also a witness, Liolios claims that the two had a close personal and professional relationship. He adds that in 2025 he had encouraged Papatheodorou to take up the role at Maroussi BC so that he could return to Athens and be close to his family.

At the same time, Liolios points out that, in his testimony, the coach does not refer to any specific incident of interference. Regarding a message sent by Liolios in which the names of referees were mentioned, the former EOK president claims that it had been sent only after the referee appointments had already been made and that there was therefore no question of any prior coordination.