The infinite chaos of Greek football: How the latest hope for change was lost

On the night of 29 February 2012, a bomb exploded in a bakery in the south of Greece, blowing out the shop windows and destroying part of the store.

Luckily the bakery was empty and no-one was injured. But the owner, Petros Konstantineas, was in no doubt he was the target of the attack.

Konstantineas was a Greek referee in the country's top flight. When he wasn't on the pitch he could be found at his bakery — a family business in his hometown of Kalamata, on the Peloponnese peninsula. He enjoyed the work. It was a way to separate himself from the violent world of Greek football. But that world caught up with him.

The bomb had been placed in his oven. Konstantineas believes he knows who was responsible. A few days before he was to referee a league game between Xanthi and Olympiakos, two people came to see him.

«They insisted that Olympiakos had to win the game, and they threatened me,» he says. «But I have never been part of that system. I cannot be bought.»

Police investigated but there were no arrests made after the explosion. Nobody has been convicted for the attack.

At the end of that 2011-2012 season, Konstantineas retired as a referee. He later moved into politics and from 2015 to 2019 served as a member of parliament with the radical left-wing Syriza party.

«After the explosion I started fearing for my family,» he says. «I had to send my children into hiding. I never expected it to get to that level.»

Almost 10 years later, little has changed in Greek football. Intimidation and violence remain regular features of the country's not-so-beautiful game.

Just this month, on 1 February, a 19-year-old man was stabbed to death outside the ground of Aris FC, allegedly by supporters of PAOK, who condemned the attack. The two