Greek shipowner Marinakis barred from football activities over match-fixing allegations

But the latest headlines are ones the owner of Piraeus-based Capital shipping group and Piraeus football club Olympiakos can do without.

On 18 the 47-year-old Marinakis was banned from participating in football related activities after his seven-hour testimony before a corruption investigating judge who is looking into a major match-fixing scandal.

The new leftist government has introduced legislation to reform the Greek Football Federation and impose prison sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up Euro 1m for corruption-related cases.

On Thursday last week, Judge Giorgos Andreadis with a joint decision from prosecutors on the case also ordered Marinakis to place a EUR200,000 ($250,000) guarantee and ordered him to report to a local police station every 15 days until a trial.

The shipowner and businessman faces felony charges for his alleged involvement in the establishment of a criminal gang which fixed football matches. Marinakis, was the last of the 33 suspects questioned by Andreadis over the last two months.

The investigation is centred on alleged fixing of matches between 2011 and 2013 with relevance to relegation and promotion battles.

Marinakis was previously implicated in another match-fixing scandal in2010-11 which is still the subject of investigation.

June 18 marked the fifth anniversary since Marinakis' takeover of the Piraeus club in which he has since celebrated five league titles and three doubles.

The other suspects are two other current owners of Super League teams, one former owner, two general managers, nine members of the country's football federation, three members of the second division Football League committees, two former members of the referee's selection committee, six active Super

League referees and seven Super League players.

Only 10 of the suspects did not receive any restrictions from Andreadis.

The larger than life Marinakis, through the Capital group, which includes the Nasdaq-listed tanker operator, Capital Product Partners, controls a fleet of 59 vessels of some 5.576m dwt.