Panathinaikos has responded to Olympiacos’ announcement regarding the dismissal of a criminal complaint filed by Despina Giannakopoulou against Olympiacos vice president Giorgos Skindilias.
The Athens club challenged Olympiacos’ interpretation of the legal proceedings, maintaining that the prosecutor had acknowledged offensive chants directed at the daughter of Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos.
The dispute dates back to June 2025, when incidents occurred during Game 2 of the Greek league finals at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
Olympiacos announced on Monday that the complaint against Skindilias had been deemed unfounded and definitively shelved.
However, Panathinaikos argued that the prosecutor had accepted that the offensive chants occurred and that Olympiacos subsequently shared footage containing them through its official channels.
According to Panathinaikos, the prosecutor found no intent to defame on the part of Olympiacos in publishing the video but initiated legal proceedings against the individuals allegedly responsible for the chants.
The club addressed those developments in a strongly worded official statement.
“Despina Giannakopoulou filed a complaint against the representatives of Olympiacos BC regarding the vile chants directed at her last summer. She was, in fact, fully vindicated regarding all the sickening abuse she endured.
The presiding prosecutor accepted as fact both the utterance of the despicable chants against her and the fact that, the very next day, Olympiacos BC officially reposted them on its own official channels!
The prosecutor noted that he found no intent to defame on the part of Olympiacos BC itself regarding the posting of the video; consequently, he initiated legal proceedings against the actual individuals responsible for the chants.
Instead of feeling shame for these actions – which the prosecutor describes in detail – and instead of offering an apology after all these months, Olympiacos BC has – true to its usual form – issued inaccurate, ridiculous statements that insult the intelligence of anyone with even a basic level of common sense.
We didn’t expect anything better. That’s just who they are…”
Panathinaikos maintained that the reported dismissal of the complaint against Skindilias did not invalidate the prosecutor’s findings concerning the chants.