Introduction to Chatziathanassiou's Hellenic Ice Sports Federation

A picture has the same value as 1.000 words

Since 1985, Greece has not one ice rink that is bigger than 800 m2. The Peace and Friendship Stadium, an Olympic sized ice rink, has been used just for two or three times, and after the European Basketball Championship in 1987, it was given to the “Olympiakos Pyraious” Basketball Team. For many decades, the Greek Ice Sports athletes are being tortured in slopes not bigger than 800 m2 instead of 1800 m2. From 2003 until today, Greece is without any Ice Rink.

For the last 26 years, the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation (H.I.S.F.) has been managed by Mr. Christos Chatziathanassiou, who is also Chairman of the Federation. He was already many times referred to the Greek courts, and especially once he was acquitted by a judge named Mrs. Bourboulia, who until now is serving a sentence in prison for bribery and obstructing justice.

Mr. Chatziathanassiou closed two small ice rinks in Greece (2002 and 2003) by his own actions to take advantage of financial government grants in 2004 and then to use these funds for his own. The Greek athletes were dispersed, and the last few have left the H.I.S.F. Anyone, who is aware of that, has left. At a time when Greece had no rinks, athletes or leagues, the President of the H.I.S.F. succeeded in making his daughter Anna Chatziathanassiou an I.S.U. judge. Through this process, his daughter Anna and his close friend Mr. Slobodan Delic travel around the globe to find athletes with Greek roots, mainly from Canada and the USA, from rich families. Because of their low level, these are athletes who certainly have no future in America’s Ice Sports. These athletes need to be from rich families that are able to pay any amount for the success of their children. Mr. Chatziathanassiou sends them to World, European, I.S.U. events, etc. (for that he helps them in obtaining Greek citizenship and passport very quickly), and he makes a good business while he takes all the financial government grants here in Greece, far away from his athletes, for his own.

Miss Anna Chatziathanassiou as I.S.U. judge as she is always going to the athletes’ party! All night long!

The reason for not using Greek athletes is that the Greeks exactly know what is happening, so that they don’t accept to pay anything to him. The real Greek athletes have left ice sports, and the last real Greek athlete actually even left the country last year for a Scandinavian country, because she refused to cooperate with a corrupted Federation chairman.

Against Greek Law, Federation President Chatziathanassiou has opened a private ice rink, with Mr. Armakolas as President and Executive Manager (actually in order to hide himself behind his own Cyprus off-shore company Erius Investments Ltd.). This small entertainment ice rink is located under a tent, it has no toilets or changing rooms, and it is even dangerous for amateurs/beginners. And he is taking 10 Euros for entrance.

From 2004 until 2010, Mr. Chatziathanassiou has abused huge amounts from the Greek government. You may wonder how it could come that somebody has such a "scam", but still the blessing of the I.S.U. in figure skating and of the I.I.H.F. in ice hockey. Each time the Greek authorities claim that Mr. Chatziathanassiou has the certificates of International Federations and is a member of international associations, etc. so that he can request everything! Years ago, the complaints have been sent to the international federations, put in a nice package and then sent back to the Greek Federation to his own hands! For controlling the I.I.H.F. and to be not controlled by the I.S.U., in June 2009, he put a portable ice rink in Ano Liosia (into a former building from the Olympic Games of 2004) in Athens for one month (May 2009 to June 2009), and he brought the “Greek” athletes from Canada and the USA for the first time here to Greece, because a big problem with the Greek press arose. The Greek newspapers wrote about what has happened in the H.I.S.F. They are completely different persons in mini-sized rinks, they are originating from unsuitable, different countries as per the I.S.U., and they are different persons according to the General Secretariat of Sports. At the same time, other persons were sent to European or World competitions. Neither have these people ever been to Greece, nor have they ever competed in a Greek Championship. Because the real Greek athletes refused to compete (2-3 persons only, not to imagine that they were more), also in 2009 and 2010, Mr. Chatziathanassiou completed the team with beginners in figure skating (with an ice sports experience of just two months!) for the championship. International Judges and I.S.U. Judges did not protest and did not hold any protocol, but they judged a “private” championship out of any I.S.U. rule! 

As a first step, we are publishing these informative texts, and other information and facts will follow in detail. And we will not stop at this point. We are a group of former Greek athletes and friends of ice sports, and we will go as far as we can, having all the evidences in our hands. We have sent already all necessary documents to the Greek courts, and we will continue with international federations that support this indifferent president and his fake federation, because when you have no ice rink, you cannot have any Ice Sports! We assume understandably that the first condition has to be an existing ice rink, and it’s a must to have at least one to have an Ice Sports Federation running. 

We will always report Mr. Chatziathanassiou’s selfish actions that not only "strangle" the sports we are talking about, but also generally affect the entire sports world and the international status of the I.S.U. and I.I.H.F.

It is a shame that the H.I.S.F. hopefully counts 26 years of operation in the Greek sports scene – in the Presidency of a person, who has taken a very considerable amount from the Greek country for the dissemination and development of all Olympic ice sports. He has nonexistent results, and he has no ice rink to justify the existence of this federation.