Did under-18 coach slap a player

July 30, 2014
Written by E.Tsiliopoulos

At the end of Greece's U-18 national team's big win against Spain in the Eurobasket tournament, head-coach Ilias Papatheodorou appears to strike Antonis Koniaris.

In a video, Greece under-18′s head-coach Ilias Papatheodorou appears to strike his own player, Panathinaikos young new transfer Antonis Koniaris.

However, Greece have since issued a statement, in which both the coach and player deny the incident, in spite of what the video indicates.

"Following the video which is circulating on the Internet, I must clarify that I would never hit a player, especially a child of 18 years. My hand did move in the air for the irritation but I did not slap anyone. My witness is the athlete himself,” said Ilias Papatheodorou.

“I must clarify that the coach did not hit me,” said Koniaris. “This is the truth”