Radzinski reveals Xanthi’s ‘dark side’

By: Peter Katsiris | October 9th, 2008

Last year, Tomasz Radzinski proved his goal scoring abilities which won him praises during his stay in the English Premier League. In a recent interview with Belgian magazine Sport Foot, former Skoda Xanthi sensation Tomasz Radzinski revealed plenty about life in Greece, and the experience playing with Xanthi.

Speaking about his former employers for the first time since leaving Thrace for Belgian side Lierse S.K., Radzinski had harsh words for the entire Skoda Xanthi organization. “In every country that I have played in I knew how to speak the language. In Greece I only learned the word “Nai”– meaning ‘yes’ — which in the beginning I thought had the opposite meaning of what it really meant. I could not settle down at Xanthi, while at the same time the constant change of coaches would not allow us to find chemistry as a well-working team,” explained Radzinski.

The interview became even more accusative when the Canada international revealed Xanthi had been involved in a match-fixing scandal which affected the club’s result against last year’s minnows Ergotelis.

“Our opponent was fighting to avoid relegation but they did not have to get tired to get the win. We played the game with six players that had rarely played throughout the season. The game started out with our opponents being awarded a penalty and a bit later scoring another goal out of nowhere.”

“I was kicking everything in my path, while at the locker room during halftime, with the intent to get my teammates riled up. You know what some of them did? They started laughing at me! Of course, I asked not to play during the second half, and from that moment on I started looking for a new club,” Radzinski concluded.

Radzinski’s comments suggest that the fixture between Skoda Xanthi and Ergotelis in Crete was fixed, in order to ensure the Cretan club survived the drop – which they only avoided by one point.

Almost immediately, the Cretan club defended their survival by responding angrily through a statement made on the club’s official website. “The whole of the Greece watched the game with Xanthi on TV, and they know that Ergotelis deserved to win the game,” read the statement.