This is the astonishing moment Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis allegedly slapped the nephew of Greece’s Prime Minister during a furious clash at a basketball final in Athens.
CCTV footage captured the Greek billionaire confronting Grigoris Dimitriadis during the Euroleague final on Sunday night, with the football boss later seen with a ripped shirt and bruising near his eye.
Video shows Marinakis, dressed in a white shirt, walking down the VIP steps before locking eyes with Dimitriadis and appearing to whisper something in his ear.
Seconds later, he appeared to slap Dimitriadis across the face, sparking a brawl in front of stunned spectators at the Peace and Friendship Stadium.
Dimitriadis immediately hit back with a punch before security guards and aides rushed in to separate the pair.
The two men continued screaming at each other from opposite sides of a barrier as security staff struggled to restore order.
Olympiacos FC vice president Kostas Karapapas also appeared to be involved in the verbal jousting.
The shipping tycoon’s shirt was partially ripped during the scuffle, while Marinakis, 58, was later pictured with a bruise near his right eye.
This is the astonishing moment Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis allegedly slapped the nephew of Greece’s Prime Minister during a furious clash at a basketball final in Athens
CCTV footage captured the Greek billionaire confronting Grigoris Dimitriadis during the Euroleague final on Sunday night, with the football boss later seen with a ripped shirt and bruising near his eye
Video shows Marinakis, dressed in a white shirt, walking down the VIP steps before locking eyes with Dimitriadis and appearing to whisper something in his ear
The Greek billionaire looked enraged and suffered a ripped shirt during the encounter
Local reports said the bust-up stemmed from a bitter dispute between rival political and sporting factions during the high-profile match.
Marinakis is one of Greece’s most controversial businessmen, with interests spanning shipping, media and football.
He founded Capital Maritime & Trading Corp, owns Alter Ego Media, and holds controlling stakes in football clubs, including Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League and Olympiacos in Greece.
But he has repeatedly found himself embroiled in legal disputes and football controversies.
Most infamously, in 2012, he was accused of pressuring referee Petros Konstantineas to fix a match, then firebombing his bakery when he refused.
Prosecutors alleged that Marinakis masterminded the operation and ordered the bombing of Konstantineas’ bakery as a retaliatory and intimidating measure against the uncooperative referee.
In 2021, he received a full acquittal.
In 2018, he was implicated in a heroin smuggling case but was later cleared.
While Dimitriadis resigned as advisor to the Prime Minister following a phone spyware scandal in 2022.
