NEW YORK – The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), in a letter to the President of the Hellenic Sailing Federation (EIO), expressed its shock and dissatisfaction with the response and the statements of the Federation, regarding the very serious complaint of the Olympian champion Sofia Bekatorou, thus suspending the current grant to the Federation for the support of its sailing training program for disabled athletes.

With the suspension of the grant, the SNF does not, under any circumstances, aims to penalize the direct beneficiaries, who are the athletes with disabilities and the sailing clubs that support them but, on the contrary, to protect them as well as the employees of the Federation.

In the letter, which was also addressed to the Board of Directors of the Federation, SNF states its intention to completely cancel the grant unless it receives sufficient and satisfactory assurances, within 30 days, that these matters will be dealt with in a comprehensive and final manner.

SNF, the letter notes, selects its grantees placing high priority to the ethos and the character of their people, as well as to effective administration and sound management. Any suspicion of scandal concerning the operation of an organization and the behavior of its executives raises critical questions about the organization's ability to do its work, poses serious risks to its reputation and therefore cannot and should not be ignored.

SOURCE: SNF