Greek Deputy Minister of Development Lazaros Tsavdaridis has categorically denied allegations that his 17-year-old daughter used a fictitious handball registration to gain university exam points.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, 11 November, on the Greek television network ANT1, Tsavdaridis rejected claims broadcast the previous day in an investigative report by the private television channel MEGA. The report alleged that his daughter had been registered with a handball club in northern Greece so she could qualify for athletic bonus points toward higher education entry.
Tsavdaridis stated that his daughter was admitted to the Department of Agriculture at the University of Thessaly in Larissa solely through the grades she achieved in the Panhellenic Examinations, without using any athletic privileges or bonus points. He also categorically denied allegations that he had intervened to secure financial support for the sports club.
Tsavdaridis says his daughter passed on her own merit
Expressing bewilderment over the accusations against him, the deputy minister said he had been following the media reports since Tuesday and felt compelled to ask publicly what offence was being attributed to him. He stated that if the accusation was that his daughter had been registered as an athlete to receive extra points and enrol in a Greek university faculty, he wanted to make clear from the outset that she had never used extra bonus points to enter a Greek university.
According to Tsavdaridis, his daughter sat the Panhellenic Examinations like every student of her generation, studied hard, and won her place in the Department of Agriculture in Larissa entirely on her own merit and exam score.
He further clarified that although she enrolled in the School of Agriculture at the University of Thessaly, she never attended classes there and does not study there today. Instead, he said, she lives in Cyprus and studies at the University of Cyprus, adding that no child from any Greek family was deprived of a university admission place.
Denial of financial intervention for the handball club
Addressing separate allegations that he had stepped in to arrange financial backing for the northern Greek handball club, Tsavdaridis issued a categorical denial and said he remained at the disposal of any competent authority to provide explanations.
The deputy minister said he was fully aware of his institutional position and accepted that, as a public figure, it is legitimate for him to face public criticism and scrutiny. However, he argued that it is equally important to respect and protect the personality and privacy of children so that they do not become collateral damage in a political confrontation.
Allegations in the MEGA television report
The controversy began after MEGA reported that the deputy minister's 17-year-old daughter had allegedly been registered fictitiously as a player with a handball club in northern Greece with the aim of securing bonus points for the Panhellenic Examinations, first reported here by TheTOC.gr and carried by Capital.gr.
According to that report, her first appearance on a court was recorded in November 2025, when her name was entered on an official match sheet. Parents of female athletes on the team claimed that as a result of her inclusion, girls who trained regularly with the squad were left out of the match-day roster. The report described the registration as fictitious and attributed a role in the matter to the deputy minister, claims he has rejected in full.
Political reaction and university admission rules in Greece
Following the broadcast, ELAS issued a statement describing the case as the Tsavdaridis scandal and claiming that under the responsibility of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, corruption had spread across the government and throughout Greek society.
In its statement, ELAS argued that Greek students were being divided into children of a lesser God who strive through their own hard work to enter higher education institutions, known in Greece as AEI, and children of the ruling party's blue elite whose access to university is allegedly facilitated by unlawful means. The statement contended that an attempt for the deputy minister's daughter to gain points through his intervention by appearing as a handball player without, according to testimonies, ever having touched the ball showed that immorality had become normal practice, and it called on Mitsotakis to dismiss Tsavdaridis immediately and refer him to a public prosecutor.
The Panhellenic Examinations are Greece's nationwide standardized university entrance exams, held annually to allocate a fixed number of undergraduate places at state universities based on candidate scores. Under Greek education law, registered athletes who meet specific competitive criteria in recognized sports can qualify for a percentage bonus added to their exam score for admission to higher education. Tsavdaridis serves as Deputy Minister of Development in the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the centre-right New Democracy party, whose traditional political colour in Greece is blue.
