Georgios Helakis is a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 sports journalist, famous for his passionate live radio broadcasting of international football matches, particularly Champions League

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 and 2004 UEFA European Championship. During Euro 2004 opening match he compared the Greek national football team

Greece national football team

The Greece national football team represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos...

 to a pirate ship, a name which has become the official nickname of the squad since Greece won the tournament.

Born in the village Seliana in Aigeira

Aigeira

Aigeira or Aegira is a former municipality in Achaea, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Aigialeia, of which it is a municipal unit. It is located about 500 m SW of the Gulf of Corinth in the northeastern part of Achaea. It is located on...

 in 1964, Helakis is co-owner and commentator for numerous sports media outlets, including SportDay (Greece's best selling sports daily) and SportFM (Greece's most popular sports radio station). For a short period in the late 00's, he had also been chairman of Panegialios FC, the semi-professional club of his home town.

Beyond his media-related activities, Helakis is well known as a left-wing activist. The influence of his political ideas is obvious when commenting on matches, citing examples from history and politics and reminding listeners and readers that football must not be used to express national superiority or nationalistic ideas. In the 1980s he was a member of the Communist Party of Greece

Communist Party of Greece

Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece , better known by its acronym, ΚΚΕ , is the oldest party on the Greek political scene.- Foundation :...

, but after the party split in 1991, he joined the Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos). In the party's 2004 national congress he was elected in the Central Committee of the party, and in the 2007 legislative election he was a candidate for SYRIZA in the Athens B constituency. He was also candidate for the mayoralty in Kallithea

Kallithea

Kallithea is the 8th largest municipality in Greece and the 4th biggest in the Athens urban area...

 in the 2006 local elections

Greek local elections, 2006

The 2006 Greek local elections elected representatives to Greece's 3 super-prefectures, 54 prefectures, provinces, and approximately 1,033 communities and municipalities.The elections took place on Sunday, 15 October 2006 from 7am to 7pm....

, his platform taking 12 percent of the vote.