Geia sas! (From greece.theoffside.com)

By: Chris Paraskevas | September 24th, 2008

I thought I’d christen the new blog with an article of my own, it’s great to finally see it up and running!

My thanks extend to Daryl Grove for setting up the blog and in particular, to Peter Katsiris, who has been the driving force behind Greek football on this site and who was the “inspiration” for the creation of this segment. Efcharisto Takis!

Hopefully both Peter and I can do justice to as many Greek clubs as possible, each with their own rich histories and cultures – it is, perhaps, a shame that they do not attract the attention they warrant given the monopolization of success, finance and player talent by the ‘Big Three’ of Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. They are by no means the only important teams in Greece…

On that note, perhaps I’ll make a brief comment on the recent ramblings of Greek Super League chairman Konstantinos Piladakis, who spoke about the reforms and progress made by the game at a domestic level.

Whilst in many ways his claims are justified, there are some issues which do need clarification and context. His reference to increasing crowds stands out particularly in its general nature. Exactly who’s crowds are increasing? Olympiakos will always have the core fan-base who will turn up to see a quality side at impressive surrounds of the Karaiskakis, Panathinaikos’ record-breaking season ticket sales are the result of a massive financial injection and administrative change to the club and PAOK’s recent resurgence as a northern powerhouse of sorts has resulted from similar action.

Statistically, these increases might give crowd figures a nice polish around Greece. But how accurate are they? AEK Athens have seen a fairly significant drop in their season ticket sales as a result of fans being disgruntled about the club’s leadership, OFI fans protested on Wedensday with similar sentiments and outside of those four clubs – with the possible exception of Aris – some stadiums are virtually empty, as far as I can tell.

Hooliganism is probably where the reforms brought by the establishment of the league has had its biggest impact and whilst I haven’t yet sourced exact figures, on the surface it appears as though there has been a significant reduction, though there are still lingering examples of it.

And a quick note on the growing financial strength of the league: as Pilakidis mentioned to in his interview with Reuters, such improvements will be worthless if equality is not sought after. The lack of consistent quality across the entire league has been its Achilles Heel for many-a-year and if the game is to develop domestically, it is an issue which must be quickly addressed, by both the governing bodies and the clubs themselves.

Now is not the time for complacency.

Looking forward to covering (what I hope to be) an intriguing and competitive Greek Super League season.

Until next time.
Chris Paraskevas