Panionios G.S.S.

Main article: Panionios

Panionios GSS

Full name	PAE Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis (Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna)
Nickname(s)	Kyanerythri (Blue-Reds) Istorikos (Historic)
Founded	1890
Ground	Panionios Stadium, Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece (Capacity: 11,700 (all-seated))
Chairman	Gerasimos Ventouris [1]
Head Coach	Takis Lemonis
League	Super League Greece
2010–11	Super League Greece, 9th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Panionios GSS (Greek: Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης – Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis), the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna, is a Greek association football club based in the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni, Greece.

The club currently competes in the Super League Greece.

Early history

The club was founded in 1890 in Smyrna (Σμύρνη) currently İzmir, under the name of "Orpheus Music and Sports Club" by part of the large Greek population living in the city at the time. In 1893 some Orpheus members keen on sports formed a separate organization, the "Gymnasion Club", and started holding yearly sports competitions. In 1898, Orpheus and Gymnasion merged again to form Panionios GSS. Members of the Panionios sports club represented Greece in all international track & field games until these developed in the modern Olympic Games.

After the Greek military defeat in 1922 the club was forced to transfer firstly in Athens and later to the Athenian suburb of New Smyrna where lots of the population of Smyrna immigrated. The club has a tradition of cultivating all major sports and was the first Greek club to establish a track and field division for women, in 1925. Another major example of the club's contribution to Greek sports rests in the fact that it was Panionios that introduced Basketball and Volleyball in Greek sports society.

With the gradual transformation of men's football and basketball into professional sports, Panionios FC and Panionios BC became privately owned clubs operating under the auspices of the traditional "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. To date, Panionios remains the only sports club in Greece that was awarded the Golden Cross from the Athens Academy as a recognition of the club's rich and continuous enrichment of Greek sports.^[2]

Recent history

Panionios FC playing a home game in Nea Smyrni Stadium

Panionios has spent nearly its entire history in the Greek First Division (now called 'Superleague'), having missed out from competing in Greek football's top division only twice in its more than 100-year history. Within this, Panionios rose quite often to high levels, with top achievement in terms of the league being the 2nd position that the club reached in 1971, losing the title to AEK.

Panionios has produced all three major Greek strikers of the 1980s, namely Nikos Anastopoulos (later of Olympiakos), Thomas Mavros (later of AEK), and Dimitris Saravakos (later of Panathinaikos). Other notable players coming out of the club in the 1990s include Nikos Tsiantakis (later of Olympiacos) and Takis Fyssas, later of Panathinaikos, Benfica and member of Greek national team. Within the 2000s another four Greek national team players came out from the club, namely Alexandros Tziolis, Evangelos Mantzios, Nikos Spiropoulos and Grigoris Makos.

The club had faced financial difficulties which triggered the transfer of the ownership to the municipality of Nea Smyrni in 1992. Those difficulties remained all through the 1990s forcing the team's league performance to drop. Yet, it remained in a high level and managed to win the Greek Football Cup competition in 1998 and participate successfully in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup the year after, reaching the quarterfinals. In December 2001 large part of the club's shares moved away from the Municipality back to private hands, where working around bankruptcy legislation the club was renamed to Neos ("New") Panionios FC, to avoid the threat of relegation from the first division.

Change of ownership

In 2004, shipowner Constantinos Tsakiris was elected president of the "amateur sports" Panionios GSS. Panionios won the women's Basketball Championship in 2006, the club's first in a team sport, and the women's volleyball team advanced to the first division. In 2006, Tsakiris acquired 85% of Neos Panionios FC stock and started restructuring the team from scratch. He changed the name of the club back to the original "Panionios GSS" FC and hired German coach Ewald Lienen who, during his first year created a team that made it to the top 5 of the Greek Super League and on to the UEFA Cup. Tsakiris has also unveiled an ambitious plan to have the aging football ground and athletics track demolished, and build a modern multi-sport arena in its place. Apart from a 12.000 capacity football stadium, the proposed complex would include facilities for basketball, volleyball, aquatic sports, track & field, boxing, gymnastics, wrestling and more.^[3]

On the summer transfer window of 2008, the club signed Uruguay national team members Álvaro Recoba and Fabián Estoyanoff, but shortly after Lienen resigned by mutual consent on November 11, 2008, reason being disagreement with the Panionio's board.^[4] On November 12, 2008 Greek coach Takis Lemonis was hired ^[5] and resigned on December 3, 2008 after the refuse of Panionio's board to accept Lemoni's request to dismiss three members of Panionio's coaching and management staff.^[6][7] Assistant coach Joti Stamatopoulos lead the club until the end of the season. He was replaced by Belgian manager Emilio Ferrera.

Under the Tsakiris presidency, the club built its own training facility just outside Athens in the region of Koropi. The training ground is operating since 2008 but was fully completed in 2009.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Giannis Siderakis 2 DF David Kvirkvelia 4 DF Markus Jonsson 5 MF Anastasios Avlonitis 6 MF Suleiman Omo 7 FW Dimitrios Drosos 8 FW Sito Riera 9 FW Njazi Kuqi 10 MF Fabián Estoyanoff 14 MF Davor Kukec 15 MF Bennard Yao Kumordzi 16 MF Dimitris Kolovos 17 MF Vasilis Bouzas 20 MF Fanouris Goundoulakis (captain)

No. Position Player 21 GK Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos 22 MF Andreas Samaris 23 MF Dimitris Siovas 24 MF Dimitrios Anastasopoulos 26 DF Edin Cocalić 27 MF Amiri Kurdi 31 DF Dimitris Petkakis 32 MF Dejan Milovanović (on loan from Lens) 39 FW Emmanuel Okoye 40 FW Andre Schembri 77 GK Jürgen Macho 84 MF Efstathios Rokas 87 GK Leonidas Panagopoulos

For recent transfers, see List of Greek football transfers summer 2011.

Famous former players

Greece Nikos Anastopoulos Stelios Aposporis Stathis Chaitas Labros Choutos Jiorgos Dedes Christos Emvoliadis Takis Fyssas Thanasis Intzoglou Andreas Lagonikakis Grigoris Makos Antonis Manikas Evangelos Mantzios Spiros Maragos Stathis Mavridis Dimitris Mavrikis Thomas Mavros Kostas Mitroglou Dimitris Nalitzis Kostas Nestoridis Theologis Papadopoulos Takis Papoulidis Yiannis Pathiakakis Nikos Pentzaropoulos Antonis Sapountzis Dimitris Saravakos Thanasis Saravakos Nikos Spyropoulos Nikos Tsiantakis Themis Tzanetis Alexandros Tziolis Leonidas Vokolos Albania Arjan Bellaj Sulejman Demollari Hamdi Salihi Foto Strakosha

Algeria Rafik Djebbour Mohamed Chalali Argentina Dario Fernandez Australia Travis Dodd Belgium Stéphane Demol Brazil Luciano Marcelinho Paulista Marcelo Pletsch Bulgaria Teodor Barzov Krasimir Chomakov Milen Georgiev Canada Tamadani Nsaliwa Cape Verde Noni Lima Cote d'Ivoire Gilles Domoraud Cyprus Simos Krassas Kyriacos Pavlou Czech Republic Jaroslav Drobný Václav Svěrkoš Martin Vaniak Petr Vlček

Egypt Ahmed Magdy England Marco Gabbiadini [1] Gary Owen Mark Robins Paul Tisdale France Nicolas Lourdes [2] Alain Raguel Georgia Levan Tskitishvili Germany Michael Delura Hungary Norbert Tóth Liberia Joe Nagbe Isaac Pupo Zizi Roberts Malawi Tam Nsaliwa Mali Fousseni Diawara Norway Roy Wassberg Poland Adam Majewski Romania Marcel Coraş Marian Ivan

Saint Kitts and Nevis Keith Gumbs Serbia Zoran Jovičić Milinko Pantić Vladimir Vermezovic Serbia & Montenegro Miodrag Mendan Spain Thomas Christiansen Slovakia Mario Breska Miroslav König Lubomir Meszaros Thomas Oravec Attila Pinte Slovenia Goran Sankovič Ermin Šiljak South Africa Dillon Sheppard Turkey Erol Bulut Uruguay Juan Martín Parodi Álvaro Recoba Wales Gareth Roberts

National titles

Greek Cup

(2) 1979, 1998 ^[8]

Runners-up: 1952, 1961, 1967, 1989.

Athens Championship

(1) 1951

Balkan Cup

(1) Winners: 1971

Runners-up: 1986

Former coaches

• Joe Mallett (1970–74)
• Bo Johansson (1988–89)
• Andreas Michalopoulos (1994–95)
• Emerich Jenei (1995–96)
• Nikos Alefantos (1996–97)
• Ronnie Whelan (1998–99)
• Jacek Gmoch (1999)
• Martti Kuusela (2000–01)
• Dumitru Dumitriu (2001–02)
• Karol Pecze (2004)
• Giorgos Vazakas (2004–05)
• Dimitrios Barbalias (2005)
• Nikos Pantelis (2005)
• Josef Csaplár (2005)
• Jozef Bubenko (2005–06)
• Vangelis Vlachos (2006)
• Ewald Lienen (2006–08)
• Takis Lemonis (2008)
• Joti Stamatopoulos (2008–09)
• Emilio Ferrera (2009–10)
• Georgios Paraschos (2010)
• Mikael Stahre (June 2010 – October 2010)
• Apostolos Mantzios (October 2010 – December 2010)
• Takis Lemonis (December 2010 – Present)

European matches

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
1964-65	Intertoto Cup	Group C1	Malmö FF	1-1	1-5
			NK Dinamo Zagreb	2-2*
			Toulouse FC	0-3*
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1st Round	F.C. Hansa Rostock	2-0	0-3
1971-72	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Atlético Madrid	1-0	1-2
		2nd Round	Ferencvárosi TC	0-2 (α.α.)	0-6
1979-80	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1st Round	FC Twente	4-0	1-3
		2nd Round	IFK Göteborg	1-0	0-2
1987-88	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Toulouse FC	0-1	1-5
1998-99	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	1st Round	FC Haka	2-0	3-1
		2nd Round	Apollon Limassol	3-2	1-0
		Quarter-finals	S.S. Lazio	0-4	0-3
2003-04	UEFA Cup	1st Round	FC Nordsjælland	2-1	1-0
		2nd Round	FC Barcelona	0-3	0-2
2004-05	UEFA Cup	1st Round	Udinese Calcio	3-1	0-1
		Group stage	Newcastle United F.C.	0-1		4th
			Sporting Clube de Portugal		1-4
			FC Dinamo Tbilisi	5-2
			FC Sochaux-Montbéliard		0-1
2007-08	UEFA Cup	1st Round	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	0-1	2-0
		Group stage	Helsingborgs IF		1-1	4th
			Galatasaray S.K.	0-3
			FK Austria Wien		1-0
			FC Girondins de Bordeaux	2-3
2007-08	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2nd round	OFK Beograd	3-1	0-1
		3rd round	S.S.C. Napoli	0-1	0-1

• In the summer of 1964 Panionios took part in the Cup Rapanos in place of the Olympic, who retired after having been given two games with Toulouse (2-4) and Dinamo Z. (0-4). The results were calculated in the standings without replay Panionios these groups. Panionios has three games: two at home Kaftantzoglio Stadium, which had a lights away with Malmo. The away game against Toulouse, who refused to attend the Olympic, won 3-0 in favor of the French team.

European record

Season	Achievement	Notes
UEFA Cup Winners Cup
1979–80	Second Round	eliminated by IFK Göteborg
1998–99	Quarter-finals	eliminated by S.S. Lazio
UEFA Cup
1971–72	Second Round	eliminated by Ferencváros
1987–88	First Round	eliminated by Toulouse FC
2003–04	Second Round	eliminated by FC Barcelona
2007–08	Group Stage	4th Position in Group H
UEFA Intertoto Cup
2008	Third Round	eliminated by S.S.C. Napoli

See also

• Panionios BC
• Panionios
• Nea Smyrni Stadium

References

1. ^ "Panionio's Board of Directors". Panionio's Official Website. http://www.panionios.gr/default.asp?pid=27&la=1. 
2. ^ "Panionio's History". Panionio's Official Website. http://www.pgss.gr/default.asp?pid=24&la=2. 
3. ^ "Panionio's New Stadium". http://www.dimand.gr/en/p_panionios.htm. 
4. ^ "Panionio's Official Announcement". Panionio's Official Website. November 11, 2008. http://www.pgss.gr/default.asp?pid=55&la=2&artid=16857&catid=5. 
5. ^ "Panionio's Official Announcement" (in Greek). Panionio's Official Website. November 12, 2008. http://www.pgss.gr/default.asp?pid=55&la=1&artid=16860&catid=5. 
6. ^ "Takis Lemonis Leaves Panionios". Goal.com. December 3, 2008. http://www.goal.com/en/news/117/greece/2008/12/04/995434/takis-lemonis-leaves-panionios. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
7. ^ "Panionio's Official Announcement" (in Greek). Panionio's Official Website. December 3, 2008. http://www.panionios.gr/default.asp?pid=55&la=1&artid=16914&catid=5. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
8. ^ "Statistics". Panionio's Official Website. http://www.pgss.gr/default.asp?pid=36&la=2. 

External links

Official Sites

• Official football club website
• Official basketball club website
• Panionios TV channel from Goal4Replay.net (English) (Greek)

Fans

• Panionios Stadium
• official Panthers fan club
• Panionios 1890 unofficial website
• Leshi filon panioniou fan club
• unofficial fan website
• Panionios Net portal