Nea Salamis FC

Football club infobox
clubname = Nea Salamina


fullname = Nea Salamis Famagusta
nickname =
founded = 1948
ground = Ammochostos Stadium
Larnaca, Cyprus
capacity = 5,000
chairman = flagicon|Cyprus Kiriakos Sofokleous
manager = flagicon|Cyprus Panikos Orphanides
league = Cypriot Second Division
season = 2007-08
position = Cypriot First Division, 13^th (relegated)
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leftarm1=FF0000|body1=FF0000|rightarm1=FF0000|shorts1=FF0000|socks1=FF0000
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=_red_lotto_stripes|pattern_ra2=

leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FF0000|socks2=FF0000

Nea Salamis Ammochostos or Nea Salamina Ammochostos ( _el. Νέα Σαλαμίνα Αμμοχώστου) is a Cypriot football and volleyball club which comes from the city of Ammochostos (also known by its Romanized name: "Famagusta"). It has adopted its name from the ancient Cypriot city of Salamis or Salamina ( _el. Σαλαμίς) near modern day Ammochostos. The club was founded in 1948. Since the occupation of the north part of the island through invasion by Turkish troops in 1974, Nea Salamis is a refugee team and since then is based in Larnaca.

History

The establishment of the Club (along with that of a few others), was evoked from the political turbulence of that period and the conflict between left-wings and right-wings due to the Greek Civil War. SEGAS, the Greek Sports Confederation which was controlling the Greek Cypriot clubs, asked from the clubs to declare themselves as nationalists and to abandoned their communist athletes. The majority of Cypriot clubs obeyed SEGAS, and that had a result the abolishments of many athletes and the establishment of new clubs. One of the clubs was Nea Salamis and together with some others new-formed clubs established the Cyprus Amateur Football Federation (KEPO), which had its own football league and cup, separated from Cyprus Football Association.

1950s and 1960s

In 1953, the Cypriot football was unified and the clubs of KEPO joined the Cyprus Football Association. Nea Salamina joined the Second Division of Cyprus FA and in their second participation in the Association's competitions they won the Championship of Second Division.Since 1955, Nea Salamina belongs to Cypriot First Division, except some short interruptions when they were relegated. In their first Cypriot First Division participation Salamis finished 3rd, just four points behind the Champions AEL FC. The team reached their best position ever respectively as third in the seasons 1955/56, 1965/66, 1992/93 and 1994/95.

Never becoming Cypriot Champions, Salamis was very close to the trophy in 1965-66 since they played their greatest football ever and also the same season lost in the Cup final. Until the last match of the season, Salamis was second, three points behind AC Omonia but with one match less, and they had to play the third in table Olympiakos Nicosia and with a win they would have won the trophy. Unfortunate for the team, they lost away 3-6 and together they lost the trophy. Salamis finished 3rd in the season, two points behind Omonia and one from Olympiakos. The same season they were beaten by Apollon Limassol in the Cup final.

1970s disaster

The 1970s were very bad for Nea Salamis, which came close to being relegated many times. The worst part of this decade was the capture of Famagusta by the Turkish forces following the Turkish invasion. The city remains until today in the occupied territories and the club has been a refugee. Salamis was under serious strain following the loss of its ground and property and the diffusion of its fan base. Larnaca, the adjacent coastal town on the southern shores of Cyprus, has been the temporary base of the club since 1974.

The bad performance of Nea Salamis couldn't continue without the club avoiding relegation, which finally occurred in the 1978-79 season. The club was relegated for the first time in the summer of 1979, but bounced back a year later on having won the Second Division Championship.

Cup achievement and European participation

In 1990 Nea Salamina achieved its greatest success, when they won the Cypriot Cup, beating Omonia Nicosia 3-2 in the final in Tsirion Stadium. The same year they won the Cyprus FA Shield (Super Cup) by beating fc|APOEL 1-0. Nea Salamina played in the Cup final in other two occasions (1966, 2001) but were beaten on both occasions by Apollon Limassol.

As Cup winners, Nea Salamina played for first time in European cups in 1990, where they were beaten in the Cup Winners Cup first round twice clearly Aberdeen FC. The club participated in 1995 and 1997 for the Intertoto Cup,they eliminated however with only a victory after the first groups games from. In 2000, Nea Salamis, after two victories against the Albanian Vllaznia Shkoder, reached the second round of the Intertoto, where they beat Austria Vienna 1-0 at home, but they were eliminated after a 3-0 defeat in Vienna.

2000s

The first four years of the 2000s were very bad for Nea Salamis. The team relegated twice in four years in 2001 (despite becoming Cup finalists the same season) and 2003 to return back both times as Second Division Champions in their Second Division participations. Since 2004-05, the team remained in First Division until the 2007-2008 season when it was relegated again.

In 2006, Nea Salamina formed a women's team and participates in the Cypriot women competitions. In their first participation in the Cypriot championship, they gained the 3rd position and also qualified in the Cypriot Cup final, where they were beaten 1-3 by AEK Kokkinochorion in the GSP Stadium.

tadium

Salamis' original stadium is GSE (GS Evagoras) Stadium in Famagusta but due to the Turkish occupation, since 1974 they can not use it for home stadium. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, until 1991, Salamis used at first GSZ Stadium and some years the Dasaki Stadium. Salamis also used Tsirion, Deryneia and Antonis Papadopoulos.

Currently, home stadium is "Ammochostos-Amberia Stadium" (means "Famagusta"), with capacity of 5000 seats, which is in Larnaca. Ammochostos-Amberia Stadium is a multi-use stadium and is currently used mostly for football matches. Owner of the Stadium is Nea Salamis.

"Ammochostos" is the Greek name of Famagusta and it was named like that for the memory of the town because the stadium's owner Salamina is a Famagustan team but they can't use their stadium in Famagusta because of the Turkish occupation of the town.

It was built in 1991 and is built inside the refugee suburbs of Larnaca and is expressing the wish of Salamis people for their club. The decision to built that stadium was taken in 1989 and in December of the same year the stadium began to be constructed. After many wages offered from Salamis fans in Cyprus and abroad, from Cyprus Sports Association and from many workers it was achieved to built in a short time.

The stadium hosted the 1992 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship final on May 17, 1992 between Germany and Spain where Germany won 2-1.

The home stadium of Salamis in the Volleyball is Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center in Limassol.

Current squad

Former Managers

*flagicon|Poland Jerzy Engel
*flagicon|Montenegro Momčilo Vukotić
*flagicon|Bulgaria Georgi Vasilev
*flagicon|Hungary Imre Geley
*flagicon|Cyprus Andreas Michaelides
*flagicon|Cyprus Panicos Orphanides

Former Players

*flagicon|Cyprus Giorgos Nicolaou
*flagicon|Bulgaria Angel Stoykov
*flagicon|Hungary Tamás Szamosi
*flagicon|PortugalMarco Almeida
*flagicon|Russia Aleksandr Filimonov
*flagicon|Venezuela Luis Vallenilla
*flagicon|Mozambique Dário Monteiro
*flagicon|Sierra Leone Mustapha Bangura
*flagicon|Algeria Nordine Sam
*flagicon|Ivory Coast Gilles Domoraud
*flagicon|Portugal Rui Lima
*flagicon|Portugal Tiago Lemos
*flagicon|Portugal Rui Dolores
*flagicon|Cyprus Ioannis Okkas
*flagicon|Cyprus Marios Louka
*flagicon|Germany Marco Haber
*flagicon|Sierra Leone Julius Woobay
*flagicon|Sierra Leone Jamil Kargbo
*flagicon|Sierra Leone Julius Conteh
*flagicon|England Paul Tait
*flagicon|Armenia Armen Shahgeldyan
*flagicon|Moldova Evghenii Hmaruc
*flagicon|Sweden Bjorn Morgan Enqvist
*flagicon|Georgia Mamuka Tsereteli
*flagicon|Belarus Alexandr Vyazhevich
*flagicon|Poland Krzysztof Bukalski
*flagicon|Poland Krzysztof Klosinski
*flagicon|Poland Bogdan Zajac
*flagicon|Slovakia Miroslav Seman
*flagicon|Romania Claudiu Raducanu
*flagicon|Hungary Zoltan Bükszegi
*flagicon|Romania Mugur Bolohan
*flagicon|Argentina Sergio Bastida
*flagicon|Cyprus Charalambos Andreou
*flagicon|Cyprus Kiriakos Koureas
*flagicon|England Nigel McNeill (1988-90)
*flagicon|England Kenny Dyer
*flagicon|Cyprus Floros Nicolaou

Volleyball

The volleyball team is one of the most powerful teams in Cyprus. With 8 championships, 7 cups and 6 Super Cups is the second team in trophies after Anorthosis Famagusta. Since 1978 they showed to become a great power for Cypriot volleyball after finishing 2nd in the championship, which happened also in 1981, they became runners up in the Championship, to come the first success in 1983 after beating their city-mates Anorthosis 3-1 in the final. The same season Salamis became again 2nd. After two failing Cup finals in 1988 and 1989 against Anorthosis, they won their first Championship in 1990 which was also a double and went on to win the championship for the following season and the Cup in 1992.

Since 1998 and until 2003 they achieved something amazing for the club since they dominated Cypriot volleyball by winning 6 consecutive Championships which was a record for the competition's history. The last four championships were four consecutive doubles. Coach of the 6 consecutive Championships was Antonis Constantinou. From the new season 2008/09 the new coach of the volleyball team will be Christakis Poullakos.

Honours

Football

*Cypriot Cup:
**Winners (1): 1990
**Runner-up (2): 1966, 2001

*LTV Super Cup:
**Winners (1): 1990

*Cypriot Second Division:
**Champions (4): 1955, 1980, 2002, 2004

Football Women

*Cyprus Cup:
**Runner-up (1): 2006/07
*Cyprus Super Cup:
**Winners (1): 2007/08
*Cyprus Championship:
**Runner-up (1): 2007/08

Volleyball Men

*Cyprus Championship
** Winner (8): 1989/90, 1990/91, 1997/98, 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03
** Runner-up (6): 1977/78, 1980/81, 1982/83, 1993/94, 2003/04, 2007/08
*Cyprus Cup:
** Winner (7): 1982/83, 1989/90, 1991/92, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03
** Runner-up (6): 1987/88, 1988/89, 1990/91, 1992/93, 1993/94, 2004/05
*Cyprus Super Cup:
** Winner (6): 1998/99, 1999/00, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04
** Runner-up (3): 1993/94, 1994/95, 2005/06

Volleyball Women

*Championship titles:
** Runner-up (3): 1980/81, 1981/82, 1982/83
*Cypriot Cup:
** Runner-up (3): 1979/80, 1982/83, 1984/85

External links

*(el) [http://www.neasalamis.com.cy/ Official web site of the club]
*(el) [http://www.red-club.org/ RED CLUB Official Fan Club web site]
*(el) [http://www.sfsalamis.com/ Σύνδεσμος Φίλων Νέας Σαλαμίνας Αμμοχώστου]
* [http://www.nysalamina.com/ Nea Salamis New York]
*The same article in Greek Wikipedia [http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/ΝΕΑ_ΣΑΛΑΜΙΝΑ_ΑΜΜΟΧΩΣΤΟΥ]