Greece. Football was improving steadily, but hand in hand with various corruption schemes. Scandals were constant feature, although only the tip of the iceberg was punished. This year was no exception. On the pitch, it was exciting enough – 4 teams competed for the title, there was also tough battle at the bottom of the table. Second Division was less competitive – three teams fought for the two promotions. That is, if actual points are considered. There was also battle for survival at the bottom, ending with unusual result: Olympiakos (Volos) finished with positive goal-difference, but 18th and relegated. The team just above them and also relegated, Panetolikos (Agriniu) had very good goal-difference for a lowly team too: -1. One can be suspicious of such interesting achievements, but since both teams were relegated anyway, why bother. Bad year for the city of Volos – both local team went down: already mentioned Olympiakos was 18th and Niki – 19th. Up the table only AO Kavala deserves a note: they finished 8th with 37 points. That was because they had 10 points deducted! What kind of crime they committed is forgotten now, but it was something big, judging by the penalty. May have been something directly related to the promotion race – if Kavala was not punished, they would have been 3rd and 2 points short of promotion. Thanks to the penalty, Agrotikos Asteras (Saloniki) took the 3rd place with 44 points. But they played no significant part in the battle for promotion. Two teams bested Kavala even if they had all their points – Pierikos and Panachaiki finished with 49 points each and goal-difference decided the Second Division champion.
Pierikos (Katerini) ended 2nd – they were the top scorers of this championship with 71 goals, but goal-difference favoured their rivals. No matter, though: they were promoted to the highest level.
Panachaiki (Patras) won the championship on slightly better goal-difference. If Pierikos favoured attack, Panachaiki had solid defensive approach: they lost only 7 matches, the only team in the league losing less than 10 games, and allowed the least goals this year too.
A Football Blog