Greece – ranked 17th, a clear sign of the continuous development and improvement of Greek football. Yet, in the same time it was football full of problems and this season was perhaps the most troublesome, because 7 teams in the Second Division and 12 of the 16 First Division teams had points deducted. The championship itself was dominated by one team, so all drama happened not at the top, but at the bottom.
Beyond second division clubs like
Kalamata and
Ionikos Asteras played, out of sight and out of mind.
Second Division, 20-team strong, had a big turn-over currently: 3 teams were promoted and 6 relegated. Survival was the big concerns for almost whole league, which perhaps led many to infringement of rules, to put it mildly. Pierikos, Kavala, Proodeftiki, and Kilkisiakos had 1 point deducted; Kastoria and Charavgiagos – 2 points deducted, and Egaleo (Athens) – 4 points deducted. Three of the penalized teams ended relegated. Relegation decreased the numbers of Athens clubs by 2, Piraeus and Thessaloniki by 1 each city. However, all that was somewhat set apart from the top the table, where 3 teams – exactly the number set for promotion – were far stronger than the rest. Anyhow, just a taste of the league:
Makedonikos N. Efkarpia (Thessaloniki) ended 16th and relegated.
Athinaikos Vironas (Athens) finished 12th – 2 points better than relegation zone. Athens lost 2 teams – Egaleo (20th) and Atromitos (18th) – but the other 2 teams from the capital survived: Athinaikos, Acharnaikos (13th) and Charavgiagos (10th). None, however, was strong enough.
And Kastoria, which had their best time not long ago, was lowly now – 5th, but hardly trying to get promoted. They were not the only former top league member now playing second level football and the season’s leaders were such clubs:
Levadiakos (Levadia) finsihed 3rd with 46 points.
Panserraikos (Serres) was 2nd – they came ahead of Levadiakos on better goal-difference.
Panachaiki (Patras) won the championship with 22 wins, 5 ties, 11 losses, 71-39 goal-difference and 49 points – 3 points ahead of Panserraikos and Levadiakos. Champions of Second Division was not bad at all, but promotion back to First Division was most important and the top three teams achieved that. All of them returning to top flight and naturally hoping to stay there.
A Football Blog