Greek football had old problems, not really addressed, but covered instead. Corruption was perhaps the biggest problem, never really talked about and addressed properly. Evidence of it was largely found in the lower leagues… 7 clubs from the 2 Second Division groups had points deducted in 1978-79 – and points are deducted as penalties for infringement. But what the clubs were guilty of? Hard to tell… Pierikos had two points deducted for fixing games. Nothing is said about the rest of the penalized clubs, but A.O. Panarkadikos Tripolis ended with 6 points deducted. If 2 points were taken for fixing games, one wonders what this club did to be penalized three times the bribers. Except Pierikos, all clubs were lowly, 5 in the relegation zone – and relegated after all. On the surface, acceptable: trying to escape relegation, the clubs tried everything, but… practically all were still to be relegated even without penalties. Only A.O. Panarkadikos Tripolis would have been safe if 6 points were not deducted from their record. If match fixing was so wide spread, then the clubs involved must have been more – especially mid-table clubs, not worrying about anything and therefore ready to get some extra cash in exchange for the odd point. There was only one such club – Trikala. What made almost no sense at all was the penalty of the only club accused of fixing games: Pierikos finished third in the Northern Group . Looked like they tried to won promotion by illegal means. The problem is they were not in the race for the first place at all – even with full points, they were not only to finish third, but still 9 points behind the 3nd placed Olympiakos (Volos). Most likely, they decided to earn some money and offered their ‘services’ to the willing parties – but it was unlikely they were the only club: 5 clubs were penalized in the Northern Group, so match fixing appeared wide spread. But only the relegated were punished – a cover-up more than real effort to clean the game. And only second division teams were penalized – First Division was apparently ‘clean’. Was it? Most likely all depended on pulling strings, clout, scheming, and may be political influence.
Clean or not, the second division had its season – a massive affair, involving 40 clubs. 20 in each sub-division.
AO Korinthos won the Southern Group – 4 points ahead of the nearest pursuer and with excellent record – +55 goals testified for their superiority. They were going up, a rather rare achievement of the club. The real test for them was still in the future – the next year they had to try to survive among the big boys.
Similarly strong were the winners of the Northern Group – 4 points ahead of the 2nd placed, +41 goal-difference, only 4 lost matches during the season.
Doxa (Drama), established in 1918, was similar to Korinthos – they still had to prove themselves in First Division, where they played previously, but without any success. The champions left misty image of themselves.