Will anyone stop Olympiakos from winning seven in a row?
No club outside Athens or its port of Piraeus has won the Greek league title in 12 years. With the new season starting at the weekend, that’s unlikely to change. Last season, Olympiakos Piraeus scraped to its sixth consecutive title after finishing top of the table level on points with AEK Athens. The Piraeus club took home the trophy because of a better head-to-head record against its Athens rival. This season, the two teams will again compete with third-place Panathinaikos Athens for the title. The three teams have won the most trophies since 1980, when the league turned professional. The only club that has a chance against the big three is PAOK Thessaloniki, but the northern Greek team is so financially troubled that it has sought the assistance of Libyan leader Muammar Khadafy. In an effort to save the club from bankruptcy, PAOK owner Giorgos Batatoudis reportedly asked Khadafy to buy a stake in the club. Its main fan club even sent a letter to the Libyan leader that begged, «Khadafy, our god, buy PAOK.» The new Greek season will see more clubs competing in the first division as the Greek Professional Football Association, or EPAE, increased the number of teams to 16. Last season, EPAE had reduced the number of teams competing in each of the top three divisions to 14, claiming the move would elevate the standard of play and make the game more attractive. It has admitted that the experiment was a failure. The season will also see one team, Kallithea, playing in the top division for the first time. The club, based in an Athens neighborhood, advanced for the first time in its 36-year history. AEK and Panathinaikos also have new coaches, while defending champion Olympiakos retained Takis Lemonis on its bench. Dusan Bajevic returns to AEK after a six-season absence, two with PAOK and four with Olympiakos. Bajevic had spent 12 years with AEK – four as a player and eight as coach – clinching three consecutive league titles. He replaces Fernando Santos of Portugal, who has moved to Panathinaikos. AEK also made the two most notable transfers in the off-season, signing Costa Rican internationals Mauricio Wright and Walter Centeno. Greece’s three top teams also hope to do well in European competition this season. In its first Champions League game last week, AEK beat APOEL Nicosia 3-2 in the first leg of their third-round qualifier in Cyprus. Olympiakos automatically received a first-round berth as champion and hopes to be more effective this year and advance to the second round of the Champions League. But it has not done well so far in preseason games. Last week, Italian Serie A champion Juventus trounced Olympiakos 4-0 in a friendly at Cesena, Italy. Panathinaikos hopes for a successful course in the UEFA Cup. Last season, the Athens team reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League. The 30-round Greek first-division season is set to last until May 18. In the opening round, Panathinaikos will have the most difficult game when it meets PAOK in Thessaloniki. Olympiakos plays Kallithea and AEK faces Aegaleo. Other matches include Iraklis vs OFI, Panachaiki vs Aris, Panionios vs Ionikos, Akratitos vs Xanthi, and Proodeftiki vs Ioannina. (AP)
