A fan’s guide – the club from early doors to today
Considered the aristocrats of the local game, Panathinaikos were formed by gentleman sportsman, Rear Admiral Giorgos Kalafatis in 1908. Winning the league at least once every decade, ‘PAO’ are the only Greek club to have made a major European final, in 1971.
A mini-revival in the 1990s saw PAO reach the last four of the Champions League, but they have since failed to break the long-term dominance of Olympiacos at home. For Panathinaikos, home is Ambelokipi in comfortable north-west of Athens – more specifically, modest Apostolos Nikolaidis stadium, along the main road Leof Alexandras, close to where Rear Admiral Kalafatis was born.
Site of the club shop, ticket office and fans’ bar, the Apostolos Nikolaidis has long come back into use as the club’s home stadium after PAO vacated the Olympic Stadium. Plans for a new arena, however, will soon be put into action.
Panathinaikos enjoyed their first golden era in the 1960s. Under Stjepan Bobek, stars Mimis Domazos and Takis Loukanidis helped PAO win five titles in six years. Domazos, who made more than 500 appearances over 20 years, also played in the side spearheaded by prolific centre-forward Anton Antoniadis that won another three titles and lost to Ajax in the European Cup Final of 1971. That Wembley appearance was the finest achievement of Ferenc Puskás as a coach.
By the time they had moved into the newly built Olympic Stadium, PAO were picking up titles on a regular basis, helped by the riches of shipowning president Giorgios Vardinogiannis. PAO made two European Cup/Champions League semi-finals in just over a decade, the second thanks to the goals of Polish striker Krzysztof Warzycha.
By the time oil tycoon Yiannis Vardinogiannis, nephew of Giorgios, took over in 2000, PAO were firmly second banana to Olympiacos.
Behind the scenes, a supporters’ group was trying to wrest control of the club from the Vardinogiannis clan, succeeding in the summer 2012 when the Panathinaikos Alliance gained over 50% of the shares with money raised from an internet campaign.
After a shaky start, these fans were able to celebrate winning the Greek Cup in 2014, a 4-1 win over PAOK at the Olympic Stadium, and runners-up spot in the league. Cup hat-trick hero, Swede Marcus Berg, was also the club’s top scorer.
No, the Shamrocks hadn’t the strength in depth to stake a place in the subsequent group stage of the Champions League – but this is a club partly run by its fans, otherwise backed by Santorini shipping magnate, Giannis Alafouzos.
After the initial honeymoon period, and narrow defeats to Ajax, Bilbao and PSV Eindhoven in Europe, financial mismanagement in 2017-18 saw Panathinaikos finish outside the top ten for the first time since the National League was formed in 1959. Even discounting the eventual eight points, PAO would not have qualified for Europe.
The following season, the penalty was 11 points and the gap just as wide. In 2019-20, having been banned from Europe, PAO’s fourth-place finish meant little.
It wasn’t until 2021-22 until two particular figures changed things around at the Apostolos Nikolaidis. First, Serbian coach Ivan Jovanović kept his team in the hunt all season, picking up the pace during the play-offs, then ex-Boca Argentine Sebastián Palacios won several end-of-season awards for his performances on the right side of PAO’s forward line. In between, Panathinaikos picked up their first silverware since 2014 with a 1-0 victory over PAOK in the Greek Cup final.
This momentum carried over into 2022-23 and then some. In a record ten-win run, , Spanish forward Aitor Cantalapiedra hit a hat-trick and a brace, with support from new signing Andraž Šporar, once of Middlesbrough. The Slovenian player’s opener against Slavia Prague wasn’t enough to put Panathinaikos through in the Europa Conference League but there’s now a buzz about Ambelokipi for the first time in well over a decade.
Stadium Guide
The field of dreams – and the stands around it
After vacating the Olympic Stadium in 2013, PAO settled back in their spiritual home of the Apostolos Nikolaidis. Its exterior decked in huge images from PAO’s history (note the wonderful shot of Puskás in front of his team), this traditional old ground, the first in Greece to have a stand, floodlights and an all-grass pitch, was the de facto national stadium until the arrival of the Olympiako.
Too tightly squeezed for expansion, the venerable homestead then proved too limited even for PAO, who joined the Greek national side up at the Olympic complex in Maroussi. After a €7 million upgrade in 2001, various attempts to rehouse PAO back in Ampelokipi proved fruitless, until the club had a change of ownership.
After a €2 million renovation in 2013, the stadium was deemed worthy of staging top-flight matches. Its capacity now 15,000 after a 2020 refit.
By 2026, according to an announcement by the Mayor of Athens in 2022, the club and its various departments will be uprooted and relocated to the new-build Votanikos Sport Complex near Eleonas metro station in north-west Athens. A joint project with the City of Athens, who will duly take over the Ambelokipi site of the Apostolos Nikolaides, the centre will be centrepieced by a football stadium of 39,000 capacity.
getting there
Going to the stadium – tips and timings
The Apostolos Nikolaidis stands alongside Ambelokipi metro station on the blue line, three stops from central Syntagma.
getting in
Buying tickets – when, where, how and how much
With Panathinaikos currently riding high and the capacity of the Apostolos Nikolaides at 15,000, tickets are at an absolute premium. Your best bet would be to look online as quickly as they become available, and be prepared to pay serious money – you might just find the odd seat free.
Even ticket resale outlets such as viagogo seem to be at loss to provide any. For all enquiries, contact info@paotickets.gr.
what to buy
Shirts, kits, merchandise and gifts
Walk round Odos Panathinakos to Tsocha to find the PAO club shop at gates 8/9. Second kit is currently white with a green chest band, third choice dark blue with luminous green trimmings. Thick green stripes and sleeves feature on the hallowed home shirts.
Among the other treasures is an entire collection dedicated to 1971, T-shirts, coffee mugs and badges, and beach gear for those trips down to Glyfada.
Where to Drink
Pre-match beers for fans and casual visitors
On the corner of Kiriakou and Tsocha, the STockHoLM pUb is a neat corner bar just over the road from the stadium, almost Scandinavian in appearance, where bottled Mythos and Kaiser are served, cocktails and coffees.
More local in feel, in operation since 1967, the Oinomageirio To Tryfilli wine bar on Panathinaikou is decked out in vintage photos of Panathinaikos line-ups and match action, glasses of red and white poured from big old barrels. There’s Amstel beer, too. The short menu, battered cod in garlic sauce, cabbage rolls and meatballs, has changed little in decades.
Alongside, the Mad Boys 13 Bar is now the Green Art Café, losing its titular allegiance to the gate where the PAO faithful again gather opposite.
