When Greek Football Started to Become Professionally Organized

The Α΄ National division inaugural game was played on October 20, 1959…

The First National League first appeared in Greek football culture 63 years ago. Despite the fact that there were championships in Greece held, they have only been contested locally. This was a brilliant idea from the early post-war years. Additionally, the winners of each Union competed in two matches to determine the Greece champion.

The Gambling Company ‘Pushed’ the Matter

PRO-PO, the first game launched by OPAP, the current sponsor of the Super League (a Greek company organizing and conducting games of chance, having state-owned monopoly) which can be found in offers of Greek casino sites having sportsbook sections, made its entrance into the lives of fans in March 1959, one year upon establishing, but because there were not many loyal followers, it struggled to succeed. In reality, some of the releases made during the summer of 1959 proved bad for the company.

Konstantinos Karamanlis was Greece’s prime minister at the time, and his directive was to create the first professional football level within the country’s first national division. Except, the teams’ opinions did not align with the government’s wishes. The EPO (The Greek Football Federation) became the first to express concern about the significant relocating expenses. The local organizations worried that they would miss out on the (hefty) profits from the local leagues when some teams once more showed caution.

First Attempt Was Not Successful

All of these uncertainties were ultimately dispelled, albeit it required a lot of discussions and additional government intervention to reach that conclusion. The first attempt, in particular, was not successful, but in the General Assembly on August 29, it was eventually resolved to form the First National League, which would consist of 18 teams. It was about four teams each from the local associations of Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, the north and south Regional champions (Doxa Drama and Panegialios), Pankorinthiakos, Aspida Xanthi, Megas Alexandros Katerinis, along with the winner of the play-off match Olympiacos Chalkida vs OFI.

In fact, in the publications of the time, it was mentioned that it took 32 hours of discussions with 62 episodes and 103 interruptions before the final decision was reached since one of the main conditions for its implementation was to abolish the 33% tax on tickets and for the teams to get a percentage of 5% from the PRO-PO.

Government Pressure Intensified the Final Agreement on the Number of Clubs

On August 31, after a four-hour meeting of the founding associations (Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki), it was decided that 16 teams would take part in the championship: Four from each founding association and another four from the region. Finally, after many processes, on October 10, 1959, while the government pressures were intensifying, the decisive General Assembly of the EPO took place at the Greek-American Institute in the presence of government representatives.

It was decided to establish a league of 16 teams with four from Athens, three from Piraeus and Thessaloniki, the first two of the local leagues in the north (Doxa Drama, Megas Alexandros Katerinis), the first two in the south (Panegialios, Pankorinthiakos), while the other two positions would be won by a playoff. The fourth-placed in the championship of EPS Thessaloniki (Iraklis) would face the third-placed in the local championships of the north (Aspida Xanthi) while the fourth-placed of EPSP (Piraeus) would play against the winner of the playoff between OFI and Olympiacos Chalkida.

Finally, on October 20, 1959, the championship of the First National League (Α΄ National division) officially started.

The results of the first round were:

PAOK - M. Alexandros 3-2

Panionios - AE Nikaia 3-0

Doxa Drama - Aris 2-2

Iraklis - Apollon Athens 0-0

Proodeftiki - Apollon Kalamaria 1-0

Panathinaikos - Panegialios 2-1

Pankorinthiakos - Olympiacos Patras 1-0

Ethnikos Piraeus - AEK 0-1