“They gave us a bottle of fresh milk because we were footballers… football was different before the WWII”, his voice became hoarse with emotion. It was the voice of my grandfather, Costas Yannaros, an Olympiacos FC footballer between 1935 and 1936. This piece is dedicated to him.
Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece follows the long-standing tradition of many European football clubs such as FC Barcelona in Spain, Napoli in Italy, Marseille, and Nice in France and Monaco. Teams born in crowded Mediterranean ports, where the topic of football colonises everything.
Football sociologists like Stéphane Beaud and Frédéric Rasera can confirm that football is more than a sport. It is an institution, a passion and religion.
The ‘Olympiacos people phenomenon’ (Το φαινόμενο Ολυμπιακός λαός) is unique in Greece.
Olympiacos (Ολυμπιακός) was founded on March 10, 1925, in a tavern in the city port of Piraeus. Its full name is “Olympiacos Piraeus Sports Club” (Ολυμπιακός Σύλλογος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς). Olympiacos is also known as “The Legend” (Θρύλος) and is the biggest sports club in Greece.
The name was inspired by the Olympic Games and a laurel-crowned Olympic winner was chosen as its emblem, also known as ‘the laurel-crowned teenager’ (δαφνοστεφανομένος έφηβος), ‘the eternal teenager.’ It embodies youth, strength, and bravery.
According to The Score in 2018, there were 3,500,000 likes of Olympiacos on Facebook making it the fifth most popular football emblem in the world.
The club’s colours, red and white, are emblematic of the ethos. Red is passion and bravery, and white, purity and justice. The name ‘Red & Whites’ (ερυθρόλευκοι) is used by the media and fans.
Many football clubs have local attachment to a town, Dinamo Zagreb is in Zagreb, Croatia, Los Angeles Galaxy in Los Angeles, California (USA) and so on. Not so for Olympiacos. The ‘Olympiacos people phenomenon’ (Το φαινόμενο Ολυμπιακός λαός) is unique in Greece.
Journalist Panagiota Bistika in 2008, based on the works by historian, Vasias Tsakopoulos, explained that between WWI and WWII, Olympiacos was the most reliable institution in the city port of Piraeus. Sociologically the football club embodies small Greek towns as well as fiery blue-collar opposition against the Athenian white-collar establishment.
Olympiacos’ nickname is The Anchovies (οι γαύροι), the inexpensive delicious fish sold in Piraeus. In the 1960s, Panathinaïkos fans stole crates of this fish and presented them to the Olympiacos team just before a match in Athens to intimidate them. Since then, there have been other incidences of anchovies being dumped on Olympiacos benches.
Piraeus is Greece’s biggest port, it is where Olympiacos became popular among sailors and the Greek islanders living on Greece’s 5,000 islands. Olympiacos remains popular in Thessaly, Crete, Central Greece and throughout the country.
According to a poll conducted in 2021, for Total Football, 28 percent of Greeks are Olympiacos fans. The biggest Olympiacos supporters club is Gate 7 (Θύρα 7) which has a strong presence in Greece as well as worldwide, in Hanover, Wiesbaden-Frankfurt, London, NYC and Chicago, Melbourne and Sydney.
Olympiacos’ headquarters are the Porto Leone fan club, a name used in Piraeus in 1318 by Pietro Visconti da Genoa because of the lion statue in the port between 200 AD and 1678, until the Doge Francesco Morosini took it to Venice.
Being a fan does not mean you are only a lover of football. Olympiacos competes in other of sports such as basketball, and has won 436 trophies in Greek and European competitions.
OLYMPIACOS – INDIVIDUAL SPORTS: Athletics, Ping pong, Fencing, Shooting, Boxing, Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Capoeira, Swimming, Sailing, Canoe Kayak, Paracanoe, Rowling
OLYMPIACOS – TEAM SPORTS: Football (men), Basketball (men), Basketball (women), Volleyball (men), Volleyball (women), Water polo (men), Water polo (women), Handball (men), Beach Volley (women)
The list of individual & team sports is not exhaustive.
OLYMPIACOS GREEK TROPHIES IN TEAM SPORTS:
Football (men): 46 Championships, 28 Cups
Basketball (men): 12 Championships, 9 Cups
Basketball (women): 5 Championships, 4 Cups
Volleyball (men): 30 Championships, 17 Cups
Volleyball (women): 8 Championships, 9 Cups
Water polo (men): 35 Championships, 22 Cups
Water polo (women): 12 Championships, 3 Cups
Handball (men): 3 Championships, 2 Cups
Beach Volley (men): 1 Championship
The founders’ ideal vision of a sports club since 1925 was to develop a club, not only football club, but that also appeals to different people.
Olympiacos’ reign in Greek team sports includes 46 championships in football, 35 water polo championships, and 30 volleyball championships. And, Olympiacos women’s teams have won 12 water polo, eight volleyball and five basketball championships. This is the story of a long-term winning strategy and a can-do spirit by Olympiacos, across men and women.
Olympiacos is outstanding in swimming competitions, in a country with a major maritime tradition since antiquity, the sport club’s genuine DNA is a winning spirit, whatever the competition.
OLYMPIACOS – GREEK TROPHIES IN INDIVIDUAL SPORTS
Athletics (men): 14 Open Athletics Championships, 10 Indoor field and track Championships
Athletics (women) : 1 Open Athletics Championship
Ping Pong (men) : 14 Championships, 6 Cups
Ping pong (women): 19 Championships, 11 Cups
Fencing (men) : 2 Championships, 1 Cup
Fencing (women) : 1 Championship, 1 Cup
Boxing (men) : 5 Championships
Boxing (women) : 2 Championships
Swimming : 62 Open Greek Championships, 7 Open Sea Greek Championships, 1 Greek Super Cup, 4 Clubs Cups, 1 Greek Masters Championship
Sailing : 1 Championship
This list of Greek trophies in individual sports is not exhaustive.
Olympiacos is outstanding in swimming competitions, in a country with a major maritime tradition since Antiquity. Men and women being so strong even in Ping Pong clearly reveals this sport club’s genuine DNA—a winning spirit, whatever the competition.
OLYMPIACOS – EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS & TEAM SPORTS TROPHIES
Basketball (men): 3 Euroleagues, 1 Intercontinental Cup
Volleyball (men) : 1 CEV Cup Winners Cup, 1 CEV Top Teams Cup
Volleyball (Women) : 1 CEV Challenge Cup
Waterpolo (men) : 2 LEN Champions Leagues, 1 LEN Super Cup
Waterpolo (women) : 2 LEN Euroleagues, 2 LEN Supercup, 1 LEN Trophy
This is the European face of Olympiacos, winning European competitions in three different sports—basketball, volleyball, and water polo. Female power is still strong with five European trophies for Olympiacos women’s teams.
Olympiacos footballers participated 34 times in UEFA Champions League competitions and 24 times in UEFA Europa League championships. Qualifying for a semi-final or for the final of one of the two main European football club tournaments is the dream of all Red & White fans. Perhaps one day in the future, the Georgios Karaїskakis Stadium (Στάδιο Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης), home to Olympiacos and one of the 30 stadiums in the world with the best atmospheres, according to the France Football List”, will ring out with unforgettable moments of joy and passion.
The businessman and philanthropist Marinakis (Ευάγγελος Μαρινάκης), founder and chairman of Capital Maritime & Trading Corp., has been the Olympiacos FC president since 2010. Before him, his father, Miltiades, was an Olympiacos shareholder and participated in Olympiacos management.
In 2014, the Vice-president of Olympiacos FC, Yannis Moralis (Γιάννης Μώραλης) was elected as mayor of Piraeus as an independent candidate and subsequently re-elected in 2019. Olympiacos’ President Vaggelis Marinakis was elected as a Municipal Councilor, just like two children of former Olympiacos presidents, Petros Kokkalis (Πέτρος Κόκκαλης) and Eirini Ntaїfa (Ειρήνη Νταϊφά), as well as the former Olympiacos goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis (Αντώνης Νικοπολίδης). From a political science point of view, this is significant. A sports club candidate, capable of beating candidates from traditional political parties and twice winning a Municipality election in a port city of 152,500 inhabitants (2021), the 5th largest municipality in Greece.
Olympiacos continues its long-standing tradition of dominating both Greek football and all individual and team sports. The Eternal Teenager is still looking towards the next victory!
*Dr. Georges Tassiopoulos is an expert in politics and international trade. He has presented in France, Greece and in the UK. George is based in the Paris and is an expert on European politics.
