Yiannis Laios is the new coach at Panathinaikos, following the resignation of Stelios Kazazis on March 12.
The former Olympiakos, Panellinios and Ktisifon manager agreed to a deal with Panathinaikos volleyball club and had his first training session with the Greens on March 15. In his meeting with Nikos Risvas, head of Panathinaikos’ amateur division, Laios agreed to stay with the team until the end of the season and to make recommendations for the next one. However, no contract was signed for the 2011-12 season.
“We want the team to become more efficient. Winning is always our objective and with God’s help we will win the league in the end,” said Laios in his first statements as Panathinaikos coach. “There are some good players on the team and I would like to win titles with Panathinaikos too, [as I did at] Olympiakos.” Laios has been very successful as both a player and coach, winning seven league titles as an Olympiakos player and one as a Panathinaikos star at the end of his career, while leading Olympiakos as a coach to the final of the Champions Cup and to winning the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Internal divisions within the Panathinaikos squad forced coach Kazazis to tender his resignation in what was the weekend’s most important news at the A1 division. Despite Panathinaikos’ easy 3-0 home win over Ethnikos Alexandroupolis, Kazazis announced his resignation right after the game on March 12 and revealed that he had already made up his mind three days earlier. “I realized that some squad members had lost confidence,” said Kazazis, explaining his decision.
The decision comes as a shock, as Kazazis was literally the reason Panathinaikos managed to field a team this season in the league, given that the financial problems of the summer and the fall nearly prompted all the players to leave the club; it was the experienced coach who kept the squad together.
Panathinaikos defeated Ethnikos 25-18, 25-16, 25-16 within 63 minutes to stay two points behind leaders Iraklis, who thrashed bottom side Panellinios 3-0 away (25-14, 25-21, 25-18). PAOK, in third, saw off visiting Lamia 3-0 (25-18, 30-28, 25-18), staying one point ahead of Olympiakos, who returned from Thessaloniki with a 3-0 win at Aris on March 11 (25-17, 25-17, 25-19).
EA Patras was absolutely imposing over Apollon Kalamarias, winning 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-9), but Apollon will not mind too much as Epikouros Polichnis lost 3-1 at home to Kifissia (23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 26-28) to edge closer to relegation, along with Panellinios.
