Kavala F.C.

Kavala Football Club[1] (Greek: Π.Α.Ε. Α.Ο. Καβάλα), the Athletic Club Kavala, is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Kavala, Macedonia, Greece. They compete in the Football League, the third tier of the Greek football league system. The club's home ground is the Anthi Karagianni Stadium.

Kavala
Full nameΑθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα
(Athletic Club Kavala)
Nickname(s)Argonauts
Light Brigade of the North
Short nameAOK
Founded1965 (1965)
GroundAnthi Karagianni Stadium
Capacity10,500
ChairmanGiorgos Mirtsos
ManagerPavlos Dermitzakis
LeagueFootball League
2018–19Gamma Ethniki (Group 1), 1st (promoted)
WebsiteClub website

History

The club was formed in 1965 from the merger of Phillipoi Kavala, Iraklis Kavala and A.E. Kavala.[2]

They have had a few runs in the top division of the Greek League. They were promoted to Alpha Ethniki for the first time in 1969 and stayed up for 6 years (1970 – 1975). They returned to top division in 1976 and played again for six seasons.

In 1982 the club were relegated to the Beta Ethniki (second tier of Greek football). After 11 years in Beta Ethniki and one year in Gamma Ethniki (third tier – 1988–89) they were promoted to Alpha Ethniki. There "black" period began for the team in which they played only in Beta Ethniki and Gamma Ethniki.

2009–2010 Season
Wilson Oruma
Charles Itandje

In 2009 they signed Miltiadis Sapanis and EURO 2004 winner Fanis Katergiannakis. Kavala were promoted for the first time in 9 years to Greeces top division. In their quest to remain in the top flight they have signed Pepe Reina's back up at Liverpool, Charles Itandje and recently acquired Brazilian Denílson (January 2010 transfer window) a 2002 World Cup Winner. Additional season signings include Craig Moore, Željko Kalac, Ebi Smolarek, Diogo Rincón, Sotiris Leontiou, Serge Dié, Wilson Oruma and Frédéric Mendy. This combined with coach Aad de Mos meant that Kavala set the league alight. They subsequently achieved notable victories in the 2009–2010 season against Iraklis FC, Panionios, AEK FC and Panathinaikos FC.

2010–2011 Season

Ending in 6th place, the team entered the transfer season. In July, the Spanish goalkeeper, Javier Lopez Vallejo (who played in Real Zaragoza) was added to the roster. The team's owner sought the new manager throughout Europe and settled on the Serbian coach Dragomir Okuka who lasted until November, when he was replaced by Henryk Kasperczak. In Kasperczak's debut as a coach, Kavala beat AEK, 2–1, in what was considered a very good appearance.

But in March 2011, Kasperczak, retired as the coach of this team, and he was replaced by Ioannis Matzourakis, who was the coach in Kavala FC team in the seasons 1985–1986. Kavala finished 7th and later faced the threat of relegation to Football League (Greece) due to the match-fixing scandal.[3] After an appeal, the team managed to avoid relegation by starting the new league with 8 points less.[4] On 23 August, however, the Professional Sports Committee stripped both Kavala and Olympiakos Volou from their professional licence and demoted them to the Delta Ethniki.[5]

2011–2012 Season

Kavala competed in Delta Ethniki Group 1. They only finished 4th, but were promoted two divisions to the Football League for 2012/13 after it was ruled that their demotion to Delta Ethniki in 2011 was as a result of government intervention and should not have been implemented by the football authorities.[6]

2013–2014 Season

Ιn September 2013 Germans investors take the management of Kavala F.C..The agreement provides that the new investors will "catch" and a significant part of its debts to old players.

Indeed, the Germans will be able to buy a majority stake of the shares of FC paying €500,000 clause of the first season and €700,000 for the second, respectively.

Crest

The emblem of the club is the ancient trireme, as architecture engineer Christos Batsis designed it. According to the instigator of the emblem of Kavala, the boat is a trireme, where the oars are the footballers, the cloth the administration and the fancy the fans of the club. These three elements together lead Kavala to the harbors that are the targets the team puts each time. All of this certainly has to do with the fact that Kavala is a coastal city and its world closely related to the wet element. The original element of the emblem of Kavala was hanging on the door of the design of the late Christos Batsis until he died.

For a while, the emblem contained the then name of the "Puma Nea Kavala Football Club" team.

  • Old crest.
  • Puma's crest.
  • Current crest.

Stadium
Anthi Karagianni Stadium

The Anthi Karagianni Municipal Stadium (Greek: Δημοτικό Στάδιο Ανθή Καραγιάννη), formerly the Kavala National Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kavala, Greece. It is the homebase of Kavala FC. The stadium was built in 1970, and currently has a seating capacity of 10,500. It is named after the paralympic athlete, Anthi Karagianni, who won three silver medals in the 2004 Paralympic Games.

Players

Current squad
As of 13 January 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 GK Giorgos Dimizas
2 DF Giannis Kazantzidis
3 DF Panagiotis Arnaoutoglou
6 DF Angelos Papasterianos (third-captain)
8 MF Vasilis Gavriilidis (captain)
9 FW Konstantinos Markopoulos
10 FW Okan Suleiman (on loan from Xanthi)
11 FW Rafail Melissopoulos
12 MF Vangelis Kerthi
14 FW Georgios Tsolakidis
15 GK Christos Siamatas
16 FW Christos Dourtmes
17 DF Manolis Bregu
No. Position Player
18 MF Dimitrios Thomaidis (vice-captain)
19 DF Lazaros Orfanidis
20 GK Konstantinos Papapostolou
21 MF Pavlos Katharios
22 DF Apostolos Stikas
23 MF Giorgos Maidanos
24 MF Petros Orfanidis
25 GK Giannis Papadopoulos
27 DF Vasilios Koutsoumpas
28 FW Vasilis Papadopoulos
30 FW Georgios Skatharoudis
— FW Aristidis Kokkoris

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
— FW Georgios Pavlidis (at Aetos Orfano until 30 June 2020)

Personnel
Pavlos Dermitzakis was appointed manager in 2018
Technical staff
President Giorgos Loupelis
Curator of Football Argyris Spanidis

Coaching Staff

[7]

Coaches
Ioannis Topalidis, manager in 2013
Aad de Mos, manager from 2009 until 2010

Record players
Name Apps
Georgios Mallios154
Georgios Koltsis118
Georgios Peglis112
Konstantinos Vakirtzis107
Anestis Athanasiadis107
Leszek Pisz99
Kyrillos Kallimanis90
Ivan Mitev84
Anastasios Tsapanidis82
Panagiotis Logaras75
Name Goals
Leszek Pisz26
Benjamin Onwuachi24
Nikos Soultanidis23
Anestis Athanasiadis21
Georgios Papandreou21
Georgios Nasiopoulos19
Georgios Mallios8
Bartosz Tarachulski8
Serge Dié7
Dimitrios Orfanos7

Source:

Honours

Domestic

Leagues
  • Football League (Second Division)
Winners (4): 1966–67, 1968–69, 1975–76, 1995–96
Winners (2): 2007–08, 2018–19

Cups
  • Kavala FCA Cup
Winners (1): 2017–18

Achievements
  • Greek Cup
    • Semi-finals (3): 1964–65, 1994–95, 2009–10

League Participation
  • Super League Greece: 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011
  • Football League: 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014, 2019–present
  • Gamma Ethniki: 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–2019
  • Delta Ethniki: 2011–2012

League history
  • 1965 – 69: Division 2
  • 1969 – 75: Division 1
  • 1975 – 76: Division 2
  • 1976 – 82: Division 1
  • 1982 – 89: Division 2
  • 1989 – 90: Division 3
  • 1990 – 94: Division 2
  • 1994 – 95: Division 1
  • 1995 – 96: Division 2
  • 1996 – 00: Division 1
  • 2000 – 01: Division 2
  • 2001 – 02: Division 3
  • 2002 – 03: Division 2
  • 2003 – 08: Football League 2
  • 2008 – 09: Football League
  • 2009 – 11: Super League
  • 2011 – 12: Delta Ethniki
  • 2012 – 14: Football League
  • 2014 – 15: Gamma Ethniki
  • 2015 – 16: Gamma Ethniki
  • 2016 – 17: Gamma Ethniki
  • 2017 – 18: Gamma Ethniki
  • 2018 – 19: Gamma Ethniki
  • 2019 – 20: Beta Ethniki

Sources:[8][9]

References
  1. Kavala FC uefa.com
  2. "Kavala's History". Archived from the original on 2009-05-21.
  3. "Relegation for Olympiakos Volou and Kavala" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  4. "Olympiakos Volou and Kavala escape relegation" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  5. "Olympiakos Volou and Kavala to Delta Ethniki" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  6. http://www.epo.gr/News.aspx?a_id=43060&NewsType=21
  7. "Coaching".
  8. Abbink, Dinant & Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2003-08-07). "Greece – Final Tables 1959–1999". RSSSF.
  9. Abbink, Dinant & Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2005-05-18). "Greece – List of Second Level Final Tables". RSSSF.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.