Superleague Greece

History

Between 1905 and 1912, a Panhellenic Championship was organised by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics (SEGAS). This championship was actually a local tournament among clubs from Athens and Piraeus.

After the Balkan Wars and World War I, two football associations were formed, one organising a football league in Athens and Piraeus, and one doing the same in Thessaloniki. These were the Athens-Piraeus FCA (EPSAP) and the Macedonia FCA (EPSM). In 1923, a Panhellenic Champion was determined by a play-off game between the Athens-Piraeus and the Thessaloniki champions. Peiraikos Syndesmos won 3-1 against Aris Thessaloniki. This panhellenic final was not repeated the following year as the EPSAP was split into the Athens FCA (EPSA) and Piraeus FCA (EPSP) following a dispute.

In 1927, a national championship was organised in the form of a round-robin tournament between the champions of the three governing bodies. This time, Aris Thessaloniki won, finishing ahead of Ethnikos Piraeus and Atromitos. This national championship was set up again in 1929, and over the next years evolved into a tournament in which multiple teams took part. Still, these teams had to qualify for the national championship through their local football competitions.

In 1959 the Alpha Ethniki - the precursor of the current Superleague - was set up as a national round-robin tournament.

Structure

At present, 16 clubs compete in the Superleague, playing each other in a home and away series. At the end of the season, the bottom three clubs are relegated to Football League. In their place, the top three teams from Football League are promoted. The number of teams to be relegated may change, depending on a licensing procedure that takes place at the end of the regular season. The league was reduced from 18 teams to 16 following the 2014–15 season; this was accomplished by relegating four teams and promoting only two.

The Superleague is currently entitled to two entrants into the UEFA Champions League. The Superleague champion directly enters the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. The second through fifth place teams in the Superleague enter a play-off for the second Greek entry. The play-off winner enters the UEFA Champions League's third qualifying round, a two-legged tie from which the winner advances to the play offs of the UEFA Champions League. The winner of the Greek Cup automatically qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, as well as the runners-up of the Superleague play-off.

In the play-off for the UEFA Champions League, the teams play each other in a home and away round robin. However, they do not all start with 0 points. Instead, a weighting system applies to the teams' standing at the start of the play-off mini-league. The team finishing fifth in the Superleague will start the play off with 0 points. The fifth place team’s end of season tally of points is used to calculate the sum of the points that other teams will have. The point difference of each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th team from the fifth place team is then divided by five (if the result is a decimal number it is then rounded to a full number, with .5 or more being rounded up) and the resulting number respectively for each team is the number of points with which they will start the mini-league.

Champions

Performance by city (1959–)

The 5 clubs that have won the championship are from a total of 4 cities:

Seasons in Alpha Ethniki and Superleague Greece

The number of seasons that each team (in alphabetical order) has played in the top division from 1959–60 until 2015–16. A total of 67 teams had competed in at least one season at the top division. Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK are the only teams to have played in the top division in every season since the league's inception in its modern form. The teams in Bold participate in the 2016–17 Superleague Greece.

Top Division Table (since 1959–60)

This index is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Alpha Ethniki and Superleague championships since 1959–60. The table is correct as of the end of the 2011–12 season. Points are based on 3–1–0 and no deductions are counted.

Note: Ionikos had 5 points deduction in 2006-2007 season.

League or status at 2015–16 in Greek football:

Per geographic region

All the geographic regions of Greece have been represented by at least one club in the first national division. Central Greece has had the strongest presence with 25 clubs overall, of which 21 come from Attica alone. Central Greece, Macedonia and the Peloponnese together contain almost three quarters of the clubs that participated in the top flight. Until 1974, five Cypriot clubs also participated in the Greek top competition. The Greek islands of Rhodes, Lesbos and Corfu have also been represented. A total of 73 clubs have participated at the first tier so far.

The Golden Star

Based on an idea of Umberto Agnelli, the honor of Golden Star for Sports Excellence was introduced to recognize sides that have won multiple championships or other honours by the display of gold stars on their team badges and jerseys.

The current officially-sanctioned SuperLiga stars are:

UEFA ranking

As of 17 August 2015, The Greek Superleague ranks 13th in the UEFA coefficient Database, with 26.200 points.

Current national league ranking

1. La Liga
2. Premier League
3. Bundesliga
4. Serie A
5. Portuguese Liga
6. Ligue 1
7. Russian Premier League
8. Ukrainian Premier League
9. Eredivisie
10. Belgian First Division
11. Swiss Super League
12. Süper Lig
13. Super League Greece
14. Czech First League

Broadcasting rights

Nova Sports (premium channel) have taken the broadcasting rights for all the teams of the Superleague Greece for €176 million until 2019.

A new agreement between Nova Sports (premium channel) and the Superleague clubs was finalised in the summer of 2011 for €168 million until 2015.

Eurosport has pan-European broadcasting rights for the Superleague Greece (except Greece and Portugal).