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. 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
OwnerGiorgos Mirtsos
ChairmanSotiris Delikaris
ManagerKonstantinos Anyfantakis
LeagueFootball League Greece
2019–20Football League Greece, 6th
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 28 July 2020

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF  GRE Giannis Kazantzidis (third-captain)
8 MF  GRE Vasilis Gavriilidis (captain)
12 MF  GRE Vangelis Kerthi
14 FW  GRE Georgios Tsolakidis
15 GK  GRE Christos Siamatas
18 MF  GRE Dimitrios Thomaidis (vice-captain)
20 GK  GRE Konstantinos Papapostolou
22 DF  GRE Apostolos Stikas
24 MF  GRE Petros Orfanidis
— GK  GRE Ilias Kyritsis
— GK  GRE Dimitris Politis
— GK  GRE Panagiotis Stathakis (on loan from Xanthi)
No. Pos. Nation Player
— DF  GRE Aristotelis Kollaras
— DF  GRE Dimosthenis Tenekes (on loan from Xanthi)
— DF  GRE Fotis Pantekidis
— DF  GRE Rafail Gialamoudis
— MF  GRE Konstantinos Georgakopoulos (on loan from Xanthi)
— FW  GRE Aristidis Kokkoris
— FW  GRE Georgios Pavlidis
— FW  BRA Leonardo Belmani
— FW  GRE Lefteris Papadopoulos
— FW  GRE Christos Kollas
— FW  GRE Nikos Valavanopoulos

Personnel
Technical staff
President Giorgos Loupelis
Curator of Football Argyris Spanidis

Coaching Staff

[7]

Notable Managers


The following managers won at least one national trophy when in charge of Kavala F.C.:

Name Period Trophies
Jane Janevski 1975–1977 Football League
Georgios Paraschos 1995–1996 Football League
Stratos Voutsakelis 2007–2008 Gamma Ethniki
Konstantinos Anyfantakis 2017–2018 Kavala FCA Cup
Pavlos Dermitzakis 2018–2019 Gamma Ethniki

Most Serving Managers
Name Period Days
Béla Pálfi 1969–1975 2065
Georgios Paraschos 1995–1997, 1999–2000 941
Vassilis Daniil 1979–1981 911
Pavlos Dermitzakis 2018–2020 730
Jane Janevski 1995–1997 730

Record players
Name Apps
Georgios Mallios171
Georgios Koltsis124
Konstantinos Vakirtzis117
Georgios Peglis114
Anestis Athanasiadis109
Leszek Pisz101
Kyrillos Kallimanis91
Ivan Mitev85
Anastasios Tsapanidis82
Panagiotis Logaras79
Name Goals
Leszek Pisz26
Benjamin Onwuachi24
Nikos Soultanidis23
Anestis Athanasiadis22
Giorgos Papandreou21
Georgios Nasiopoulos19
Georgios Mallios10
Bartosz Tarachulski8
Serge Dié7
Dimitrios Orfanos7

Source:

Honours

Leagues
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 (19): 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011
  • Football League (24): 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014, 2019–present
  • Gamma Ethniki (12): 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–2019
  • Delta Ethniki (1): 2011–2012

League history

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.