The 2000 Greek Cup final was the 56th final of the Greek Cup. The match took place on 10 May 2000 at the Olympic Stadium. The contesting teams were AEK Athens and Ionikos.[1] It was AEK Athens' sixteenth Greek Cup final in their 76 years of existence and Ionikos' first-ever Greek Cup final of their 35-year history. A remarkable moment of the match was at 32nd minute while the score was 0–0, AEK Athens took the lead with Demis Nikolaidis scoring with his hand. The referee did not realize the violation and ran towards the center of the pitch, but the player approached him and told him that he should not count the goal, explaining what exactly had happened. As a result, the goal was canceled and Nikolaidis was shown a yellow card for handball. Nikolaidis was later honored for his fair play by the International Olympic Committee.[2]
This was the fourteenth Greek Cup final held at the Athens Olympic Stadium, after the 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999 finals.
AEK Athens had reached the Greek Cup final fifteen times, winning nine of them. The last time that they had played in a final was in 1997, where they had won against Panathinaikos by 5–3 on a penalty shootout, which came after a 0–0 draw at the end of the extra time.
Ionikos had never competed in a Cup final.
The two teams had never met each other in a Cup final.[4]
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