| Greek League (1st tier) | |
|---|---|
| SEGAS Championship/Panhellenic Championship (1905–1927) | |
| Panhellenic Championship (1927–1959) | |
| Alpha Ethniki/Super League Greece 1 (1959–present) | |
| Country | |
 Greece | |
| Founded | |
| 1905 (SEGAS), 1921 (Greek FCA), 1927 (HFF) | |
| Number of teams | |
| 14 (since 2019–20) | |
| Current champions | |
| AEK Athens (2022–23) | |
| Most successful club | |
| Olympiacos Piraeus (47 championships) | |
| Current: 2023–24 Super League Greece |
Titles won by club (%)
The Greek football champions are the winners of Super League Greece, the highest professional football league in Greece. Officially the title has been contested since the season 1927–28, in various forms of competition, officially bearing the Super League name since 2006–07. AEK Athens are the current title holders, having won in 2022–23. [1]
Contents
- Performance by club (1928–)
- Champions
- The first attempts
- SEGAS Championship, Greece FCA Championship and EPSE Championship (1905–1927)
- HFF Panhellenic Championship (1927–1959)
- Alpha Ethniki – Amateur league (1959–1979)
- Alpha Ethniki – Professional league (1979–2006)
- Super League Greece (2006–present)
- Top three ranking
- References
- External links
Efforts to build a region–wide championship were established as early as 1898, when only the Football League First Division in England and the Swiss Serie A in Switzerland had been codified as nationwide, independent league tournaments. After the concept seemed to have faded by the turn of the 20th century, various championships, initially organised by the Hellenic Athletics Federation (known as SEGAS), were held from 1906 to 1912. However, it was put on hold at the start of the First Balkan War. After a 9–year hiatus following World War I and the Greco–Turkish War, it was revived, organised by the Greece Football Clubs Association (FCA), originally containing teams from Athens and Piraeus, beginning from the 1921–22 season.
Despite efforts to host a national final between the Greek FCA champion and the Salonican teams' champion, the FCA collapsed thanks to secret deals that spawned new sports associations, such as Ethnikos Piraeus and Olympiacos. Its collapse led to the creation of two new FCA organisations, Athens Football Clubs Association and its Piraeus and Macedonian counterparts. Afterward, it would run as a nationwide championship until 1927.
In late 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) was officially formed under the supervision of SEGAS. Controversy ensued when three teams (Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, collectively known as P.O.K.) withdrew from the nationwide championship, citing disagreements over income distribution to championship teams. As the first championship under the HFF dwindled in income and size, the Federation conceded and the three teams were re–instated in July 1928.
In what was named the Panhellenic Championship, the regional champions formed a national group, from which the national champion was decided, with the title being decided in a final between regional champions until 1934. In this period, the P.O.K., primarily Olympiacos, won all but three championships, and all three teams greatly expanded their influence to become the dominant sides, often coming at odds with the HFF. After a hiatus in the Second World War, with German forces effectively dismantling the HFF and multiple attempts at a return failing, the HFF reorganised and hosted the Panhellenic Championship again from 1945–46 onward. Olympiacos would dominate in the post–war era, winning a record six consecutive championships from 1953 to the Championship's conclusion in 1959.
In the summer of 1959, the regional leagues were unified in a single, round–robin championship, a landmark in the history of Greek football. Since 1959–60, the top league has been formed in its current form, named Alpha Ethniki, with the league becoming professional from the 1979–80 season onward. The Alpha Ethniki name was kept until 2005–06, when Super League Greece was founded, with expansion of distribution deals and no expansion of the league format. The unified league era has been characterised by lengthy, successful dynasties, such as Panathinaikos' initial domination, with 8 titles from 1960 to 1972 and Olympiacos' dynasty from the 1990s onward, with the team winning 22 league titles from 1997 to 2022. AEL is a notable exception, becoming the only club from outside of Athens or Thessaloniki to win a league title, in 1988, under Jacek Gmoch, who had also won a league title with Panathinaikos in 1984.
Only six clubs have become champions since the HFF's inception, with tournaments prior to 1927 being non–recognised. Olympiacos has won the most titles, with forty–seven, the last being in 2022, followed by Panathinaikos with twenty, last won in 2010 and AEK Athens, last won in 2023. Rivals Aris Thessaloniki and PAOK have three titles each, last won in 1946 and 2019 respectively, while AEL won their singular league title in 1988. Aris Thessaloniki won the first HFF–sanctioned Panhellenic Championship in 1927–28, while Panathinaikos won the first Alpha Ethniki campaign in 1959–60. [2] AEK Athens, Aris Thessaloniki and AEL have all played in all professional tiers of the Greek football league system, while Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK have never been relegated, having partook in every Alpha Ethniki/Super League league season since its inception in 1959.
