AE Larisa (soccer)

AE Larisa
	AE Larisa
Basic data
Surname	Athlitiki Enosi Larisas 1964
Seat	Larisa
founding	17th May 1964
Colours	dark red
president	Konstantinos Piladakis
Website	ael.gr
First soccer team
Head coach	Nikos Kostenoglou
Venue	AEL FC Arena
Places	16,118
league	Super League
2018/19	10th place

AE Larisa ( Greek Αθλητική Ενωση Λάρισας / Athlitiki Enosi Larisas ) was founded in 1964 from an association of four Greek football clubs based in Larisa . In addition to the football department, the club also offers sports such as basketball (see AE Larisa (basketball) ), boxing, fencing, cycling and sport shooting.

history

AEL is the only Greek football club from the periphery (i.e. outside the metropolitan areas of Attica and Thessaloniki ) to ever win the Greek title. In 1972 the team played in the 1st Greek Football League for the first time, was temporarily promoted and relegated until they finally won the cup in 1984/85 and the championship in 1987/88. Some of the successful players at the time were: Giannis Galitsios , Georgios Mitsimponas, Michalis Ziogas, Ioannis Alexoulis and Vassilios Karapialis. The heraldic animal is the horse, which was also a symbol of the city of Larissa in ancient times, due to the most important horse breeding in Greece.

The blackest chapter in the club's history was written in the 2002/03 season, in which the team almost relegated to the 4th division.

The Alcazar Stadium has always been the venue for the "Dark Reds" ("Vissini"). The capacity is 13,050 seats, in AEL's best times they had a record audience of more than 18,000. In November 2010 the team moved to the new AEL FC Arena . The new football stadium can hold 16,000 spectators and is located in the Neapolis district.

AE Larissa has also played games at European level in the European Cup Winners' Cup , including against Sampdoria Genoa (1: 1, 0: 1), Dynamo Moscow (0: 0, 0: 1) and Servette Geneva (2: 1, 0: 1). Under the new President Piladakis, the association experienced its rebirth. The financially strong young entrepreneur led the team from its insignificance back into the premier league and caused new euphoria among the fans. In 2007 they even made it to the cup final, where they beat Panathinaikos Athens 2-1 and secured the trophy for the second time in the club's history.

In addition to strengthening the team, President Piladakis is promoting a new stadium. In the next few years, a new arena will be built in Larisa, which will offer 22,000 spectators and meet the highest demands.

In the 2010/11 season Larisa was relegated to the second division, later even only played third class until they could be promoted back to the second division after the 2013/14 season.