Panionios Athens

Panionios Athens
	Panionios Athens
Basic data
Surname	PAE Panionios Gymnastikos ; Syllogos Smyrnis
Seat	Nea Smyrni
founding	January 1, 1890
president	Georgios Katsifarakis
Website	panioniosfc.gr
First soccer team
Head coach	José Anigo
Venue	Nea Smyrni
Places	11,700
league	Super League
2018/19	6th place

Panionios Athens is a Greek sports club from Nea Smyrni . In addition to a football , basketball and volleyball department , Panionios also offers handball , judo , athletics , chess , swimming , gymnastics and water polo . After Panathinaikos and AEK , Panionios is Athens' largest and most popular club.

The association was founded on January 1, 1890 . It was an initiative of a hundred men from the Orpheas music association . They wanted to offer sporting activities for young people and adults in Smyrna (now Izmir ) in Asia Minor. After just one year, the association had over 1,000 members. After Smyrna was captured by the Turkish army in 1922, the Panionios association was founded by expellees in the new Athens district of Nea Smyrni .

Soccer

After the Second World War, Panionios built a new stadium called Nea Smyrni.

In December 2001 the club was restructured into a professional football organization called Panionios NFC.

In December 2004, the Greek public prosecutor's office and UEFA investigated the UEFA Cup group match between Panionios Athens and Dinamo Tbilisi . It was about the suspicion of match-fixing. British bookmakers had registered high stakes on a Georgian leadership at break and a victory for the Greeks, which also happened: Tbilisi was 1-0 ahead during the break, but Panionios still won 5-2. However, the initial suspicion could not be substantiated.

A point game between Panionios and Olympiacos Piraeus could not start on January 9, 2004 because of serious riots and was not repeated. For both teams, the game that was not played was scored with zero points.

Panionios team bus

Former head coach Ewald Lienen

In the riots between rival fan groups from both clubs, 13 police officers and one spectator were injured. On January 15, 2005, both clubs were severely punished by the Greek Association for the excesses of the spectators. Olympiakos had to pay 300,000 euros, Panionios 110,000 euros after a decision by the EPO football association. In addition, three points were deducted from both teams and spectators were not allowed in the following four home games of the clubs.

Since the 2006/07 season, the German Ewald Lienen was the head coach at Panionios Athens. On November 11, 2008, Ewald Lienen terminated his contract prematurely.