Ethnikos Piraeus Water Polo Club is the professional water polo team of Ethnikos OFPF (meaning: National Club of Fans of Piraeus and Phalerum, in Greek: Εθνικός Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς Φαλήρου).
Ethnikos is one of the most successful and traditional water polo clubs in Greece. They held (from 22/9/1957 up to 23/5/2025) the record for the most Greek water polo championships with 38. They have alson won 12 Greek water polo cups achieving 9 times the Double and 11 times the Central Greece Championship. Ethnikos has the unique record of winning 18 championships in a row (from 1953 to 1970) and the second most with 14 in a row (from 1972 to 1985). Ethnikos holds the unique record for the most unbeaten championships with 291926, 1931, 1948, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988 (from which 11 are consecutive, which is also a record) and the record for consecutive years staying unbeaten in a domestic match (13 years, from September 1951 to August 1964). Also, the club holds the record for most championships won exclusively with wins (19, 10 of which are consecutive, also a record).
The dominance of Ethnikos along with his longstanding records led to his given nickname, the “Emperor”.
The men's team was the first Greek club to reach the eight (1966) and four (1980) best teams in Europe. The team has been in the top-8 teams in Europe another eight times (1970, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1995).
The women's team won the LEN Trophy in 2010 and repeated its triumph in 2022 to become the Greek team with the most LEN Trophies.
Many great players have played for Ethnikos throughout the years. The Greece men's national water polo team for many years consisted of Ethnikos players that have participated in the Olympics. The greatest personality in the history of the club is Andreas Garifallos, player, coach and president. In the Kastella neighborhood of Piraeus, the swimming pool bears his name in honour of his contribution to Piraeus and Greece water polo. Other great players that have played for Ethnikos are Ioannis Garifallos, Giannis Karalogos, Thomas Karalogos, Nondas Samartzidis, Kyriakos Iosifidis, Markellos Sitarenios, Sotirios Stathakis, Evangelos Patras, Konstantinos Kokkinakis, Filippos Kaiafas, Theodoros Kalakonas, Dimitrios Mazis, Christos Afroudakis, Antonios Aronis, Dimitrios Konstas, Dimitrios Kougevetopoulos, Antonios Vlontakis, Gerasimos Voltirakis, Anastasios Schizas, Chris Humbert, Wolf Wigo, Ashleigh Johnson, Iefke van Belkum, Stephania Haralabidis, Ioanna Haralabidis, Maria Tsouri, Aikaterini Oikonomopoulou, Sofia Iosifidou, Marina Canetti
Men's team
Summary Ethnikos dominated in Greek Water Polo championship for decades. During last years its power has been limited, and it has been relegated to the second division (A2 Ethniki) twice in 2009 and 2012. In 1980, Ethnikos became the first Greek team to reach the Final-4 of LEN Champions League (the elite European club competition). Besides that, Ethnikos has reached the final-8 nine times.1966, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1995. In 2003 the team took the third place in LEN Trophy (second tier European club competition). The club has an eternal rivalry with Olympiacos, the other club from Piraeus. The match between the two is dubbed as the “Piraeus derby”. Ethnikos had won six consecutive Greek cups (four of them against Olympiacos in the final) before the competition had a hiatus of 25 years that stopped Ethnikos from winning many more trophies and achieving more doubles.
1925–1940 (Pre WWII years) The club's first championship was won in 1926 under SEGAS with Ethnikos winning it undefeated with four wins in as many matches against N.O. Kastellas, Iraklis Thessaloniki, Aris Thessaloniki and Panionios Smyrna.
On July 31, 1927 Ethnikos was defeated in the final by Olympiakos 3–2 in a match that he appealed for a late goal scored by its opponent which led to extra time. The referee canceled the match as the timekeepers had tried to inform him of the end of the match (after all the score was at the time 2–1 in favor of Ethnikos). A replay was set for the third day of August but never took place. After days and meetings of the sports department of SEGAS with representatives of the two teams, a rematch is set to take place on the 16th of August. In the end, this match will not take place either, since Olympiacos insists on the opinion that they won the match, so it should be declared champion, while the Ethnikos side, since they are not given the title, since they consider that the match was over before Olympiacos equalized, agreed to play a replay match. On the 16th of the same month a meeting was held, where the Board of Directors of SEGAS cancelled the referee's decision to cancel the match on the 31st of July, and declares Olympiacos champion without a playoff match.
The first championship after the establishment of KOE (National Swimming Federation) came in 1931 with Ethnikos conquering it again undefeated by defeating the then three-time consecutive champion Aris Thessaloniki in the final with 1–0. The 1931 team consisted of Petroutsos, Dede, Perdikis, Mavrogeorgos, Makris, Stephopoulos, Hatzigeorgiou. The leading player of the team was Petroutsos, one of the leading pre-war swimmers along with Zografos of Aris and Provatopoulos of Olympiakos. Ethnikos on its way to the final beat P.A.O.K. (6–0), Iraklis Thessaloniki (3–1) and NO Patras in the semi-final (3–0).
In 1932, Ethnikos will not be able to defend its title since the federation will expel Ethnikos and Olympiakos from the championship due to major incidents in the match between them.
In 1933 and 1934 Ethnikos will lose the title in the final to Olympiakos (4–2 the score in both years) while in 1935 he will not participate in the games in Mytilini due to his punishment by KOE for not playing the decisive play-off match with Olympiakos for the final qualification ticket.
In 1936 and 1938 he will lose to Olympiakos in the first round and will be eliminated from the competition (then the championship had a knock out system).
In 1937, he will come second again, losing 3–2 in the final to NO Patras despite leading at halftime with 1–0.
In 1940 he will be defeated by KO Piraeus (1–0) in the first match and will be eliminated.
1945–1952 (First post WWII years) In the years 1945 and 1946 he will be ranked third. In 1945, he was eliminated after losing (4–1) to Olympiacos, while in 1946 he lost 4–2 to Olympiakos and 3–2 to the eventual champion NO Patras.
The third championship came 17 years after the second, in 1948, with Ethnikos winning it undefeated (wins over NO Patras 5–0, Aris 1–0, Olympiakos 5–1, NAO Kerkyra 5–0, NO Chalkida 7–2 and a draw against NO Mytilinis, 2–2). The coach of the team was Takis Sakellariou who played a modern and fast water polo in contrast to Olympiakos and NO Patras who played a physical and with less movement water polo.
In 1949, Ethnikos would lose the championship due to a draw with Palaio Faliro and a 3–1 loss to Olympiakos in a match where they played without their big gun, Andreas Garifallos due to injury.
In 1950, he lost to NO Patras and Olympiakos, finishing third.
In 1951 he would lose the title due to his defeat by Olympiakos with 2–1, while in 1952 he was very close to the title but the victory of Olympiakos with 3–2 over NO Patras combined with the draw of Ethnikos with the team from Patras (2–2) and the "suicide" of Ethnikos in the match against Olympiakos (3–3) while leading at half-time with 2–0, will lead the title to the "red and whites".
1953–1986 (Domestic Dynasty) In the following season, Ethnikos started his dynasty and won the championship undefeated for the first time after 5 years, achieving 4 wins and 1 draw in 5 games (3–3 with P. Faliro, victory over Mytilini, 10–1 victory over Achilleas Patras, 10–3 over Aris and 5–1 over Olympiakos on 18/9/1953 in front of an audience of 5,000 spectators at the Zappeion Olympic swimming pool).
From 1953 to 1963, the blue and whites of Piraeus won 11 consecutive undefeated championships, a record that has not happened in any other sport. In the period 1953 to 1958 he won six consecutive cups before the competition discontinued.
During the 1950s, he began a long unbeaten streak in league games, which lasted 13 years, a record that remains to this day. In particular, after losing 2–1 to Olympiakos on September 21, 1951, they were defeated again by the same opponent on August 7, 1964 with 5–4. In between he remained unbeaten in 75 matches, where he won 71 while 4 ended in draws. The last draw was recorded in a match against Palaio Faliro on September 19, 1953. After this match, a winning streak began, which lasted for 11 years and 64 league matches until the defeat in 1964.
The 115 consecutive unbeaten domestic matches (including Central Championship and Greek Cup matches) were: