The 2010–11 Super League Greece was the 75th season of the highest football league of Greece and the fifth under the name Super League. The league consisted of 16 teams, the 13 best teams of the 2009–10 season and three teams that had been promoted from the 2009–10 Beta Ethniki.
The season began on 27 August 2010 with the first matches of the regular season and ended on 25 May 2011 with the last matches of the European playoff round. Panathinaikos were the defending champions, having won their 20th Greek championship in the 2009–10 season. The season was marred by Koriopolis, a match-fixing scandal which involved several teams from the top three leagues of Greek football.
Season overview
Title race The league was won by Olympiacos, who earned their 38th Greek league title. They finished with a 13-point lead over runners-up Panathinaikos, who had to compete in a play-off round which determined the exact allocation of spots for both European competitions.
Panathinaikos was joined in the play-offs by third-placed club and city rivals AEK Athens, fourth-placed PAOK and fifth-placed Olympiacos Volos. Panathinaikos eventually won the play-off group and thus earned the second Greek spot in the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League. Since AEK had already won the 2010–11 Greek Cup competition a few weeks earlier and thus were already qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League, both PAOK and Olympiacos Volos were guaranteed a spot in that competition as well.
Relegation
After thirty matches, the relegation spots were occupied by 14th-placed Asteras Tripolis, 15th-placed AEL and last-placed Panserraikos. However, all three clubs eventually stayed in the league after Iraklis Thessaloniki, Kavala and Olympiacos Volos were demoted by separate sports court decisions.
On 19 May 2011, Iraklis Thessaloniki were denied a licence for the 2011–12 season over unpaid debts and thus demoted to the second-level Football League. Soon afterwards, the Thessaloniki club was found guilty of having forged documents during the winter transfer window and put at the end of the standings.
A few days after the Iraklis verdict, it became evident that several clubs and officials throughout the top leagues of Greek football were involved in a match-fixing scandal. Investigations in the matter were taken all summer. On 28 July 2011, Kavala and Olympiacos Volos were found guilty of having taken part in illegal actions and were therefore demoted to the Football League. However, both clubs appealed to the decision and they stayed in the Super League Greece, though they were deducted 8 and 10 points respectively. On 11 August 2011, UEFA disqualified Olympiacos Volos from further participation in the UEFA Europa League. On 23 August 2011, the Professional Sports Committee stripped Kavala and Olympiacos Volos of their professional licence due to their chairmen's involvement in the scandal.
Teams Levadiakos, PAS Giannina and Panthrakikos had been relegated at the end of the 2009–10 season after finishing in the bottom three places of the league table. Levadiakos concluded a four-year run in the highest football league of Greece. Panthrakikos finished a two-year tenure with the league, while PAS Giannina had to return to the Football League, formerly known as Beta Ethniki, after just one season.
The three relegated teams were replaced by 2009–10 Beta Ethniki champions Olympiacos Volos, runners-up Kerkyra and promotion playoff winners Panserraikos. Olympiacos Volos returned to the Greek top football level after 20 seasons. Kerkyra ended a three-year absence from the Super League, while Panserraikos immediately returned to the league.
Promoted from2009–10 Beta Ethniki Relegated from2009–10 Super League Greece Olympiacos VolosKerkyraPanserraikos LevadiakosPAS GianninaPanthrakikos
Stadiums and locations
ClubLocationVenueCapacity2009–10AEK Athens Athens Athens Olympic Stadium 69,638 3rd AEL Larissa AEL FC ArenaAEL moved to AEL FC Arena upon its completion in December 2010. Previous matches were hosted at Alcazar Stadium 17,118 8th Aris Thessaloniki Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium 22,800 4th Asteras Tripolis Tripoli Asteras Tripolis Stadium 6,430 12th Atromitos Athens Peristeri Stadium 8,939 7th Ergotelis Heraklion Pankritio Stadium 26,240 11th Iraklis Thessaloniki Kaftanzoglio Stadium 27,560 10th Kavala Kavala Anthi Karagianni Stadium 12,500 6th Kerkyra Corfu Kerkyra Stadium 2,685 2nd (BE) Olympiacos Piraeus Karaiskakis Stadium 33,334 5th Olympiacos Volos Volos Panthessaliko Stadium 22,700 1st (BE) Panathinaikos Athens Athens Olympic Stadium 69,638 1st Panionios Athens Nea Smyrni Stadium 11,700 9th Panserraikos Serres Serres Municipal Stadium 9,500 3rd (BE) PAOK Thessaloniki Toumba Stadium 28,703 2nd Skoda Xanthi Xanthi Skoda Xanthi Arena 7,361 13rd
Notes
Personnel and kits Team Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsor AEK Athens Manolo Jiménez Pantelis Kafes Puma Κino AEL Nikos Kostenoglou Nikos Dabizas Adidas Pame Stoixima Aris Sakis Tsiolis Michalis Sifakis Under Armour Κino Asteras Tripolis Pavlos Dermitzakis Adrián Bastía Lotto Lotto Atromitos Georgios Donis Konstantinos Nebegleras Asics Lotto Ergotelis Nikos Karageorgiou Silva Júnior Lotto Lotto Iraklis Georgios Paraschos Anastasios Katsabis Legea Tzoker Kavala Giannis Mantzourakis Serge Dié Puma Extra 5 Kerkyra Božidar Bandović Ieroklis Stoltidis Puma Tzoker Olympiacos Ernesto Valverde Antonios Nikopolidis Puma Pame Stoixima Olympiacos Volos Makis Katsavakis Leandro Álvarez Puma ProPo Panathinaikos Jesualdo Ferreira Giorgos Karagounis Adidas Cosmote Panionios Takis Lemonis Fanouris Goundoulakis Diadora Attica Bank Panserraikos Pavlos Dimitriou Anastasios Papazoglou Mass Sport Proto PAOK Makis Chavos Kostas Chalkias Puma Pame Stoixima Skoda Xanthi Nikos Papadopoulos Konstantinos Fliskas Nike Emporiki Bank
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointment Skoda Xanthi Nikos Kechagias 20 September 2010 14th Georgios Paraschos 20 September 2010 AEK Athens Dušan Bajević 26 September 2010 13th Bledar Kola (caretaker) 26 September 2010 Bledar Kola (caretaker) 8 October 2010 7th Manolo Jiménez 8 October 2010 PAOK Pavlos Dermitzakis 17 October 2010 12th Makis Chavos 18 October 2010 Panionios Mikael Stahre 28 October 2010 15th Akis Mantzios (caretaker) 28 October 2010 Skoda Xanthi Georgios Paraschos 8 November 2010 15th Nikos Papadopoulos 14 November 2010 Panionios Akis Mantzios (caretaker) 7 November 2010 16th Georgios Paraschos 8 November 2010 Panathinaikos Nikos Nioplias 15 November 2010 2nd Jacek Gmoch (caretaker) 15 November 2010 Kavala Dragan Okuka 16 November 2010 5th Henryk Kasperczak 17 November 2010 Panionios Georgios Paraschos 17 November 2010 16th Akis Mantzios (caretaker) 17 November 2010 Panathinaikos Jacek Gmoch (caretaker) 20 November 2010 2nd Jesualdo Ferreira 21 November 2010 AEL Giannis Papakostas 29 November 2010 16th Kostas Katsaras (caretaker) 30 November 2010 Kerkyra Babis Tennes 30 November 2010 13th Božidar Bandović 30 November 2010 Panionios Akis Mantzios (caretaker) 9 December 2010 15th Takis Lemonis 10 December 2010 AEL Kostas Katsaras (caretaker) 16 December 2010 16th Jorn Andersen 17 December 2010 Jorn Andersen 9 January 2011 16th Nikos Kostenoglou 10 January 2011 Asteras Tripolis Vangelis Vlachos 17 January 2011 13th Pavlos Dermitzakis 21 January 2011 Aris Héctor Cúper 18 January 2011 10th Giannis Michalitsos 19 January 2011 Giannis Michalitsos 7 March 2011 11th Sakis Tsiolis 11 March 2011
Regular season
League table
Results
Play-offs In the play-off for Champions League, the four teams play each other in a home and away round robin. However, they do not all start with 0 points. Instead, a weighting system applies to the teams' standing at the start of the play-off mini-league. The team finishing fifth in the Super League will start the play-off with 0 points. The fifth placed team's end of season tally of points is subtracted from the sum of the points that other teams have. This number is then divided by five and rounded to the nearest whole number of points, if necessary, to give the other teams the points with which they start the mini-league.
Fifth-placed club Olympiacos Volos earned 47 points during the regular season. Based on this number and the calculations above, Panathinaikos as runners-up will began the play-offs with three points ((60–47)/5 = 2.6, rounded up to 3), while AEK Athens started with one point ((50–47)/5 = 0.6, rounded up to 1) and PAOK with no points ((48–47)/5 = 0.2, rounded down to 0).
Season statistics
Top scorers
Including matches played on 17 April 2011; Source: Soccerway
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Djibril Cissé Panathinaikos202 Kevin Mirallas Olympiacos143 David Fuster Olympiacos134 Rafik Djebbour AEK Athens / Olympiacos125 Benjamin Onwuachi Kavala106 Ismael Blanco AEK Athens9 Denis Epstein Kerkyra9 Kostas Mitroglou Olympiacos / Panionios9 Marko Pantelić Olympiacos9 Ignacio Scocco AEK Athens9
Top assists RankPlayerClubAssists1 Djamel Abdoun Kavala8 Javier Umbides Olympiacos Volos8 Albert Riera Olympiacos84 Kostas Katsouranis Panathinaikos6 Djibril Cissé Panathinaikos6 Ariel Ibagaza Olympiacos6
Awards
MVP and Best Goal Awards
Matchday MVP Best Goal Ref 1st Vicente Monje (Olympiacos Volos) Athanasios Tsigas (Kerkyra) 2nd Albert Riera (Olympiacos) Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens) 3rd Djamel Abdoun (Kavala) Ignacio Scocco (AEK Athens) 4th Javier Umbides (Olympiacos Volos) David Fuster (Olympiacos) 5th Javito (Aris) Leonardo (AEK Athens) 6th Ignacio Scocco (AEK Athens) 7th Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK) Jean-Claude Darcheville (Kavala) 8th Djibril Cissé (Panathinaikos) Nikolaos Lazaridis (Aris) 9th Kevin Mirallas (Olympiacos) 10th Andreas Tatos (Atromitos) Daniel Cousin (AEL) 11th Djamel Abdoun (Kavala) Marcelinho (Skoda Xanthi) 12th Andreas Tatos (Atromitos) Kostas Kapetanos (Olympiacos Volos) 13th Pablo Contreras (PAOK) Pablo Lima (Iraklis) 14th Pablo García (PAOK) Neto (Aris) 15th Dimitrios Souanis (Skoda Xanthi) Manolis Papasterianos (Iraklis) 16th Ivica Majstorović (Kerkyra) Djibril Cissé (Panathinaikos) 17th Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos) Serge Dié (Kavala) 18th Kostas Mitroglou (Panionios) Albert Riera (Olympiacos) 19th Ilias Anastasakos (Atromitos) Benjamin Onwuachi (Kavala) 20th Leonardo (AEK Athens) Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens) 21st Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos) Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos) 22nd Djibril Cissé (Panathinaikos) Gustavinho (Olympiacos) 23rd Kevin Mirallas (Olympiacos) Kostas Kapetanos (Olympiacos Volos) 24th Djamel Abdoun (Kavala) Marius Niculae (Kavala) 25th Ignacio Scocco (AEK Athens) Mário Breška (Olympiacos Volos) 26th Vitolo (PAOK) Antonis Petropoulos (Panathinaikos) 27th Stelios Sfakianakis (Atromitos) Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (Panathinaikos) 28th Dimitrios Siovas (Panionios) Georgios Georgiadis (Panserraikos) 29th Christos Kalantzis ( Kerkyra) Neto (Aris) 30th Antonios Nikopolidis (Olympiacos) Mário Breška (Olympiacos Volos)
Annual awards Annual awards were announced on 18 January 2012
Award Winner Club Greek Player of the Season Avram Papadopoulos Olympiacos Foreign Player of the Season Vieirinha PAOK Young Player of the Season Giannis Fetfatzidis Olympiacos Goalkeeper of the Season Michalis Sifakis Aris Golden Boot Djibril Cissé Panathinaikos Manager of the Season Ernesto Valverde Olympiacos
Attendances
Olympiacos drew the highest average home attendance in the 2010–11 edition of the Super League Greece.
References
External links Official website