The 1979–80 season was the 56th season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the 21st consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki, the Greek Cup and the European Cup. The season began on 19 September 1979 and finished on 24 May 1980.
Kits
Overview
The enactment of law 879/79 from March 1979 led Greek football to full professionalism and men of a large financial surface stepped on the surface. The Vardinogiannis family took over the wheel of Panathinaikos, with Yiorgos Vardinogiannis as president and a group of shipowners led by Stavros Daifas took over the ownership Olympiacos. On July 30, AEK Athens was also converted into a S.A. under the leadership of Loukas Barlos. Barlos realizing that it was impossible to compete financially with his rivals of and having an aversion to the professionalization of sports, he was preparing the ground for his departure. His last great offer to AEK and the Greek football, was the construction of the first two-story podium in a Greek stadium on October 7, when in Nea Filadelfeia the much-loved "Skepasti" (The Covered) was inaugurated. Transferwise, AEK was mostly staffed by the first talents that emerged from their famous academies managed by František Fadrhonc. The position of a foreigner which was vacated by the departure of Milton Viera, was covered by Franjo Vladić, Dušan Bajević's alter ego for many years at Velež Mostar. Barlos played his "last card" and brought to the bench of AEK the Austrian champion with Austria Wien, Hermann Stessl.
Τhe draw brought AEK against the Romanian Argeș Pitești for the first round of the European Cup. That caused feelings of euphoria in the team and the fans of AEK as the triumph against Porto at the last season's first round was still fresh. At the Stadionul 1 Mai, AEK were left with ten players due to the dismissal of Damianidis from the 52nd minute and the Romanians got the victory and a relative safe score of 3–0. Despite the heavy defeat of the first match, the conditions under which this occurred, allowed AEK to be optimistic for the replay match. At Nea Filadelfeia, AEK were tasked for the comeback once again in their history. At the beginning of the match they showed that they were capable of that as they opened the score at the 13th minute, with an own goal by Ivan and after 7 minutes, Vladić doubled their advantage. AEK had more than an hour to score a third goal that would equalize the score of the first match. However, that goal did not take place thanks to the Swiss referee, André Daina, who denied AEK three clear penalties and the possibility of the qualification to the next round. The anger of the players and staff of AEK overflowed and the incidents that followed in the locker rooms and the referees' room brought the punishment of AEK with a one-year ban from the European competitions by UEFA.
In the first round of the Cup, AEK faced Panachaiki away from home and managed to eliminate them, winning by 3–4 at the extra time. Afterwards they easily passed through Panetolikos with a 5–1 home win in the second round. In the round of 16 they were eliminated by PAOK in Thessaloniki, in a 1–0 defeat.
AEK started the Championship quietly and was left behind in the standings. The introduction of the winter transfer period brought by the professionalism of football contributed to the weakening of the roster, as Mimis Domazos left for Panathinaikos, Takis Nikoloudis for Olympiacos and Dionysis Tsamis for Korinthos. AEK recovered in a great deal afterwards, but a series of unfortunate results brought the dismissal of Stessl in April and the veteran player of AEK, Miltos Papapostolou on the bench with the help of the more experienced František Fadrhonc. The team returned to the successful results and assisted significantly by the 25 goals of Bajević, who emerged as the league's top scorer, finished tied with Panathinaikos in the third place, two points behind the equal in the first place Olympiacos and Aris. This tie led to play-off matches for both the first place for the championship and the third place for a ticket to the UEFA Cup.
The play-off match between AEK and Panathinaikos was from all sides a strange match. AEK had already been punished with exclusion from the European Cups by UEFA, which meant that whatever the result of the game, Panathinaikos would play in the UEFA Cup. If AEK won, they would simply had the benefit of serving their sentence immediately. The people of Panathinaikos implied that they did not want the match to take place. Barlos, showing a high sense of honor and having in mind the incident of Olympiacos not showing up in the last season's play-off match against AEK, demanded the match to be held, regardless of any risk for his club. On May 24 at Karaiskakis Stadium, the crowd witnessed the honesty that defined the club of Barlos, regardless of their eventual 1–0 defeat, which marked the beginning of the club's absence from the UEFA competitions.
Management team
Players
Squad information
NOTE: The players are the ones that have been announced by the AEK Athens' press release. No edits should be made unless a player arrival or exit is announced. Updated 24 May 1980, 23:59 UTC+3.
PlayerNat.Position(s)Date of birth (Age)SignedPrevious clubTransfer feeContract until Goalkeepers Nikos Christidis GK 1976 Aris ₯1,500,000 1984 Lakis Stergioudas GK 1972 Niki Poligyrou ₯36,000 1981 Spyros Ikonomopoulos GK 1979 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Defenders Dimitris Argyros CB / LB 1979 Kastoria ₯7,000,000 1984 Lakis Nikolaou (Captain) CB / RB / ST / RW 1971 Atromitos ₯600,000 1982 Babis Intzoglou RB / LB / CB 1976 Panionios ₯3,000,000 1984 Giannis Mousouris RB / RM / ST 1977 AEL ₯2,500,000 1985 Giorgos Kalogeropoulos LB 1979 Panionios Free 1984 Petros Ravousis (Vice-captain) CB / RB 1972 Aetos Skydra Free 1981 Aris Damianidis CB / RB 1977 Egaleo ₯3,500,000 1985 Dimitris Kotsos LB 1978 Kastoria Free 1986 Stavros Letsas RB / RM / CB 1979 Agioi Anargyroi Free 1985 Panagiotis Stylianopoulos RB / LB / RM / DM 1978 AEK Athens U20 — 1986 Stelios Manolas RB / CB 1980 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Midfielders Franjo Vladić AM / RM / LM / SS / CM 1979 Velež Mostar Free 1981 Christos Ardizoglou RM / LM / RW / LW / AM / RB / LB 1974 Apollon Athens ₯12,000,000 1982 Stelios Kaselakis RM / RB / CM 1979 Agioi Anargyroi ₯2,500,000 1984 Spyros Thodis CM / AM / DM 1979 Anagennisi Karditsa ₯4,000,000 1984 Christos Kalaitzidis LM / LW / LB 1979 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Vangelis Vlachos AM / CM / RM / LM 1979 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Forwards Dušan Bajević ST / SS 1977 Velež Mostar Free 1980 Tasos Konstantinou RW / SS / ST / RM / AM 1972 EPA Larnaca ₯600,000 1981 Thomas Mavros ST / LW 1976 Panionios ₯10,000,000 1983 Panikos Hatziloizou RW / ST / RM / AM 1979 Aris Limassol ₯3,000,000 1984 Stefanos Zografos ST 1979 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Giorgos Chatziioannidis ST 1979 AEK Athens U20 — 1984 Left during Winter Transfer Window Mimis Domazos AM / SS 1978 Panathinaikos Free 1980 Dionysis Tsamis CM / DM / AM 1972 Panetolikos ₯2,350,000 1981 Takis Nikoloudis CM / AM / RM / LM 1976 Iraklis Free 1984
Transfers
In
Summer
PlayerFromFeeDateContract UntilSource AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1984 Kastoria₯7,000,00030 June 1984 Agioi AnargyroiFree transfer30 June 1986 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1986 Anagennisi Karditsa₯4,000,00030 June 1984 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1984 Agioi Anargyroi₯2,500,00030 June 1984 Velež MostarFree transfer30 June 1981 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1984 Aris Limassol₯3,000,00030 June 1984 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1984 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 November 1984 AEK Athens U20Promotion30 June 1984
Winter
PlayerFromFeeDateContract UntilSource AEK Athens U20Promotion30 November 1984 PanioniosFree transfer30 November 1984
Out
Summer
PlayerToFeeDateSource AtromitosFree transfer Apollon AthensContract termniation Retired RodosFree transfer AcharnaikosContract termniation Western SuburbsFree transfer
Winter
PlayerToFeeDateSource Olympiacos₯6,500,000 PanathinaikosContract termination
Loan out
Summer
PlayerToFeeDateUntilOption to buySource PanachaikiFree30 June 1980 AcharnaikosFree30 June 1980
Winter
PlayerToFeeDateUntilOption to buySource KorinthosFree30 November 1980
Contract renewals
PlayerDateFormer Exp. DateNew Exp. DateSource 30 June 197930 June 1982 30 June 197930 June 1980
Overall transfer activity
Expenditure Summer: ₯16,500,000
Winter: ₯0
Total: ₯16,500,000
Income Summer: ₯0
Winter: ₯6,500,000
Total: ₯6,500,000
Net Totals Summer: ₯16,500,000
Winter: ₯6,500,000
Total: ₯10,000,000
Pre-season and friendlies
Competitions
Overall record
Alpha Ethniki
League table
Results summary
Results by Matchday
Matches
Third place play-off
Greek Cup
Matches
European Cup
First round
Statistics
Squad statistics
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Left during Winter Transfer Window
Goalscorers
The list is sorted by competition order when total goals are equal, then by position and then alphabetically by surname. RankPlayerAlpha EthnikiGreek CupEuropean CupTotal125 2 027214 5 0193 7 0 074 3 0 145 3 0 03 3 0 03 2 1 038 2 0 029 1 0 01 1 0 01 1 0 01 1 0 01 0 1 01Own goals 0 0 11Totals63 9 274
Hat-tricks Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored. PlayerAgainst Result Date Competition Source Dušan Bajević Kastoria 4–2 (H) 4 November 1979 Alpha Ethniki Thomas Mavros Panachaiki 4–3 (Α) 21 November 1979 Greek Cup Dušan Bajević Panachaiki 3–1 (Α) 2 December 1979 Alpha Ethniki Dušan Bajević Kavala 4–2 (H) 20 April 1980 Alpha Ethniki
Clean sheets
The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal and then alphabetically by surname. Clean sheets in games where both goalkeepers participated are awarded to the goalkeeper who started the game. Goalkeepers with no appearances are not included. RankPlayerAlpha EthnikiGreek CupEuropean CupTotal1 6 0 172 2 0 023 1 0 01Totals 9 0 110
Disciplinary record
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Left during Winter Transfer Window
Starting 11 This section presents the most frequently used formation along with the players with the most starts across all competitions.
Formation Matchday(s)404–3–31–34
Player Lakis StergioudasGKPetros RavousisRCBLakis Nikolaou (C)LCBGiannis MousourisRBBabis IntzoglouLBSpyros ThodisDMFranjo VladićRCMVangelis VlachosLCMChristos ArdizoglouRWThomas MavrosLWDušan BajevićCF
Awards PlayerAwardSource Dušan Bajević FW Alpha Ethniki Top Scorer
References
External links AEK Athens F.C. Official Website A.E.K. FC Database