Olympiakos Nicosia (, Olympiakos Lefkosias) is a Cypriot football club based in Nicosia and competes in the . The club was founded in 1931, and is a founding member of the Cyprus Football Association. The club colors are black and green. Olympiakos' home ground is the new GSP Stadium, which has a 23,000-seat capacity. The team's main nickname is "mavroprasini" (the green-blacks), and the club's other nickname is Taktakalas, derived from the area of Nicosia where the club hails from.
Olympiakos Nicosia has won three Cypriot First Division Championships, one Cypriot Cup and one Cyprus Super Cup.
In the past the club also had track and field, basketball, volleyball, cycling, table tennis, weightlifting and futsal teams. It also in the past had an orchestra, choir and camping divisions; the latter explaining why the club's badge has a tent on it.
History The Golden Decade The 1962–1972 decade is known as the "Golden decade" of Olympiakos as the club was champion of the Cypriot First Division three times, another three times it was runner-up, while it became the only Cyprus football club that participated three times in the Greek Championship.
It all started in the 1961–62 season, when Olympiakos reached the cup final for the first time in the club's history. Despite this, the team did not manage to win the cup trophy, as it lost from Anorthosis Famagusta FC with a score of 5–2.
The foundations had been laid however, in the 1964–65 season, Giorgos Paletsios an old Olympiakos football player for 18 years, who had also served as team captain, agreed to manage the team, without being paid a salary for his services. Paletsios proceeded to restructure the team's squad promoting to the first team young and talented players including: Kettenis, Limbouris, Argyrou. Bolstered with young enthusiasm, the team finished in second place in the championship, while in the same year the top scorer of the championship was Olympiakos player Kostakis Pierides, scoring 21 goals.
In the 1965–66 season Olympiakos was once again runner-up, with 49 points, one point less than the then champion Omonoia. Top scorer of the championship was again an Olympiakos player, Panikos Efthymiades scoring 23 goals.
In the 1966–67 season Olympiakos dominated the Cypriot Championship, with Pambos Avraamidis as their manager, the team finished in first place and won the championship with 55 points as many as APOEL Nicosia, who in the last game of the season beat Aris Limassol with the huge score of 17–1. The title was judged on goal difference and despite APOEL's huge score in the last game of the season, Olympiakos still had a superior goal difference so that the club was crowned champion.
In 1967, the champion Olympiakos played against the Cup-winner Apollon Limassol, winning 1–0 therefore gaining the Pakkos Shield (as the Super Cup/Shield was then known.)
In the 1968–69 season, Olympiakos won the championship for a second time, collecting 52 points the same number as AC Omonoia. Olympiakos was champion however because of the better goal difference. Top scorer of the championship was once again Panikos Efthymiades scoring 17 goals.
The third Olympiakos championship came in the 1970–71 season with Englishman Rod Bradley as the manager, the team finished in first place with 31 points compared to 27 of runner up Digenis Morfou. The title of top scorer was shared by 3 footballers who all scored 11 goals amongst them once again Panikos Efthymiades.
In the 1972–73 season Olympiakos finished runner-up, while in the 1974–75 season the team finished third.
In 1971 Olympiakos won the Paligenesias cup that was organised by the Cyprus Football Association(KOP), defeating Nea Salamis Famagusta FC. In this golden period, Olympiakos' managers were: Pambos Avraamidis, Giorgos Paletsios, Takis Papaxeniou, Eric Brookes and Rod Bradley.
Andreas Filotas, Varnavas Christofi, Nikos Theocharidis, Demos Flourentzou, Giorgos Hadjikonstantis, Dimitrakis Argyrou, Yiannis Xipolitas, Savvakis Constantinou, Michalakis Argyrou, Sotirakis Georgiou, Lakis Avraamidis, Markos Markou, Andreas Nicolaou (Lympoyris), Vasilis Fragkiskou (Katsis), Dimitriadis, Tasos Louka, Andreas Assiotis, Giorgos Kettenis, Panikos Efthymiades, Kostakis Pierides, Charalambos Partasidis, Giannos Pavlou, Takis Papettas, Kokos Michael, Nikos Mailos, Michalis Stavrou, Giorgos Aristeidou, Koullis Iliadis, Lakis Mitsidis, Panagiotis Prodromou, Giannis Serafeim were the footballers of the great successes of this period.
Greek Experience Olympiakos became the first Cypriot football team that participated in the Pan-Hellenic Championship, in the 1967–68 season, something which recurred twice more, in 1969–70, and in 1971–72, rendering the club the only Cypriot team that participated three times in the Greek Championship. Olympiakos has also taken part in all three European competitions.
European Experience In the European Cup in 1967 the club faced FK Sarajevo Yugoslavia. In the first game the teams drew 2–2, while in second game Olympiakos lost with 3–1.
Also in the European Cup, Olympiakos Nicosia played against Real Madrid in 1969, losing both matches with 8–0 and 6–1. Olympiakos later played in the same competition in 1971 and met Feyenoord of the Netherlands and lost 8–0 and 9–0.
In the Cup Winners' Cup, Olympiakos took part once in 1977 playing against Universitatea Craiova Romania while in 1973 Olympiakos played against the German team VfB Stuttgart for the UEFA Cup.
In all these European games Olympiakos was forced to play both games away from home as at the time the Cypriot football stadia did not meet the European regulations.
Cup glory In 1977, Olympiakos Nicosia beat Alki Larnaca 2–0 to win the Cypriot Cup after two thunder bolts from local center half, captain and talisman George Aristidou. In 1991, Olympiakos Nicosia lost the Cypriot Cup in the finals losing 1–0 to AC Omonia. That was their last appearance in the Cypriot Cup finals.
Glory days revisited Olympiakos Nicosia also played in the UEFA Cup (after finishing runner up in the Cypriot championship) in the 2001–02 season against the Hungarian team Dunaferr FC (drawing 2–2 in Nicosia and scoring a 2–4 away win, the first for the club in Europe) and proceeded to the next round of the Uefa Cup to play against Club Brugge of Belgium and was eventually eliminated.
Decline With Olympiakos TV rights hastily agreed at the lowest amount for any Cypriot first division club in 2007 for 9 seasons and these rights assigned to repay old debts until 2016 the club had little cash inflow apart from gate receipts and commercial sponsorships. After a disastrous 2007–2008 season, where economic problems hindered the building of a strong squad, Olympiakos Nicosia finished bottom of the Cypriot First Division (the first time the club finished bottom). The club was relegated for the third time in its history. In both the 1983–84 and 1997–98 seasons the club had spent just one season in the second tier of Cypriot football, only to win the Cypriot Second Division title each time and return to the Cypriot First Division.
The club tried to re-organise itself and to return to the top flight as quickly as possible. In the 2008–09 season the club finished fourth and missed the promotion to the Cypriot First Division on the last day of the season by one point.
In the 2009–10 season, an old goalkeeper of Olympiakos Petros Savva, was appointed as the new chairman. Savva initially re-appointed Andros Kouloumbris, an old midfield player of Olympiakos, as manager. After the end of the first round, however, Kouloumbris was sacked due to the bad defensive record of the team, despite the team being in 3rd place.
The next coach for 7 games was Saša Jovanović who only managed two wins, with the team languishing in 5th place after some bad appearances, Saša Jovanović was removed to make way for old Olympiakos midfield player and ex-manager Nikodimos Papavasiliou.
With Papavasiliou at the helm the team improved and entered the play-offs for promotion to the Cypriot First Division after finishing third at the end of the regular season. The club finished third at the end of the play-offs and therefore gained promotion, despite helping the team with winning promotion Nikodimos Papavasiliou's contract was not renewed at the end of the season.
Return to the top flight After 2 seasons Olympiakos returned to the top flight in the 2010–2011 season and Pambos Christodoulou an old Olympiakos midfield player and ex-manager of Doxa Katokopias was appointed as manager. Olympiakos showed good attacking football in the 2010–2011 season, easily avoiding relegation and having qualified for the Cup quarterfinals. The club played fluid attacking football having the third best attacking record after leaders APOEL and 3rd placed Anorthosis, playing with a 4–4–2 formation with pressing from within the opponent's half, but the Achilles heel of the team was the bad defensive record with goals conceded in most games and the third worst record in this area. Christodoulou decided to leave the club in 2011 to join AEL Limassol, one year before his contract expired. The club decided to pursue this breach in court (in an out of court settlement AEL Limassol paid an undisclosed sum of money to Olympiakos to avoid sanctions against them and Pambos) and Christodoulou angered both the club president and the supporters, as well as the Cypriot football fans in general, with his unprofessional conduct.
Striving for Stability In the 2011–2012 season there were a few changes in Olympiakos, the new Greek manager was ex Xanthi FC Nikos Papadopoulos who mainly brought in defensive players playing in the Greek league to strengthen this area of weakness. Few additions were made to the attacking mechanism of the team and some early warnings in the pre season friendlies indicated that after the departure of the previous season's top scorer, the team would be less productive in scoring than last season, which was in fact the case. Papadopoulos was released by mutual consent at the end of February 2012 with the club in the cup quarterfinals but fourth from bottom in the league, although defensively the club was marginally better it lost its attacking flair and pressing style with majority ball possession and suffered from conceding goals right after scoring.
Nikodimos Papavasiliou was again appointed as manager for 2012, after lowering his wage by mutual consent with chairman Savva. It was announced that the budget would be reduced from the previous season and to achieve this only a few players from the previous season's squad remained. The team started the season with a 3-point deduction after failing to meet the UEFA Financial fair play criteria. Papavasiliou received an offer from Apollon Limassol after 2 games in charge of Olympiakos and was released from his contract by mutual consent.
Renos Demetriades an old Olympiakos Nicosia defensive player was appointed as the new coach. Olympiakos was close to mid-table with Demetriades and despite the loss of key players in the January transfer window was on track to keep its top level status, until an unexpected home loss which plunged the club in a battle for survival forced the club to replace Demetriades with Marios Constantinou.
Economic Decline The club was relegated, for a fourth time in its history, on the last day of the 2012–2013 season, finishing third from bottom, while being level on points, but was demoted due to the inferior head-to-head record with Nea Salamis Famagusta FC.