Difference between revisions of "PAOK FC"
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Revision as of 05:22, August 22, 2006
 PAOK - team crest | |
| Teams Colors: | Black White |
|---|---|
| Sponsors: | EKO-ELDA ABEE |
| Founded: | 1926 |
| Address: | Mikras Asias, Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Telephone: | +30 2310 950950 |
| Fax: | +30 2310 9510000 |
| Email: | pae@paok-hellas.gr |
| Web Site: | www.paokfc.gr |
| Stadium: | Toumba |
| Capacity: | 28,701 |
History of PAOK
PAOK was founded in April 1926 by noble Constantinopolitians who arrived as immigrants in Thessaloniki, after the exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, according to the Lausanne treaty of 1924. These people were: L. Nikolaidis, K. Komitsopoulos, D. Mitsionis, the Dimitriadis brothers, the MP Koultatsoglou, Kouemtzopoulos, Karamaounas and a few more. The constitution of PAOK, with index number 822, was legitimated by the City Court of Thessaloniki on April 28, 1926.
PAOK’s first emblem adopted in 1926 was a four-leaved clover and a horseshoe. The leaves were green with the letters PAOK marked on each of them, a symbol devised by Kostas Koemtzopoulos who took the idea from a packet of cigarettes he smoked.
The decision to merge with the club AEK Thessaloniki can also be considered to be of historic importance. Until 20th March 1929 the two clubs were rivals, competing against each other although both had been established by refugees from Constantinople. It was the Chairman of AEK, Dr. Karamaounas, who brokered the merger between Thessaloniki’s two refugee teams. The main figures behind the idea and its implementation were Fanourios Vyzantios and Pantelis Kalpaktsoglou who had defected from AEK Thessaloniki, which had been established in 1924-25 by the first wave of refugees who had come to Thessaloniki from Constantinople in 1922. Certain members of AEK Thessaloniki headed south to the capital upon the merger to found the modern-day team AEK.
Following the merger with AEK in 1929, PAOK changed its emblem. The new emblem became the Two-headed Eagle, which it remains to this day, and symbolizes the arrival of the club and the return to the roots and heritage of the refugees (Byzantium and Constantinople). The Eagle holds a sword and a crown with its two heads looking East and West. The difference between this emblem and that of AEK (which is also the symbol of the Eastern Orthodox Church) is that PAOK’s emblem has its wings folded signifying mourning for expulsion from the homeland.
The first foreign coach in the history of the team, German Rudolph Ganser, who served with PAOK for the 1931-1932 season.
The first section to be founded was soccer. Later on, in 1928, other sections were also founded such as basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, water polo, boxing and cycling. The soccer team was put in the second division of the local championship of Thessaloniki. The following year, it was promoted to the first division, after beating Iraklis 1-0, which was the champion of Thessaloniki. From this point on, the football team was considered one of the most historical Greek teams with a great and fanatical crowd all over Greece and beyond. The first stadium was built in the area of the University of Thessaloniki.
In 1957, the second stadium was built in the neighborhood of Constantinopolitian immigrants, called Toumba (Toumba, meaning tomb), which in recent years has become the home stadium.
Star Players
1930-1959
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