You can tell that the left-wing club AEK Athens is proud of its history. The new football temple, which is called the Agia Sophia Stadium, is a beautiful piece of architecture that fits in perfectly in the old capital. A special club with extremely passionate fans.
AEK Athens is one of the biggest and most successful clubs in Greece. The club was founded in 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople (now known as Istanbul) after the Greco-Turkish War. AEK became the sports club of the refugees who found their new homes in Athens.
AEK has originally always been a left-wing club and Original 21, the diehard supporters club of AEK, has close ties with the left-wing fan clubs of Olympique Marseille, Livorno and Sankt Pauli. The club’s fans mainly live in Nea Filadelfeia but are also popular in other neighbourhoods of Athens. In Cyprus the club is also very popular.
Just like the country, Greek clubs also often struggle economically. In 2013, AEK decided to declare itself bankrupt after it had just been relegated to the second division. The club restarted in Greece’s third tier, but it only took the club two years to get back to the top flight and challenge for the big trophies again.
It was supposed to be finished in 2004, but the Agia Sophia Stadium, officially known as the OPAP Arena, finally opened in 2022. On the same ground where the club had been playing since 1926 and where they opened their former Nikos Goumas Stadium in 1930. Unfortunately, the stadium was damaged after the earthquake in 1999 and had to be destroyed.
The new stadium, named after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul in honour of the club’s roots, was worth the wait. The Agia Sophia Stadium is quite literally a football temple given its sublime facade that perfectly fits the old city of Athens. The gates are named after historical Greek cities where Asian minorities used to live, like Smirni, Pergamos and Aivali. Only gate 21, in honour of its fan club Original 21, has a number.
The OPAP Arena is more than just a football stadium. You will find AEK’s club museum, the Museum of Greek Refugees, a small church, a restaurant with a panoramic view of the pitch, a traditional coffee shop, a barbershop and a shoe shine. In front of the main entrance stands a magnificent statue of the crest of the club: A double-headed eagle, which refers to the Byzantine Empire and the Greek-Orthodox Church, whose headquarters was the Hagia Sophia.
The inside is covered in the club’s colours. At the top of the stands, there are four banners with some of AEK’s most legendary players, including the Greek striker Thomas Mavros.
No one is bigger than Thomas Mavros at AEK. He led the club to its biggest successes in the 1970s and 1980s, including a semi-final in the UEFA Cup. The God, as he was also called, is known as one of the best Greek footballers of all time and scored 260 goals in Greece’s top flight, a record that is still untouched to this day.
Before AEK played on the ground of the current Agia Sophia Stadium in 1926, the club used to play some matches on the grounds of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was one of the largest temples of the ancient world. Nowadays, it is one of the capital’s most famous tourist attractions.
Whilst the Agia Sophia Stadium was being built, AEK played its home matches at the boring Olympic Stadium of Athens, which is also the home of Greece’s national football team. It is quite a nice stadium with its wavy roof structure, but the club struggled to fill the stadium given its capacity of 71,030. Spyros Louis, as it’s also known, hosted the Olympic Games in 2004 and the UEFA Champions League finals in 1983, 1994 and 2007.
AEK Athens also has a popular basketball team who plays their home matches in the Olympic Indoor Hall.
Thomas Mavros started his career at Panionios, where made his debut in the Nea Smyrni Stadium when he was sixteen. Ever since he was still a little kid, his dad, Michalis, used to take him to the stadium to watch Panionios. On a cold winter’s day in 1961, Michalis didn’t fancy going, so Thomas decided to go alone. Takis Papoulidis, who was a defender of Panionios at the time, saw the seven-year-old boy waiting outside the locker rooms. He invited Thomas to join them for the warming-up. The young footballer made such an impression on Papoulidis that he urged Thomas to be the club's mascot after they played ‘headers’ and managed to keep the ball up 65 times without failure.
The Nea Smyrni Stadium (capacity: 11,700) still exists and is to this day the home ground of Panionios, who are currently playing in the third division. The U-shaped stadium with its red stands and running track is located in the south of Athens.
If you’re in the area of the Agia Sophia Stadium, you might as well have a look at the Georgias Kamaras Stadium. The home ground of second-tier side Apollon Smyrnis is only a twenty-minute walk from the OPAP Arena. The stadium, which has a capacity of 14,200, was temporarily the home ground of AEK’s main rivals Olympiacos between 2002 and 2004.
Because only one team can qualify for the UEFA Champions League playoffs, there is a massive rivalry between all the top clubs in Greece. Not only do the fans expect a championship each year, but so does the board given the financial benefit of playing Champions League football.
AEK has big rivalries with Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK. On a football level, the club hates Olympiacos the most. In the 2007/08 season, Olympiacos ‘stole’ the title of AEK after the club appealed that Apollon, whom they lost to, played with an unregistered player. Olympiacos won the appeal in court, got three points and thus became the champions of Greece, much to AEK’s anger.
Panathinaikos is, in complete contradiction to AEK, originally a right-wing club from the elite of Athens, and is, therefore, a fierce derby. PAOK, however, is quite similar to AEK. Both are refugee clubs that originated in Istanbul and have the double-headed eagle on their crest. That’s why they fight to be the best ‘eagle’.
On Leof. Deklias 142, in the neighbourhood of Nea Filadelfeia, you will find the beautiful café Nea Vizadini Gonia which is full of AEK memorabilia. The walls are covered in photos, and there are old shirts and football boots everywhere. It’s like you stepped into a museum. Even your hamburger will be served with a flag of the football club.
The Greeks have a lot of passion, hate and love for football. Unfortunately, this has also occasionally resulted in fan violence. The league is no foreigner to being temporarily halted due to the violence. In efforts to decrease the risk, away fans are not able to enter the stadiums of the top clubs of PAOK, AEK Athens, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos. The fans of the big clubs in Athens also don’t tend to leave their own neighbourhood for their own safety. That’s why it is advised not to wear any football shirts in Greece.
You need an AMKA, basically a Greek social security number, to buy football tickets in Greece. However, it is possible to order tickets through AEK Athens’ website as a foreigner. The club redirects you to Ticketmaster, where you can order your ticket and get information on what to fill in on the AMKA.
Since the economic crisis, it has become a rarity for stadiums in Greece to sell out, which means that even on match days you can usually still buy a ticket at the ticket office of the Agia Sophia Stadium. Especially for the smaller games. Be aware that you do need your passport.
The Agia Sophia Stadium is easily accessible by the metro system. With metro 1 (the Green line), you can travel to Perissós. From here it is only a 12-minute walk to the stadium.
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