March 12, 2016
During a long weekend in Athens I took
the opportunity to see my first ever match in Greece. As the AEK Athens home match
had been moved to Monday evening ( they are now managed by Gus Poyet ) we ended
up going to see Panionios vs Skoda Xanthi ( yes, the name does come from the
Czech car manufacturer, the owner is apparently the biggest reseller of these
cars in Greece ! ) .
To get there we took the tram from the
centre of Athens, which took about 20 minutes and the ground was a 5-10 minute
walk from the stop.
We first joined a queue to buy tickets
from a booth, only to be told after waiting for 10 minutes or so that only
tickets for the cheap seats were sold there ( 10-15 Euros ), and if we wanted
the seats under cover we had to go to a booth on the opposite side of the
ground. So we traipsed round the stadium to get seats for 25 Euros.
However, in order to buy tickets for football matches in Greece you need
to show some form of identification, fortunately we had our passports in our
possession and our names and passport numbers were printed on the tickets.
We then had a short walk back to the
turnstile entrance, and once inside the ground it wasn’t too clear where to go
to get to our seats. The friendly police officers weren’t sure either and
eventually pointed us to one of the stairwells, but just before we got there I
saw a sign for the bar. As there were still 20 minutes to kick-off we decided
to go for a drink and so found ourselves in a large bar which was virtually
deserted. A large glass of white wine from a plastic bottle cost only 2.20
euros ( it didn't look too nice but it was fine ) and we sat down in comfort.
From our table 90 per cent of the pitch was in view and there was a TV showing
the build-up to the match.
The ground had quite a nice main
covered stand which was reasonably populated and a large open stand
opposite which was mostly deserted except for a corner ( Section B - 10 Euros )
where the local "boot-boys" gathered. The name of Panionios ( in
Greek letters ) was clearly on view written on these seats.
There was
nothing behind goal and wall with a mural behind the other. As the stadium also
appears to be used for Athletics there was a running track, long jump pit etc.
Despite the match featuring the teams 5th and 8th places in the Greek Premier division the
attendance was only 664 in a stadium that holds nearly 12,000 ! The first half
was pretty poor, with the main highlight being the 100 or so home fans in the
corner Section B signing continuously through the first half despite whatever
the action was on the pitch. There appeared to be zero away fans !
Two minutes later, the keeper was again picking the ball out of the net, but this time he was blameless as a 25 yard shot from the guy who scored the free-kick, Bakasetas, flew into the bottom corner. That was actually a very good goal.
At half time I joined Mrs Fatbear in
the bar for another glass of wine and to watch repeats of the goals on the TV
but only a handful of home supporters also came to the bar. At it started to
rain I also decide to watch the second half from the bar, and very comfortable
it was. There were about six other people doing the same ! During the second
half, the bar ran out of white wine so I had to start drinking bottles of beer
( 4 EUR for a half litre bottle ) !
The players had their names on their
shirts, but for Skoda their foreign players had their names in Roman script eg
Wallace, Dimitriov etc but their Greek players names were in Greek alphabet.
All the Panionios players names were in Greek.
There was no programme or team sheet
but I did pick up a monthly free magazine on the Nea Smyrni suburb in which
Panionios play, which had 3 pages in Greek about the football club. No idea
what it was saying though !Overall, despite the bureaucracy in obtaining tickets for the match, in the end it was an enjoyable Saturday afternoon
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvX54PVHBUg
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