2002–03 Alpha Ethniki

The 2002–03 Alpha Ethniki was the 67th season of the highest football league in Greece. The season began on 24 August 2002 and ended on 25 May 2003. Olympiacos won their seventh consecutive and 32nd Greek title. Olympiacos and Panathinaikos finished the League with the same points total but Olympiacos were crowned champions due to more favourable results between the two teams. It was a very dramatic end to the season, with the decisive game between the two clubs taking place in the penultimate round. The season was interrupted by strike action after television broadcaster Alpha Digital collapsed in September 2002, following which the players didn't play for a month.^[1]

Alpha Ethniki

Season	2002–03
Champions	Olympiacos 32nd Greek title
Relegated	Panachaiki PAS Giannina
Champions League	Olympiacos Panathinaikos AEK Athens
UEFA Cup	PAOK Panionios Aris
Matches played	240
Goals scored	617 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Nikos Liberopoulos (16 goals)
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Teams

Stadia and personnel

AEK Athens
Akratitos
Egaleo
Kallithea
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Aris
Iraklis
PAOK

Ionikos
Olympiacos
Proodeftiki

OFI

Panachaiki

PAS Giannina

Skoda Xanthi

Location of teams in 2002–03 Alpha Ethniki

Team	Manager1	Location	Stadium	Capacity
AEK Athens	Dušan Bajević	Athens	Nikos Goumas Stadium	27,729
Akratitos	Dumitru Dumitriu	Athens	Yiannis Pathiakakis Stadium	4,944
Aris	Giorgos Foiros	Thessaloniki	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium	23,220
Egaleo	Georgios Chatzaras	Athens	Stavros Mavrothalassitis Stadium	8,217
Ionikos	Jacek Gmoch	Piraeus	Neapoli Stadium	4,999
Iraklis	Eugène Gerards	Thessaloniki	Makedonikos Stadium	8,100
Kallithea	Babis Tennes	Kallithea	Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium	4,250
OFI	Zdeněk Ščasný	Heraklion	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium	9,000
Olympiacos	Oleh Protasov	Piraeus	Georgios Kamaras Stadium	14,856
Panachaiki	Dimitrios Genas	Patras	Kostas Davourlis Stadium	11,321
Panathinaikos	Sergio Markarián	Athens	Leoforos Alexandras Stadium	16,620
Panionios	Jozef Bubenko	Nea Smyrni	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,756
PAOK	Angelos Anastasiadis	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium	28,803
PAS Giannina	Nikos Anastopoulos	Ioannina	Zosimades Stadium	7,652
Proodeftiki	Soulis Papadopoulos	Piraeus	Nikaia Municipal Stadium	5,000
Skoda Xanthi	Nikos Karageorgiou	Xanthi	Xanthi Ground	9,500

• ¹ On final match day of the season, played on 25 May 2003.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Olympiacos (C)	30	21	7	2	75	21	+54	70[a]	Qualification for Champions League group stage
2	Panathinaikos	30	22	4	4	50	19	+31	70[a]
3	AEK Athens	30	21	5	4	74	29	+45	68	Qualification for Champions League third qualifying round
4	PAOK	30	16	5	9	59	38	+21	53[b]	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
5	Panionios	30	15	8	7	35	25	+10	53[b]
6	Aris	30	15	6	9	37	34	+3	51
7	Iraklis	30	15	4	11	44	37	+7	49
8	OFI	30	12	8	10	39	34	+5	44
9	Skoda Xanthi	30	8	11	11	31	33	−2	35
10	Egaleo	30	7	10	13	28	44	−16	31	Qualification for Intertoto Cup third round
11	Proodeftiki	30	7	9	14	25	38	−13	30
12	Akratitos	30	7	5	18	33	62	−29	26[c]	Qualification for Intertoto Cup second round
13	Kallithea	30	6	8	16	29	46	−17	26[c]
14	Ionikos (O)	30	5	9	16	22	42	−20	24	Qualification for Relegation play-off
15	Panachaiki (R)	30	1	6	23	11	71	−60	9	Relegation to Beta Ethniki
16	PAS Giannina[d] (R)	30	6	7	17	25	44	−19	−65

Source: Galanis Sports Data
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Goal difference; 5) Goals scored; 6) Goals against; 7) Play-offs (neutral ground); 8) Draw.
(Note: Criterion 7 is only used if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions).
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Head-to-head points (goal difference): Olympiacos 3 (+2), Panathinaikos 3 (-2).
2. Head-to-head points (goal difference): PAOK 3 (+1), Panionios 3 (-1).
3. Head-to-head points: Akratitos 4, Kallithea 1.
4. PAS Giannina were deducted 3 points per match for having debts of €900,000 to former players.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	AKR	ARIS	EGA	ION	IRA	KLT	OFI	OLY	PNA	PAO	PGSS	PAOK	PAS	PRO	XAN
AEK Athens		6–2	4–0	3–2	3–0	6–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	6–0	1–0	4–2	3–4	3–1	4–1	3–2
Akratitos	3–2		0–2	0–1	1–0	0–2	3–3	1–1	2–5	3–0	1–3	0–3	1–3	3–0	2–1	0–1
Aris	1–1	4–1		2–1	2–0	2–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	1–1
Egaleo	1–1	3–1	3–0		0–0	0–2	0–0	0–4	0–2	4–0	0–0	0–0	2–3	2–1	1–0	0–0
Ionikos	0–3	1–1	0–1	0–0		2–4	1–1	1–1	0–2	3–0	0–1	1–2	4–0	2–0	0–1	0–0
Iraklis	0–2	1–0	4–0	2–1	3–2		2–1	3–0	2–2	1–1	0–3	3–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–0
Kallithea	1–3	0–2	0–2	2–1	0–1	1–0		2–0	1–4	3–1	1–3	1–1	1–2	2–2	1–1	0–1
OFI	1–0	2–0	1–2	2–2	2–1	3–1	2–1		0–1	3–0	0–2	1–1	2–3	1–0	2–0	2–0
Olympiacos	1–2	4–0	1–0	4–0	6–0	2–1	1–0	1–0		7–0	3–0	3–0	4–3	2–1	0–0	1–1
Panachaiki	0–2	2–0	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–2	1–2	0–2	1–4		0–3	0–2	2–2	0–2	1–1	0–2
Panathinaikos	2–1	3–1	3–2	3–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	5–1	3–2	2–0		1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0
Panionios	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	0–0		2–0	2–0	2–0	0–3
PAOK	0–1	1–1	2–0	4–0	3–0	0–1	2–3	2–0	1–1	4–0	4–1	3–0		1–0	4–1	1–0
PAS Giannina	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–3	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–3	3–0	0–0	1–2	3–2		2–1	1–1
Proodeftiki	1–1	5–1	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–3	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–3	1–0		1–1
Skoda Xanthi	0–1	1–2	0–2	5–0	0–0	1–0	3–0	1–4	1–5	1–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	3–3	1–0

Source: finalscore.gr
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-off

1 June 2003

Ionikos	2–1	Apollon Kalamarias
Rodrigues 47', 78'	Report	Hartwig 77'

Volos Municipal Stadium, Volos

Attendance: 3,000

Referee: Giorgos Kasnaferis (Athens)

Ionikos retained their spot in 2003–04 Alpha Ethniki. Apollon Kalamarias placed on 2003–04 Beta Ethniki

Top scorers

Source: Galanis Sports Data

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Nikos Liberopoulos	Panathinaikos	16
2	Stelios Giannakopoulos	Olympiacos	15
3	Georgios Georgiadis	PAOK	14
	Predrag Đorđević	Olympiacos
5	Njogu Demba-Nyrén	Aris	12
	Vasilios Lakis	AEK Athens
	Demis Nikolaidis	AEK Athens
8	Ioannis Okkas	PAOK	11
	Vasilios Tsiartas	AEK Athens
10	Alessandro Soares	OFI	10
	Dimitris Nalitzis	AEK Athens
	Giovanni	Olympiacos
	Lampros Choutos	Olympiacos

Awards

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 10 November 2003.^[2]

Award	Winner	Club
Greek Player of the Season	Stelios Giannakopoulos	Olympiacos
Foreign Player of the Season	Predrag Đorđević	Olympiacos
Young Player of the Season	Vangelis Mantzios	Panionios
Goalkeeper of the Season	Antonios Nikopolidis	Panathinaikos
Golden Boot	Nikos Liberopoulos	Panathinaikos
Manager of the Season	Dušan Bajević	AEK Athens