2005–06 Alpha Ethniki

The 2005–06 Alpha Ethniki was the 70th season of the highest football league of Greece and the last season under the name Alpha Ethniki, before then was renamed to Super League Greece. The season began on 27 August 2005 and ended on 13 May 2006. Olympiacos won their second consecutive and 34th Greek title. However, the season was somewhat overshadowed by the suspension of the Greek FA by UEFA,^[1] which jeopardized the European places of the Champions League, UEFA Cup, and Intertoto Cup qualifiers from Greece, as well as the use of Athens Olympic Stadium as the site of the 2006–07 Champions League final.

Alpha Ethniki

Season	2005–06
Champions	Olympiacos 34th Greek title
Relegated	Levadiakos Kallithea Akratitos
Champions League	Olympiacos AEK Athens
UEFA Cup	Panathinaikos Iraklis Skoda Xanthi Atromitos
Intertoto Cup	AEL
Matches played	240
Goals scored	559 (2.33 per match)
Top goalscorer	Dimitris Salpingidis (17 goals)
← 2004–05 2006–07 →

Teams

Stadia and personnel

AEK Athens
Akratitos
Atromitos
Egaleo
Kallithea
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Apollon
Iraklis
PAOK

OFI

Levadiakos

AEL

Ionikos
Olympiacos

Skoda Xanthi

Location of teams in 2005–06 Alpha Ethniki

Team	Manager1	Location	Stadium	Capacity
AEK Athens	Fernando Santos	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	71,030
AEL	Giorgos Donis	Larissa	Alcazar Stadium	13,108
Akratitos	Vangelis Goutis	Athens	Yiannis Pathiakakis Stadium	4,944
Apollon Kalamarias	Makis Katsavakis	Thessaloniki	Kalamaria Stadium	6,500
Atromitos	Georgios Paraschos	Peristeri	Peristeri Stadium	9,035
Egaleo	Georgios Chatzaras	Athens	Stavros Mavrothalassitis Stadium	8,217
Ionikos	Sakis Tsiolis	Piraeus	Neapoli Stadium	4,999
Iraklis	Savvas Kofidis	Thessaloniki	Kaftanzoglio Stadium	27,770
Kallithea	Ilie Dumitrescu	Kallithea	Grigoris Lambrakis Stadium	4,250
Levadiakos	Takis Lemonis	Livadeia	Levadia Municipal Stadium	5,915
OFI	Myron Sifakis	Heraklion	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium	9,000
Olympiacos	Trond Sollied	Piraeus	Karaiskakis Stadium	33,334
Panathinaikos	Alberto Malesani	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	71,030
Panionios	Jozef Bubenko	Nea Smyrni	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,756
PAOK	Georgios Kostikos	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium	28,803
Skoda Xanthi	Ioannis Matzourakis	Xanthi	Skoda Xanthi Arena	7,442

• ¹ On final match day of the season, played on 13 May 2006.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Olympiacos (C)	30	23	1	6	63	23	+40	70	Qualification for Champions League group stage
2	AEK Athens	30	21	4	5	42	20	+22	67[a]	Qualification for Champions League third qualifying round
3	Panathinaikos	30	21	4	5	55	23	+32	67[a]	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
4	Iraklis	30	15	6	9	39	31	+8	51
5	Skoda Xanthi	30	13	8	9	31	25	+6	47
6	PAOK	30	13	7	10	44	31	+13	46	Ineligible for 2006–07 European competitions[b]
7	Atromitos	30	12	6	12	36	37	−1	42	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
8	AEL	30	10	9	11	31	37	−6	39	Qualification for Intertoto Cup third round
9	Apollon Kalamarias	30	10	8	12	32	36	−4	38
10	Egaleo	30	8	9	13	23	41	−18	33
11	Panionios	30	9	5	16	33	45	−12	32[c]
12	Ionikos	30	6	14	10	36	41	−5	32[c]
13	OFI	30	7	10	13	23	37	−14	31[d]
14	Levadiakos (R)	30	8	7	15	24	36	−12	31[d]	Relegation to Beta Ethniki
15	Kallithea (R)	30	4	8	18	28	49	−21	20
16	Akratitos (R)	30	4	6	20	19	47	−28	18	Relegation to Delta Ethniki[e]

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; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Head-to-head points (goal difference): AEK 3 (+2), Panathinaikos 3 (-2).
2. PAOK were not licensed to play in the UEFA Cup therefore was replaced by the 7th placed team in the league table, Atromitos.
3. Head-to-head points: Panionios 4, Ionikos 1.
4. Head-to-head points (goal difference): OFI 3 (+1), Levadiakos 3 (-1).
5. Akratitos were demoted to the Delta Ethniki owing to financial bankruptcy.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	AEL	AKR	APK	ATR	EGA	ION	IRA	KLT	LEV	OFI	OLY	PAO	PGSS	PAOK	XAN
AEK Athens		1–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–3	3–0	2–0	2–1	0–0
Larissa	0–1		2–1	4–1	2–1	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–3	1–0	2–1	3–1
Akratitos	1–2	0–0		1–3	0–2	0–3	0–0	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–3	2–0
Apollon Kalamarias	0–1	2–2	3–0		1–2	0–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	0–1	1–0	2–2	2–1
Atromitos	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–1		0–0	3–2	3–2	2–1	1–0	4–0	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–1	0–1
Egaleo	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1		1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–3	0–2	0–3	1–0	3–2
Ionikos	0–1	1–1	3–2	2–0	3–1	4–1		1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–0
Iraklis	4–0	2–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	4–2	2–1		3–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–0
Kallithea	1–4	2–1	2–0	0–0	2–3	1–1	3–3	0–0		3–2	0–1	0–3	2–4	1–2	1–1	2–1
Levadiakos	0–1	3–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–0		1–0	3–2	0–0	3–2	1–0	0–2
OFI	0–1	3–2	2–2	1–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–1	0–0	2–0		1–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–1
Olympiacos	3–0	4–0	2–0	2–1	3–0	5–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	4–0		3–2	5–0	1–2	2–0
Panathinaikos	1–0	3–0	1–0	3–0	4–3	4–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	2–0	3–1	0–2		3–0	1–0	2–1
Panionios	0–2	1–1	2–4	2–1	2–0	0–1	3–3	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–3	2–4		0–1	0–2
PAOK	2–1	2–2	2–0	1–2	2–2	2–0	6–1	1–0	2–1	3–1	2–0	1–2	0–1	1–0		1–0
Skoda Xanthi	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	4–1	2–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Source: Galanis Sports Data

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Dimitris Salpingidis	PAOK	17
2	Luciano de Souza	Panionios	15
	Predrag Đorđević	Olympiacos
4	Nikos Liberopoulos	AEK Athens	14
	Theofanis Gekas	Panathinaikos
6	Joël Epalle	Iraklis	13
7	Oliver Makor	Ionikos	10
	Dimitrios Papadopoulos	Panathinaikos
	Michalis Konstantinou	Olympiacos
10	Cleyton	Apollon Kalamarias	9

Awards

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 11 December 2006.^[2]

Award	Winner	Club
Greek Player of the Season	Ieroklis Stoltidis Nikos Liberopoulos	Olympiacos AEK Athens
Foreign Player of the Season	Rivaldo	Olympiacos
Young Player of the Season	Panagiotis Lagos	Iraklis
Goalkeeper of the Season	Antonios Nikopolidis	Olympiacos
Golden Boot	Dimitris Salpingidis	PAOK
Manager of the Season	Savvas Kofidis	Iraklis