2011–12 Super League Greece

The 2011–12 Super League Greece was the 76th season of the highest football league of Greece and the sixth under the name Super League. The season began in late August or early September 2011 and ended in May 2012 with the last matchday of the European play-off round. Olympiacos were the defending champions, having won their 38th Greek championship in the 2010–11 season.

Super League Greece

Season	2011–12
Dates	27 August 2011 – 22 April 2012
Champions	Olympiacos 39th Greek title
Relegated	Ergotelis Panetolikos Doxa Drama
Champions League	Olympiacos Panathinaikos
Europa League	Atromitos PAOK Asteras Tripolis
Matches played	238
Goals scored	527 (2.21 per match)
Top goalscorer	Kevin Mirallas (20 goals)
Biggest home win	Olympiacos 6–0 Doxa Drama
Biggest away win	Kerkyra 0–4 Olympiacos Levadiakos 0–4 Olympiacos Kerkyra 0–4 PAOK PAS Giannina 0–4 Olympiacos
Highest scoring	Olympiacos 7–2 Asteras Tripolis
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The league comprised 13 teams from the 2010–11 season and three promoted teams from the 2010–11 Football League.

Teams

AEL, Panserraikos, Iraklis, Olympiacos Volos and Kavala were relegated at the end of the 2010–11 season. AEL and Panserraikos were relegated on virtue of their league position at the end of the season; AEL had to return to the Football League, formerly known as Beta Ethniki, after six seasons, while Panserraikos were relegated after just one season. Olympiacos Volos and Kavala were initially relegated to the Delta Ethniki due to the ongoing match-fixing scandal,^[1] but after an appeal, both teams demanded to have their cases rechecked.^[2] The Professional Sports Committee refused, however, and the original penalty stood.^[3] On 22 October 2011, almost two months after the league had started, they were replaced by Doxa Drama and Levadiakos.^[4]

Iraklis were denied a licence for the 2011–12 season over unpaid debts^[5] and put into last place of the league table.^[6] The club was thus demoted to the 2011–12 Football League, concluding a twenty-nine-year run in the highest football league of Greece. The demotion of Iraklis eventually spared Asteras Tripolis from relegation.^[6]

The three relegated teams have been replaced by 2010–11 Football League champions Panetolikos, runners-up PAS Giannina and OFI via a play-off round. Panetolikos returned to the Greek top football level after 34 seasons, while PAS Giannina made their immediate comeback to the Superleague.

The promotion play-off round, originally scheduled to take place in late May 2011, was postponed to late July 2011 after qualified teams OFI and Trikala were denied a licence for the 2011–12 season.^[7] The decision against OFI has since been reverted after the club successfully took the case to a civil court,^[8] enabling the side to compete in the play-offs along Levadiakos, Doxa Drama and Diagoras. OFI were eventually promoted as play-off winners after they were granted a walkover in their second-to-last match as their opponents Doxa Drama were not able to field a full side.^[8] The Heraklion club thus returned to the Super League after two seasons.

Stadiums and locations

AEK Athens
Atromitos
Panathinaikos
Panionios

Aris
PAOK

Asteras

Doxa

Ergotelis
OFI

Kerkyra

Levadiakos

Olympiacos

Panetolikos

PAS Giannina

Skoda Xanthi

Location of the 2011–12 Super League Greece teams

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity	Av. attendance[9]
AEK Athens	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	69,618[10]	7,396
Aris	Thessaloniki	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium	22,800	8,126
Asteras Tripolis	Tripoli	Asteras Tripolis Stadium	6,430	1,919
Atromitos	Athens	Peristeri Stadium	8,939	1,721
Doxa Drama	Thessaloniki[note 1]	Kaftanzoglio Stadium[note 1]	27,770	970
Ergotelis	Heraklion	Pankritio Stadium	26,240	1,172
Kerkyra	Corfu	Kerkyra Stadium	2,685	979
Levadiakos	Livadeia	Levadia Municipal Stadium	6,500[11]	1,143
OFI	Heraklion	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium	9,088[12]	3,289
Olympiacos	Piraeus	Karaiskakis Stadium	32,115[13]	21,750
Panathinaikos	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium	69,618	14,331
Panetolikos	Agrinio	Panetolikos Stadium	5,500	4,961
Panionios	Athens	Nea Smyrni Stadium	11,700[14]	2,302
PAOK	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium	28,703[15]	12,297
PAS Giannina	Ioannina	Zosimades Stadium	7,652[16]	2,948
Skoda Xanthi	Xanthi	Skoda Xanthi Arena	7,361[17]	1,636

Notes

1. Temporary home stadium, until their own Doxa Drama Stadium in Drama gets a new pitch and floodlights installed. (in Greek)

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
AEK Athens	Nikos Kostenoglou	Pantelis Kafes	Puma	Κino
Aris	Manuel Machado	Michalis Sifakis	Under Armour	Κino
Asteras Tripolis	Sakis Tsiolis	Antonis Ladakis	Lotto	Lotto
Atromitos	Giorgos Donis	Stelios Sfakianakis	Hummel	good.gr
Doxa Drama	Makis Katsavakis	Angelos Vertzos	Teapo	Pame Stoixima
Ergotelis	Nikos Karageorgiou	Silva Júnior	Macron	Lotto
Kerkyra	Timos Kavakas	Dimitrios Grammozis	Masita	good.gr
Levadiakos	Georgios Paraschos	Thanasis Moulopoulos	Hummel	Extra 5
OFI	Nikos Anastopoulos	Minas Pitsos	Nike	Races
Olympiacos	Ernesto Valverde	Vasilis Torosidis	Puma	Pame Stoixima
Panathinaikos	Jesualdo Ferreira	Josu Sarriegi	Adidas	OPAP
Panetolikos	Giannis Dalakouras	Giorgos Theodoridis	Hummel	Go Lucky
Panionios	Akis Mantzios	Fanouris Goundoulakis	Givova	Tzoker
PAOK	László Bölöni	Stelios Malezas	Puma	Pame Stoixima
PAS Giannina	Angelos Anastasiadis	Georgios Dasios	Lotto	Tzoker
Skoda Xanthi	Marinos Ouzounidis	Spyros Vallas	Nike	Super 3

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Asteras Tripolis	Óscar Fernández	Sacked[18]	19 September 2011	10th	Horácio Gonçalves	23 September 2011[19]
AEK Athens	Manolo Jiménez	Mutual consent[20]	5 October 2011	3rd	Nikos Kostenoglou	6 October 2011[21]
Aris	Sakis Tsiolis	Mutual consent[22]	31 October 2011	12th	Michał Probierz	4 November 2011[23]
Asteras Tripolis	Horácio Gonçalves	Sacked[24]	1 November 2011	13th	Sakis Tsiolis	9 November 2011[25]
Kerkyra	Božidar Bandović	Resigned[26][27]	9 November 2011	14th	Javi Gracia	13 November 2011[28]
Panionios	Takis Lemonis	Mutual consent[29]	22 November 2011	9th	Apostolos Mantzios	24 November 2011[30]
PAS Giannina	Stéphane Demol	Sacked[31]	23 November 2011	10th	Angelos Anastasiadis	4 December 2011[32]
Doxa Drama	Apostolos Charalampidis	Resigned[33]	8 December 2011	16th	Makis Katsavakis	8 December 2011[33]
Aris	Michał Probierz	Mutual consent[34]	5 January 2012	11th	Manuel Machado	16 January 2012[35]
Panetolikos	Babis Tennes	Mutual consent[36]	9 February 2012	12th	Takis Lemonis	9 February 2012[37]
Kerkyra	Javi Gracia	Sacked[38]	28 March 2012	15th	Timos Kavakas	28 March 2012[39]
Panetolikos	Takis Lemonis	Mutual consent[40]	11 April 2012	15th	Giannis Dalakouras	11 April 2012[40]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Olympiacos (C)	30	23	4	3	70	17	+53	73	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Panathinaikos[a]	30	22	3	5	54	23	+31	66	Qualification for the Play-offs
3	PAOK	30	14	8	8	45	27	+18	50[b]
4	Atromitos	30	13	11	6	32	26	+6	50[b]
5	AEK Athens	30	13	9	8	36	30	+6	48
6	Asteras Tripolis	30	13	6	11	30	34	−4	45	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[c]
7	Levadiakos	30	11	6	13	33	42	−9	39
8	PAS Giannina	30	10	8	12	30	35	−5	38
9	Aris[d]	30	10	10	10	29	33	−4	37[e]
10	OFI	30	10	7	13	27	32	−5	37[e]
11	Skoda Xanthi	30	10	6	14	31	35	−4	36
12	Panionios	30	9	6	15	26	34	−8	33
13	Kerkyra	30	8	8	14	31	44	−13	32
14	Ergotelis (R)	30	7	8	15	27	44	−17	29	Relegation to the Football League
15	Panetolikos (R)	30	7	7	16	23	37	−14	28
16	Doxa Drama (R)	30	4	5	21	11	42	−31	17

Source: Super League Greece
Rules for classification: 1) Points, 2) Head-to-head points,^[43] 3) Head-to-head goal difference.^[44]
If in current league table there are tied teams after applying criteria 1 to 3, they are considered to share places and listed in Greek language alphabetic order.^[45]
If in final league table there are still tied teams after applying criteria 1 to 3, a decision match (or matches if they are more than two) are to be played but only in three cases: to determine the champion, to fill spots in the play-off or to determine the teams to be relegated.^[46] In any other case, the final standings of tied teams are determined with a public draw^[47]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Panathinaikos was docked three points following severe crowd violence during a match against Olympiacos and lost the game 0–3.^[41]
2. Head-to-head points: PAOK 4, Atromitos 1.
3. AEK Athens were not licensed to play in the Europa League 2012–13 and therefore were replaced by the 6th placed team in the league table, which were Asteras Tripolis (which played in the second qualifying round).
4. Aris was docked three points following an object thrown into the field during a match against Asteras Tripolis and lost the game 0–3.^[42]
5. Head-to-head points: Aris 6, OFI 0.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	ARIS	AST	ATR	DOX	ERG	KER	LEV	OFI	OLY	PAO	PNE	PGSS	PAOK	PAS	XAN
AEK Athens		3–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–2	2–1	1–1
Aris	1–0		0–3[a]	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–3	3–1	0–0	4–2	1–1	1–0	0–0
Asteras Tripolis	1–1	1–0		0–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	0–1	2–2	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–1
Atromitos	1–0	0–0	0–1		2–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	1–0
Doxa Drama	1–1	1–3	1–0	0–1		1–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–0	0–2
Ergotelis	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–2	2–1		1–0	0–1	0–1	2–3	0–2	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–2
Kerkyra	2–2	1–0	0–0	2–2	3–1	2–1		3–2	4–1	0–4	0–2	2–3	0–3	0–4	1–2	2–0
Levadiakos	0–2	1–1	0–1	2–2	1–0	0–1	4–3		0–2	0–4	1–0	2–0	0–0	4–3	1–1	2–0
OFI	3–1	0–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–1		0–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–0
Olympiacos	2–0	3–0	7–2	1–0	6–0	3–0	0–1	3–1	2–2		1–1	2–0	2–0	2–1	2–0	2–1
Panathinaikos	3–2	1–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	4–0	1–0	3–0	3–1	0–3[b]		4–0	3–0	0–2	3–1	3–0
Panetolikos	0–2	5–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1		0–1	1–1	2–2	2–0
Panionios	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	2–0	2–2	2–0	2–0	1–3	0–3	1–2	1–0		1–2	0–0	1–1
PAOK	3–0	0–0	2–3	3–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	3–1	0–0	0–2	1–3	3–0	1–0		1–2	1–0
PAS Giannina	2–1	0–0	3–1	1–2	1–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–4	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–2		0–2
Skoda Xanthi	3–4	0–2	0–1	3–0	1–0	4–2	1–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	2–3	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–2

Source: Super League Greece
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. The match between Aris and Asteras Tripolis was awarded to Asteras Tripolis after being suspended at 42nd minute (score: 0–1).
2. The match between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos was awarded to Olympiacos^[41] after being suspended at 0–1 and 81 minutes due to severe crowd violence.^[48]

Play-offs

In the play-off for Champions League, the four qualified teams play each other in a home and away round robin. However, they do not all start with 0 points. Instead, a weighting system applies to the teams' standing at the start of the play-off mini-league. The team finishing fifth in the Super League will start the play-off with 0 points. The fifth placed team's end of season tally of points is subtracted from the sum of the points that other teams have. This number is then divided by five.

Before the last round of matches, fifth-placed club AEK Athens earned 48 points during the regular season. Based on this number and the calculations above, Panathinaikos as runners-up began the play-offs with four points ((66–48)/5 = 3.6, rounded to 4) while PAOK and Atromitos started with zero points each ((50–48)/5 = 0.4, rounded to 0).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification		PAO	AEK	ATR	PAOK
2	Panathinaikos	6	3	1	2	5	4	+1	14	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round			1–0	1–1	2–0
3	AEK Athens	6	3	0	3	7	5	+2	9	Ineligible for the 2012–13 European competitions.[a]		2–0		3–2	2–0
4	Atromitos	6	2	2	2	6	6	0	8	Qualification for the Europa League play-off round[a][b]		0–1	1–0		1–1
5	PAOK	6	2	1	3	3	6	−3	7	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round[a][b]		1–0	1–0	0–1

Source: Superleague Greece: Standings and Schedule
Rules for classification: Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) classification of regular season.
Notes:

1. AEK Athens were not licensed to play in the Europa League 2012–2013 and therefore were replaced by the 6th placed team in the league table, Asteras Tripolis, qualified for the second qualifying round. This meant that PAOK were qualified for the third qualifying round of the Europa League and Atromitos to the Europa League play-offs.
2. Atromitos lost the final of the 2011–12 Greek Football Cup against Champions League-qualified team Olympiacos. As a consequence, the three Europa League spots were distributed by the final standings of this group.

Season statistics

Top scorers Updated to games played on 22 April 2012. Rank Player Club Goals[49] 1 Kevin Mirallas Olympiacos 20 2 Kostas Mitroglou Atromitos 16 3 Sebastián Leto Panathinaikos 15 4 Stefanos Athanasiadis PAOK 12 Rafik Djebbour Olympiacos 12 6 Chumbinho OFI / Levadiakos 10 Njazi Kuqi Panionios 10 Marko Pantelić Olympiacos 10 9 Leonardo AEK Athens 9 Marko Markovski Skoda Xanthi 9

Top assists Updated to games played on 22 April 2012. Rank Player Club Assists[50] 1 Djamel Abdoun Olympiacos 9 2 Ariel Ibagaza Olympiacos 7 3 Quincy Owusu-Abeyie Panathinaikos 6 Chumbinho OFI / Levadiakos 6 Javier Umbides Aris 6 6 José Carlos AEK Athens 5 Cleyton Panathinaikos 5 Denis Epstein Atromitos 5 Costin Lazar PAOK 5 Sebastián Leto Panathinaikos 5 Lino PAOK 5 Kevin Mirallas Olympiacos 5 Mauro Poy Skoda Xanthi 5

Awards

MVP and Best Goal Awards

Matchday	MVP	Best Goal	Ref
1st	Leonardo (AEK Athens)	Javito (Olympiacos)	[51]
2nd	Kevin Mirallas (Olympiacos)	Fabián Vargas (AEK Athens)	[52]
3rd	Stelios Vasiliou (Levadiakos)	Stefanos Athanasiadis (PAOK)	[53]
4th	Vieirinha (PAOK)	Giannis Gianniotas (Aris)	[54]
5th	Toché (Panathinaikos)	Leandro Becerra (PAS Giannina)	[55]
6th	Dino Seremet (Doxa Drama)	Christos Aravidis (Doxa Drama)	[56]
7th	Vangelis Mantzios (OFI)	Chumbinho (OFI)	[57]
8th	Ilias Anastasakos (Atromitos)	Ilias Ioannou (Kerkyra)	[58]
9th	Mirnes Šišić (OFI)	Vangelis Mantzios (OFI)	[59]
10th	Giannis Gianniotas (Aris)	Juliano Spadacio (PAOK)	[60]
11th	Jacobo Sanz (Asteras Tripolis)	Emanuel Perrone (Asteras Tripolis)	[61]
12th	Javier Umbides (Aris)	Danijel Cesarec (Aris)	[62]
13th	Marko Pantelić (Olympiacos)	Luiz Brito (Atromitos)	[63]
14th	Lino (PAOK)	Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK)	[64]
15th	Stefanos Athanasiadis (PAOK)	Marko Markovski (Skoda Xanthi)	[65]
16th	Mohammed Abubakari (Doxa Drama)	Dimitrios Sialmas (AEK Athens)	[66]
17th	Dimitris Salpingidis (PAOK)	Cleyton (Panathinaikos)	[67]
18th	Fotis Papoulis (OFI)	Dimitrios Grammozis (Kerkyra)	[68]
19th	Nery Castillo (Aris)	Georgios Georgiadis (PAOK)	[69]
20th	Fotis Kipouros (PAS Giannina)	Leandro Becerra (PAS Giannina)	[70]
21st	Apostolos Giannou (PAOK)	Georgios Kousas (Panetolikos)	[71]
22nd	Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (Panathinaikos)	Kostas Mitroglou (Olympiacos)	[72]
23rd	Kostas Chalkias (PAOK)	José Holebas (Olympiacos)	[73]
24th	Emanuel Perrone (Asteras Tripolis)	Stefanos Athanasiadis (PAOK)	[74]
25th	Nikolaos Lazaridis (Aris)	Vangelis Ikonomou (Atromitos)	[75]
26th	Costin Lazăr (PAOK)	Pablo García (PAOK)	[76]
27th	Fotis Georgiou (PAS Giannina)	Athanasios Tsigas (Kerkyra)	[77]
28th	Anastasios Kyriakos (PAS Giannina)	Ilias Ioannou (Kerkyra)	[78]
29th	Angelos Charisteas (Panetolikos)	Konstantinos Panagiotoudis (PAOK)	[79]
30th	Emiljano Vila (PAS Giannina)	Giannis Fetfatzidis (Olympiacos)	[80]

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 14 January 2013.^[81]

Award	Winner	Club
Greek Player of the Season	Kostas Mitroglou	Atromitos
Foreign Player of the Season	Kevin Mirallas	Olympiacos
Young Player of the Season	Panagiotis Vlachodimos	Skoda Xanthi
Goalkeeper of the Season	Orestis Karnezis	Panathinaikos
Golden Boot	Kevin Mirallas	Olympiacos
Manager of the Season	Ernesto Valverde	Olympiacos
	Georgios Donis	Atromitos