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Stratos Gidopoulos
Greek businessman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Stratos Gidopoulos (Greek: Στράτος Γιδόπουλος; born in 1941) is a Greek former footballer, sports agent and nightclub entrepreneur.
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Football career
As a footballer, Gidopoulos played as a goalkeeper. One of the highlights of his career was his participation in the senior team of Apollon Athens, which played in the first championship of Alpha Ethniki and finished in 4th place behind the champion Panathinaikos, AEK Athens and Olympiacos. He also played for OFI and Olympiacos Volos, while towards the end of his football career he played for Asteras Exarchion in the Athenian championships.[1]
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Nightclub ownership
He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the owner of large beach nightclubs in the southern suburbs of Athens (the newspapers called him "Lord of the Night"), the most famous of which was "Archipelagos", where many government officials also frequented.[2]
Sport's agent
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President of AEK Athens
Gidopoulos is mainly known for his tenure as administrative leader and president of AEK Athens under Andreas Zafiropoulos ownership.[3] In June 1988, Zafiropoulos stepped down of the presidency of the club, with the majority of the fans against him and handed over to him. He was the one who brought Dušan Bajević as the team's coach, and essentially began the second golden era of the yellow-blacks.[4] With Gidopoulos at the wheel, AEK returned to the titles, winning the 1989 championship, while he was beloved to the fans and was seriously considered by the opponents as a factor, since he played a catalytic role in changing the climate in the administrative sector.[5] The following season under his presidency the club won the 1989 Greek Super Cup and the Greek League Cup.[6] He was responsible for major signings such as Mirosław Okoński, Antonis Minou, Toni Savevski and Daniel Batista. In the summer of 1991 as Zafiropoulos was not able to bare the financial weight of the club and since he didn't have any shares and at the request of the organized fans, he departed from the management of AEK. As a result, the Court of First Instance chose a temporary administration led by Kostas Generakis.[7][8]
Involvement in ther clubs
His involvement with the administration of AEK, did not prevent him from enacting with other clubs as well, later on. He became the president of Panionios[9] for a short period in 1996 and in July 1999 he took over as the captain of the football department at PAOK.[10] In 2008 he took the wheel as the president of third-tier club, Niki Volos for 3 years[11] and in 2014 he was appointed as the excecutive director at Apollon Smyrnis.[12]
Political affiliations
Gidopoulos was also known for his political activity as a PASOK executive, as he was a close friend of the MP and minister Evangelos Yannopoulos, who also frequented his nightclubs. Giannopoulos had promised him that he would put him on the PASOK ballot in the Athens B for the elections of November 1989, but he met with strong resistance from members of the PASOK Executive Bureau, and Gidopoulos was eventually "cut" from the lists of parliamentary candidates. Gidopoulos himself stated on the issue on November 6, immediately after the elections: "I told them in the Executive Office: put me on the ballot to bring two more seats to Andreas, and I'll sign a paper saying that the next day I'm resigning! I don't want to be an MP, I'm happy being president of AEK. They didn't want to. What should we do, it doesn't matter, as long as we did well. AEK is doing well, PASOK is the same."[2]
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References
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