1985–86 AEK Athens F.C. season

AEK Athens

1985–86 season
Chairman	Andreas Zafiropoulos
Manager	Jacek Gmoch (until 12 June) Nikos Christidis
Stadium	Athens Olympic Stadium
Alpha Ethniki	3rd
Greek Cup	Semi-finals
UEFA Cup	First round
Top goalscorer	League: Håkan Sandberg (12) All: Márton Esterházy (17)
Highest home attendance	74,465 vs Olympiacos (9 February 1986)
Lowest home attendance	1,454 vs Chalkida (12 February 1986)
Average home league attendance	27,584
Biggest win	AEK Athens 10–0 Ilioupoli
Biggest defeat	Real Madrid 5–0 AEK Athens
Home colours Away colours

The 1985–86 season was the 62nd season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the 27th consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki, the Greek Cup and the UEFA Cup. The season began on 8 September 1985 and finished on 23 June 1986.

Supplier: Zita Hellas
Sponsor(s): Ethniki Asfalistiki

Home

Away

In the summer of 1985, AEK were forced to play their home games at the Athens Olympic Stadium, due to construction works at AEK Stadium. Since both Olympiacos and Panathinaikos used the same stadium as their home ground at the time, resulted in the conduction of league games on Saturday, so that all 3 teams could be served simultaneously. Antonis Georgiadis left the club to take over the bench of Olympiacos. For his replacement Andreas Zafiropoulos hired Jacek Gmoch, who had won the domestic double in 1984 and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup with Panathinaikos. Christos Ardizoglou left the club and returned to Apollon Athens after a failed attempt to transfer to Olympiacos.

In the UEFA Cup, AEK had a very difficult draw, as they faced the mighty Real Madrid. In the first match at home the yellow-blacks played a good game with its main elements being passion, organization and the creation of scoring opportunities. AEK evantually reached a historic 1–0 win thanks to the goal of Pavlos Papaioannou and the faint of Márton Esterházy over the ball that confuzed the goalkeeper. In the second leg, AEK lined up with an offensive orientation, but they were overwhelmed by the Real Madrid and were easily defeated by 5–0. Thus, the yellow-blacks were left out of the competitions and the merengues went in their eventual conquest of the title.

In first round of the Cup, AEK faced Ilioupoli in a single match at home, where they easily passed through with an easy 10–0 win. Afterwards, they eliminated Kallithea, with the qualification being decided in the second leg with a 0–1 away win that came after the 1–1 at home. At the round of 16, the yellow-blacks came across Chalkida, who they easily eliminated with wins at both legs. Their opponent in the quarter-finals was Panachaiki and after a 3–0 in the first leg, the rematch at Patras was purely procedural, which ended in a 1–0 defeat. Thus, AEK reached the semi-finals facing Panathinaikos. In the first match at the Olympic Stadium, with the yellow-blacks as hosts, depite AEK taking the 2–0 lead, Panathinaikos managed to escape with a 2–2. In the rematch at the same stadium the yellow-blacks once again took the lead making the 0–1, but again the greens responed with two goals and turned the match around, taking the qualification to the final, which they eventually won.

AEK started the league with two victories against PAOK and Aris, but the continuation was not proportional. In December, both Vangelis Vlachos and Lysandros Georgamlis left for Panathinaikos. Their departure greatly affected the team's later performance in the league. However, at the same time, they were strengthened with the addition of Greek-Australian expatriate, Jim Patikas. The whole season was marked by the successive ups and downs in the performance of the team, which could not acquire duration and rhythm. The club presented two different faces in their struggles at home and away matches. In home matches they finished the season undefeated, but with 7 draws that knocked them out of the title race. In the away matches they gathered 7 defeats in 15 games. The team finished at the third place where they were tied with Iraklis, 7 points behind the champion Panathinaikos and 2 behind the second OFI.

However, the whole season was accompanied by the court thriller that was reserved for the end. AEK were playing in the penultimate matchday in Serres against Panserraikos. ΑΕΚ wanted the victory to stay on track for a ticket to the next season's UEFA Cup. On April 19, at the eve of the match, the general manager of AEK, Giannis Chrysovitsianos, was arrested on the accusation of attempted bribery to the players of Panserraikos, Michalis Galatidis, Giorgos Sfakianakis and Giannis Antoniadis, through Giorgos Rigas, to underperform in the game. The match took place normally with Panserraikos winning by 2–0, a result that eventually did not help them avoid relegation. That resulted in the league standings not being secured, until the case was finalized. That eventually happened mid-June, with AEK being punished with the deduction of 3 points from the next season's championship. Thus, the organizing authority decided to conduct a third place play-off match between AEK and Iraklis. Iraklis considered the punishment of AEK from the following season to be a scandal, as well as the acquittal of OFI for the double doping of their player, Alejandro Hisis. The play-off match was set for June 23 at Volos. The delay of the conduction of the match was such that Esterházy played in the match, after competing with his national team at the FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Meanwhile Gmoch had left the club, with his assistant, Nikos Christidis taking over for the match. Iraklis, who disagreed with the conduction of the match, threatened not to show up. Nevertheless, they were forced to show up in fear of punishment and thus they tried to make a parody of the match. The squad of Iraklis was consisted of 10 players, since according to their management, the rest of the players were on vacation. At the 53rd minute while the match was at 0–0, Iraklis were left with 6 players after Zifkas and Karaiskos were sent off, while Santexis and Adamou left the pitch injured. Thus, according to the regulation, the referee interrupted the match and AEK were awarded the match with a 2–0 win, securing a European ticket.^[1]

The club's top scorer in the league was Håkan Sandberg with 12 goals and in total was Márton Esterházy with 17. One of the few positives of that season was that AEK achieved an average league ticket record in their history with 31,254 tickets per game.^[2]

Position	Staff
Manager	Nikos Christidis
Goalkeeping coach	Stelios Serafidis
Head of Medical	Lakis Nikolaou
Physiotherapist	Nikos Pantazis

NOTE: The players are the ones that have been announced by the AEK Athens' press release. No edits should be made unless a player arrival or exit is announced. Updated 23 June 1986, 23:59 UTC+3.

Player	Nat.	Position(s)	Date of birth (Age)	Signed	Previous club	Transfer fee	Contract until
Goalkeepers
Spyros Ikonomopoulos		GK	(1959-07-25)25 July 1959 (aged 26)	1978	AEK Athens U20	—	1989
Theologis Papadopoulos		GK	(1960-01-12)12 January 1960 (aged 26)	1984	AEL	₯9,000,000	1989
Defenders
Makis Chatzis		RB / LB	(1957-03-30)30 March 1957 (aged 29)	1984	Apollon Athens	₯6,750,000	1989
Panagiotis Stylianopoulos		RB / LB / DM	(1957-09-04)4 September 1957 (aged 28)	1978	AEK Athens U20	—	1986
Ilias Armodoros		LB / DM	(1960-01-25)25 January 1960 (aged 26)	1985	Ethnikos Piraeus	Free	1990
Takis Karagiozopoulos		CB / DM / ST	(1961-02-04)4 February 1961 (aged 25)	1981	Veria	Free	1991
Polyvios Chatzopoulos		CB / DM	(1961-07-17)17 July 1961 (aged 24)	1985	Panionios	₯10,400,000	1990
Stelios Manolas		CB / RB	(1961-07-13)13 July 1961 (aged 24)	1979	AEK Athens U20	—	1988
Stefanos Porfyris		CB	(1965-09-02)2 September 1965 (aged 20)	1985	AEK Athens U20	—	1990
Midfielders
Pavlos Dimitriou		AM / LM / LB	(1957-03-24)24 March 1957 (aged 29)	1985	Panserraikos	₯11,000,000	1989
Dinos Ballis		AM / CM / DM / SS / ST / CB	(1957-05-25)25 May 1957 (aged 29)	1981	Aris	₯17,000,000	1986
Pavlos Papaioannou		DM / RB / LB / RM	(1959-05-19)19 May 1959 (aged 27)	1983	Rodos	₯10,000,000	1988
Nikos Pias		CM / DM	(1960-04-07)7 April 1960 (aged 26)	1984	Rodos	₯1,350,000	1989
Babis Akrivopoulos		AM / RM / LM / SS / ST	(1961-09-04)4 September 1961 (aged 24)	1983	Veria	₯8,400,000	1988
Jim Patikas		RM / LM / RW / LW / SS	(1963-10-18)18 October 1963 (aged 22)	1985	Sydney Croatia	₯5,000,000	1988
Dimitris Stafylidis		CM	(1965-01-01)1 January 1965 (aged 21)	1985	AEK Athens U20	—	1988
Forwards
Thomas Mavros (Captain)		ST / LW	(1954-05-31)31 May 1954 (aged 32)	1976	Panionios	₯4,000,000	1987
Márton Esterházy		SS / ST / RW / LW / AM	(1956-04-09)9 April 1956 (aged 30)	1984	Honvéd	₯25,000,000	1986
Håkan Sandberg		ST	(1958-07-27)27 July 1958 (aged 27)	1984	IFK Göteborg	₯8,000,000	1988
Andreas Voitsidis		ST / RW / LW	(1960-04-28)28 April 1960 (aged 26)	1984	Kastoria	₯2,400,000	1989
Giannis Dintsikos		ST / SS / RW / LW / AM	(1960-06-25)25 June 1960 (aged 26)	1981	Kastoria	₯20,000,000	1991
Georgios Christodoulou		ST / SS / LW	(1967-05-20)20 May 1967 (aged 19)	1985	Akratitos	Free	1988
Left during Winter Transfer Window
Christos Arvanitis		GK	(1953-01-23)23 January 1953 (aged 33)	1982	Olympiacos	₯7,000,000	1986
Lysandros Georgamlis (Vice-captain)		RB / CB / DM / LB	(1962-02-25)25 February 1962 (aged 24)	1979	AEK Athens U20	—	1985
Vangelis Vlachos		AM / CM	(1962-01-06)6 January 1962 (aged 24)	1979	AEK Athens U20	—	1989
Michalis Pytharoulis		ST	1966 (aged 19–20)	1984	A.O. Agios Nikolaos	Free	1989

Pos.	Player	From	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
GK	Fanis Kofinas	Korinthos	Loan return	1 July 1985	30 June 1987
DF	Polyvios Chatzopoulos	Panionios	₯10,400,000	21 June 1985	30 June 1990	[3]
DF	Stefanos Porfyris	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	1 July 1985	30 June 1990
DF	Ilias Armodoros	Ethnikos Piraeus	Free transfer	5 July 1985	30 June 1990	[4]
MF	Dimitris Stafylidis	AEK Athens U20	Promotion	1 July 1985	30 June 1988
FW	Georgios Christodoulou	Akratitos	Free transfer[a]	11 July 1985	30 June 1988	[5]

Pos.	Player	From	Fee	Date	Contract Until	Source
MF	Jim Patikas	Sydney Croatia	₯5,000,000[6]	12 December 1985	30 November 1988	[7]
MF	Pavlos Dimitriou	Panserraikos	₯11,000,000	16 December 1985	30 June 1989	[8]

Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Source
DF	Stavros Letsas	Egaleo	Contract termination	9 August 1985	[9]
ΜF	Christos Ardizoglou	Apollon Athens	Contract termination	15 July 1985	[10]

Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Source
GK	Christos Arvanitis	Olympiacos	₯6,000,000[b]	16 December 1985	[11]
DF	Lysandros Georgamlis	Panathinaikos	₯9,100,000	22 November 1985	[12]
MF	Vangelis Vlachos	Panathinaikos	₯16,000,000[c]	10 December 1985	[13]

Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
GK	Fanis Kofinas	Ionikos	Free	15 July 1985	30 June 1987	N	[14]
DF	Dimos Tsimiliotis	Acharnaikos	Free	15 July 1985	30 June 1986	N	[15]

Pos.	Player	To	Fee	Date	Until	Option to buy	Source
FW	Michalis Pytharoulis	Vyzas Megara	Free	28 November 1985	30 November 1986	N	[16]

Notes

Pos.	Player	Date	Former Exp. Date	New Exp. Date	Source
DF	Takis Karagiozopoulos	13 June 1986	30 June 1986	30 June 1991	[18]
FW	Håkan Sandberg	28 May 1986	30 June 1986	30 June 1988	[19]
FW	Giannis Dintsikos	13 June 1986	30 June 1986	30 June 1991	[18]

Competition	First match	Last match	Starting round	Final position	Record
					Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Alpha Ethniki	8 September 1985	27 April 1986	Matchday 1	3rd	30	13	10	7	42	28	+14	043.33
3rd place play-off	23 June 1986		Final	Winners	1	1	0	0	0	0	+0	100.00
Greek Cup	6 November 1985	21 May 1986	First round	Semi-finals	9	5	2	2	22	7	+15	055.56
UEFA Cup	18 September 1985	2 October 1985	First round	First round	2	1	0	1	1	5	−4	050.00
Total					42	20	12	10	65	40	+25	047.62

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Panathinaikos (C)	30	18	7	5	58	26	+32	43	Qualification for European Cup first round
2	OFI	30	16	6	8	41	31	+10	38	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round[a]
3	AEK Athens	30	13	10	7	42	28	+14	36
4	Iraklis	30	14	8	8	34	22	+12	36
5	Olympiacos	30	14	6	10	57	42	+15	34	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round[b]

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
30	13	10	7	42	28	+14	36	8	7	0	26	9	+17	5	3	7	16	19	−3

As of 23 June 1986

No.	Pos	Player	Alpha Ethniki		Greek Cup		UEFA Cup		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Goalkeepers
—	GK	Spyros Ikonomopoulos	1	0	2	0	0	0	3	0
—	GK	Theologis Papadopoulos	23	0	7	0	0	0	30	0
Defenders
—	DF	Makis Chatzis	24	0	7	0	2	0	33	0
—	DF	Panagiotis Stylianopoulos	14	0	5	1	0	0	19	1
—	DF	Ilias Armodoros	25	0	8	0	2	0	35	0
—	DF	Takis Karagiozopoulos	25	1	7	2	2	0	34	3
—	DF	Polyvios Chatzopoulos	19	1	8	0	2	0	29	1
—	DF	Stelios Manolas	20	3	7	1	2	0	29	4
—	DF	Stefanos Porfyris	2	0	3	0	0	0	5	0
Midfielders
—	MF	Pavlos Dimitriou	15	0	5	0	0	0	20	0
—	MF	Dinos Ballis	22	4	7	2	1	0	30	6
—	MF	Pavlos Papaioannou	27	0	6	0	2	1	35	1
—	MF	Nikos Pias	24	0	6	0	2	0	32	0
—	MF	Babis Akrivopoulos	5	0	0	0	1	0	6	0
—	MF	Jim Patikas	12	0	3	2	0	0	15	2
—	MF	Dimitris Stafylidis	11	1	8	0	0	0	19	1
Forwards
—	FW	Thomas Mavros	17	4	4	0	1	0	22	4
—	FW	Márton Esterházy	29	11	6	6	2	0	37	17
—	FW	Håkan Sandberg	29	12	6	4	2	0	37	16
—	FW	Andreas Voitsidis	13	0	5	0	0	0	18	0
—	FW	Giannis Dintsikos	20	5	4	3	1	0	25	8
—	FW	Georgios Christodoulou	6	0	2	1	0	0	8	1
Left during Winter Transfer Window
—	GK	Christos Arvanitis	7	0	0	0	2	0	9	0
—	DF	Lysandros Georgamlis	7	0	1	0	2	0	10	0
—	MF	Vangelis Vlachos	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
—	FW	Michalis Pytharoulis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

As of 23 June 1986

Rank	Pos.	Player	Alpha Ethniki	Greek Cup	UEFA Cup	Total
1	FW	Márton Esterházy	11	6	0	17
2	FW	Håkan Sandberg	12	4	0	16
3	FW	Giannis Dintsikos	5	3	0	8
4	MF	Dinos Ballis	4	2	0	6
5	FW	Thomas Mavros	4	0	0	4
	DF	Stelios Manolas	3	1	0	4
7	DF	Takis Karagiozopoulos	1	2	0	3
8	MF	Jim Patikas	0	2	0	2
9	DF	Polyvios Chatzopoulos	1	0	0	1
	MF	Dimitris Stafylidis	1	0	0	1
	DF	Panagiotis Stylianopoulos	0	1	0	1
	FW	Georgios Christodoulou	0	1	0	1
	MF	Pavlos Papaioannou	0	0	1	1
Own goals			0	0	0	0
Totals			42	22	1	65

Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored.

Player	Against	Result	Date	Competition	Source
Márton Esterházy	Ilioupoli	10–0 (H)	6 November 1985	Greek Cup	[33]

The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal and then alphabetically by surname. Clean sheets in games where both goalkeepers participated are awarded to the goalkeeper who started the game. Goalkeepers with no appearances are not included.

As of 23 June 1986

Rank	Player	Alpha Ethniki	Greek Cup	UEFA Cup	Total
1	Theologis Papadopoulos	10	3	0	13
2	Christos Arvanitis	2	0	1	3
3	Spyros Ikonomopoulos	0	1	0	1
Totals		12	4	1	17

As of 23 June 1986

N	P	Nat.	Name	Alpha Ethniki			Greek Cup			UEFA Cup			Total			Notes
Goalkeepers
—	GK		Spyros Ikonomopoulos
—	GK		Theologis Papadopoulos
Defenders
—	DF		Makis Chatzis	2									2
—	DF		Panagiotis Stylianopoulos	1									1
—	DF		Ilias Armodoros	3			2						5
—	DF		Takis Karagiozopoulos	7									7
—	DF		Polyvios Chatzopoulos	3			1			1			5
—	DF		Stelios Manolas	9			2						11
—	DF		Stefanos Porfyris
Midfielders
—	MF		Pavlos Dimitriou	2									2
—	MF		Dinos Ballis	4		1	3	1					7	1	1
—	MF		Pavlos Papaioannou	7	1		1						8	1
—	MF		Nikos Pias	4		1							4		1
—	MF		Babis Akrivopoulos
—	MF		Jim Patikas	2			1						3
—	MF		Dimitris Stafylidis	3			3						6
Forwards
—	FW		Thomas Mavros	2									2
—	FW		Márton Esterházy	4									4
—	FW		Håkan Sandberg	8			3	1		1			12	1
—	FW		Andreas Voitsidis	1									1
—	FW		Giannis Dintsikos	2	1								2	1
—	FW		Georgios Christodoulou
Left during Winter Transfer Window
—	GK		Christos Arvanitis	1									1
—	DF		Lysandros Georgamlis							1			1
—	MF		Vangelis Vlachos
—	FW		Michalis Pytharoulis

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