Kavala F.C.

Kavala Football Club^[1] (Greek: Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα, lit. 'Athletic Club Kavala') is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Kavala, Greece. They compete in the Super League Greece 2, the second tier of the Greek football league system. The club's home ground is the Anthi Karagianni Stadium.

The club was formed in 1965 from the merger of Phillipoi Kavala, Iraklis Kavala and A.E. Kavala.^[2]

They have had a few runs in the top division of the Greek League. They were promoted to Alpha Ethniki for the first time in 1969 and stayed up for six years (1970 through 1975). They returned to the top division in 1976 and played again for six seasons.

In 1982, the club were relegated to the Beta Ethniki (second tier of Greek football). After eleven years in Beta Ethniki and one year in Gamma Ethniki (third tier – 1988–89) they were promoted to Alpha Ethniki. Their "black" period began for the team in which they played only in Beta Ethniki and Gamma Ethniki.

In 2009, they signed Miltiadis Sapanis and EURO 2004 winner Fanis Katergiannakis. Kavala were promoted for the first time in 9 years to Greeces top division. In their quest to remain in the top flight they have signed Pepe Reina's back up at Liverpool, Charles Itandje and recently acquired Brazilian Denílson (January 2010 transfer window) a 2002 World Cup Winner. Additional season signings include Craig Moore, Željko Kalac, Ebi Smolarek, Diogo Rincón, Sotiris Leontiou, Serge Dié, Wilson Oruma and Frédéric Mendy. This combined with coach Aad de Mos meant that Kavala set the league alight. They subsequently achieved notable victories in the 2009–2010 season against Iraklis FC, Panionios, AEK FC and Panathinaikos FC.

Ending in sixth place, the team entered the transfer season. In July, the Spanish goalkeeper, Javier Lopez Vallejo (who played in Real Zaragoza) was added to the roster. The team's owner sought the new manager throughout Europe and settled on the Serbian coach Dragomir Okuka who lasted until November, when he was replaced by Henryk Kasperczak. In Kasperczak's debut as a coach, Kavala beat AEK, 2–1, in what was considered a very good appearance.

But in March 2011, Kasperczak, retired as the coach of this team, and he was replaced by Ioannis Matzourakis, who was the coach in the Kavala team during the 1985–1986 season. Kavala finished seventh and, later faced the threat of relegation to Football League (Greece) due to the match-fixing scandal.^[3] After an appeal, the team managed to avoid relegation by starting the new league with eight points less.^[4] On 23 August, however, the Professional Sports Committee stripped both Kavala and Olympiakos Volou from their professional licence and demoted them to the Delta Ethniki.^[5]

Kavala competed in Delta Ethniki Group 1. They only finished fourth, but were promoted two divisions to the Football League for 2012/13 after it was ruled that their demotion to Delta Ethniki in 2011 was as a result of government intervention and should not have been implemented by the football authorities.^[6]

Ιn September 2013, Germans investors took control of Kavala. The agreement ensured that the new investors will pay off significant part of its debts to old players.

Indeed, the Germans bought a majority stake of the shares of Kavala, paying a €500,000 clause in the first season and €700,000 for the second, respectively.

The emblem of the club is the ancient trireme, as architecture engineer Christos Batsis designed it. According to the instigator of the emblem of Kavala, the boat is a trireme, where the oars are the footballers, the cloth the administration and the fancy the fans of the club. These three elements together lead Kavala to the harbors that are the targets the team puts each time. All of this certainly has to do with the fact that Kavala is a coastal city and its world closely related to the wet element. The original element of the emblem of Kavala was hanging on the door of the design of the late Christos Batsis until he died.

For a while, the emblem contained the then name of the "Puma Nea Kavala Football Club" team.

The Anthi Karagianni Stadium, formerly the Kavala National Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kavala, Greece. It is the homebase of Kavala. The stadium was built in 1970, and currently has a seating capacity of 10,500. It is named after the paralympic athlete, Anthi Karagianni, who won three silver medals in the 2004 Paralympic Games.

League

• Second Division
  • Winners (4): 1966–67, 1968–69, 1975–76, 1995–96
  • Runners-up (1): 1993–94
• Third Division
  • Winners (3): 2007–08, 2018–19, 2023–24
  • Runners-up (3): 1989–90, 2020–21, 2022–23

Cup

• Kavala FCA Cup
  • Winners (1): 2017–18

• Greek Cup
  • Semi-finals: 1964–65, 1994–95, 2009–10

• Balkans cup
  • Group stage: 1972^[7]

• First Division (19): 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011
• Second Division (24): 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014, 2021–2022, 2024–present
• Third Division (15): 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–2021, 2022–2024
• Fourth Division (1): 2011–2012

Sources:^[8][9]

Best position in bold.

Key: 1R = First Round, 2R = Second Round, 3R = Third Round, 4R = Fourth Round, 5R = Fifth Round, GS = Group Stage, QF = Quarter-finals, SF = Semi-finals.

As of 2 March, 2025

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

The following managers won at least one national trophy when in charge of Kavala F.C.:

• Pavlos Dermitzakis 2018–2020
• Henryk Kasperczak 2010–2011
• Reiner Maurer 2008
• Aad de Mos 2010

Source:

• Official website