The 1965–66 season was the 42nd season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the seventh consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki and the Greek Cup. The season began on 28 November 1965 and finished on 10 July 1966.
Overview
The 1965–66 season was characterized both for AEK Athens and for Greek football in general, by both interesting and strange events. The strictness of the football authorities was the price paid by the yellow-blacks on the effort made at the beginning of the season with their official and former footballer, Kleanthis Maropoulos, in order to cooperate with the representatives of the regional clubs, creating a block of reaction to the dominance of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos in the decisions of the centers of authority. The "eternals", alarmed by the coalition of the rest that Maropoulos seemed to be succeeding even threatened to withdraw from the national Championship, terrorizing the smaller ones with the suspicion of loss of revenue from it, delaying its start until 28 November, when the first matchday was set.Andreas Bomis, Goal 2000 • A century of football: almanac, history, comments, Ed. Pelekanos, Athens 2000, ISBN 978-000-4000-05-3, page 294Giorgos Pagiotelis, The Epic of the First National Team, period. The WORLD No. 13 (Jan 1995), page 34
The start of the season for AEK was overshadowed by the conflict between the club's administration and Mimis Papaioannou with the latter's decision to leave football and turn to singing. The 23-year-old forward, having impressed Real Madrid officials with his performance and skills in a 3–3 friendly draw on 12 May 1965, was negotiating a transfer to the Spanish club. When he run into the administration's refusal to his concession, he became bittered and withdrew from the club's activities. Taking advantage of his vocal abilities, he participated in the musical group that surrounded Stelios Kazantzidis, with whom he left for a tour in the Greek immigrants of Germany.
The abstention of Papaioannou put an obstacle on the plans of the manager, Tryfon Tzanetis who in the summer of 1965 had taken care to strengthen the squad with signings, such as the defender of Apollon Athens, Tasos Vasiliou, the forward of PAO Safrafolis, Kostas Nikolaidis and the main player in the midfield of Fostiras, Panagiotis Ventouris, while Nikos Stathopoulos, Giorgos Karafeskos and Michalis Simigdalas were promoted to the senior team. The absence of Papaioannou from the team's preparation and his looming absence from their competitive obligations forced Kostas Nestoridis, to change his initian decision of leaving AEK and remain at the club for the start of the season. However, due to his advanced age, Nestoridis was no more sufficient to fill the gap of Papaioannou and AEK started their season in the Championship with two defeats and one victory in the first three matches. Αt the beginning of December 1965, the differences between AEK and Papaioannou have begun to bridge and after getting a new contract of 500,000 drachmas, he returned to the team, shortly before the derby with Panathinaikos at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium. Despite the fact that the lack of training caused him to suffer from cramps throughout the match, Papaioannou contributed to AEK's 2–3 victory by scoring one of the three goals while the other two scored by Nikolaidis. That match was the beginning of a 14-match undefeated streak, which brought the club on a distance of 3 points from the top. AEK were firmly in contention for the title, but the next two matches with the derbies at Karaiskakis Stadium against Olympiacos and in Nea Filadelfeia against Panathinaikos negated any hopes they may have had. On 27 March at Faliro, Olympiacos were sweeping, winning by 4–0 and in 3 April in the match against Panathinaikos, as the match was at 1–1 and while there had been previous violent incidents between the players in the first half, Panathinaikos scored at the 88th minute with Takis Loukanidis from an offside position. The referee awarded the goal and wild incidents occurred with the participation of supporters entering the pitch, which resulted in the match permanently stopped at the expense of AEK, who were zeroed and the game awarded to Panathinaikos. These incidents, led the officials of AEK not to participate in the next match in Serres against Panserraikos as a sign of protest. AEK were again zeroed and the threat of relegation after a possible third zeroing forced the club to return to the Championship, eventually finishing third.
AEK began their obligations in the Cup by eliminating Edessaikos with a 4–3 home win for the round of 32 and then Apollon Kalamarias with a 0–1 away win for the round of 16. In the quarter-final, they faced Ethnikos Piraeus at home and eliminated them with a 4–1 win. The draw for the semi-final brought AEK facing Kavala at home and Olympiacos facing Trikala at Piraeus. Kavala demanded that the match be played at their home ground citing a provision of the then regulations that stipulated that if one of the two teams came from Northern Greece in a pair of semi-finals, then the home team was automatically designated. AEK did not accept it, arguing that this regulation only concerned the clubs from Thessaloniki and not all clubs of Northern Greece in general. In order to reconcile things, the HFF, set the match at a neutral ground, the Kaftanzoglio Stadium, but Kavala refused to compete, insisting that the match should be played at their stadium. Thus, AEK advanced to the final as they were awarded the game without a match, where Olympiacos had already qualified after their 5–0 victory over Trikala. The definition by the HFF of setting the final on 10 July 1966, at Karaiskakis Stadium, brought the reactions of Olympiacos whose administration sent a letter to the Federation announcing their decision not to show up, protesting the advanced date in relation to the preparation of the club of Piraeus for the next season's European Cup. Thus, on 7 July the HFF, unable to convince Olympiacos for their participation in the final, declared AEK the winner with a 2–0 victory without a match.
In the midst of such situations, Kostas Nestoridis, one of the greatest Greek footballers in history and all-time legends of AEK, departed from the club after 11 years of presence.
Management team
Players
Squad information
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 10 July 1966, 23:59 UTC+2.
PlayerNat.Position(s)Date of birth (Age)SignedPrevious clubTransfer fee Goalkeepers Stelios Serafidis GK 1953 AEK Athens U20 — Vangelis Petrakis GK 1962 Aris ₯500,000 Theodoros Maniateas GK 1964 Panthisiakos Free Defenders Alekos Sofianidis LB / LM / LW 1959 Beşiktaş Free Aleko Yordan CB / RB 1964 Beykoz Free Theofilos Vernezis RB / CB / GK 1956 AEK Athens U20 — Tasos Vasiliou CB 1965 Apollon Athens ₯1,200,000 Giorgos Kefalidis RB / CB 1964 Pierikos ₯800,000 Fotis Balopoulos CB / DM / CM / ST 1964 Proodeftiki ₯450,000 Lakis Frogoudakis LB / RB / CB / DM 1964 AEK Athens U20 — Midfielders Giorgos Petridis AM / SS / ST 1957 Pera Club Free Stelios Skevofilakas LM / RM / AM / CM 1961 Eleftheroupoli Free Fanis Tasinos LM / CM 1963 Korinthos ₯500,000 Nikos Stathopoulos LM / LB / CM 1965 AEK Athens U20 — Michalis Simigdalas CM / RM / LM / RB / LB 1963 AEK Athens U20 — Giorgos Karafeskos CM / DM / RM / RW 1964 AEK Athens U20 — Forwards Andreas Stamatiadis (Captain) RW / LW / SS / ST 1952 AEK Athens U20 — Dimitris Antoniou RW / ST 1965 Apollon Limassol Free Kostas Papageorgiou ST 1963 Atromitos ₯200,000 Mimis Papaioannou SS / ST / AM / RW 1962 Veria ₯175,000 Spyros Pomonis LW / LM 1960 AEK Athens U20 — Kostas Nikolaidis RW / LW / SS / ST 1965 PAO Safraboli Free Left during season Panagiotis Ventouris LM / RM / LW / RW / ST / AM / SS 1965 Fostiras ₯400,000 Kostas Nestoridis ST / SS 1955 Panionios Free
Transfers
In
PlayerFromFeeDateSource Apollon Athens₯1,200,000 Fostiras₯400,000 AEK Athens U20Promotion Apollon LimassolFree transfer PAO SafraboliFree transfer HellenicLoan return
a. plus Panagiotis Stasinopoulos.
Out
PlayerToFeeDateSource Apollon AthensFree transfer EgaleoContract termination Retired PAOK₯200,000 Retired AEK Athens U20Demotion
Loan out
PlayerToFeeDateUntilOption to buySource HellenicFree30 September 1966 South Melbourne HellasFree30 November 1966
Contract renewals
PlayerDateSource
Overall transfer activity
Expenditure: ₯1,600,000
Income: ₯200,000
Net Total: ₯1,400,000
Pre-season and friendlies
Competitions
Overall record
Alpha Ethniki
League table
Results summary
Results by Matchday
Matches
Greek Cup
AEK entered the Greek Cup at the round of 32.
Matches
Statistics
Squad statistics
! colspan="9" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="9" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="9" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="9" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
! colspan="9" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Left during season
Goalscorers
The list is sorted by competition order when total goals are equal, then by position and then alphabetically by surname. RankPlayerAlpha EthnikiGreek CupTotal123 528211 3143 7 074 6 065 3 146 2 027 1 01 1 01 1 01 1 01 1 01 1 01Own goals 0 00Totals58 967
Hat-tricks Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored. PlayerAgainst Result Date Competition Source Mimis Papaioannou Edessaikos 4–3 (H) 6 January 1966 Greek Cup Kostas Nikolaidis Niki Volos 6–0 (H) 6 March 1966 Alpha Ethniki Mimis Papaioannou PAOK 5–1 (H) 17 April 1966 Alpha Ethniki Mimis Papaioannou Panionios 5–1 (H) 1 May 1966 Alpha Ethniki Mimis Papaioannou Egaleo 4–1 (H) 15 May 1966 Alpha Ethniki
Clean sheets
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. RankPlayerAlpha EthnikiGreek CupTotal1 8 082 4 153 1 01Totals13 114
Disciplinary record
! colspan="14" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="14" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="14" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="14" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
! colspan="14" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Left during season
Awards PlayerAwardSource Mimis Papaioannou FW Alpha Ethniki Top Scorer
References
External links AEK Athens F.C. Official Website A.E.K. FC Database