The 1963–64 season was the 40th season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the fifth consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki, the Greek Cup and the European Cup. The season began on 15 September 1963 and finished on 17 June 1964.
Overview
The management of AEK Athens, in the summer of 1963, proceeded with a brave restructuring of the team's roster. The Syrian Ibrahim Mughrabi returned to his homeland, Thanasis Gouvas and the Cypriots, Panikos Krystallis and Dimitris Zagylos left, while Giannis Marditsis, after his participation in the first match against Monaco, effectively withdrew from the team. Several players were added to the roster, such as the goalkeeper, Theodoros Maniateas from Panthisiakos and Panagiotis Charalambidis from Iraklis, the striker of Atromitos, Kostas Papageorgiou and most importantly, Fanis Tasinos who emerged as the best left midfielder of the previous season with Pagkorinthiakos. Along with the renewal of the roster, the administration of yellow–blacks surprised everyone by removing from the technical leadership Jenő Csaknády, the manager who crowned them Champion in the previous season. The Austrian Heinrich Müller was hired in his place. One of the first innovations under the new manager was the "removal of permanency" in the position under the goalposts, of the team's main goalkeeper Stelios Serafidis and the promotion to the starting eleven of the substitute goalkeeper, Vangelis Petrakis.
AEK started their competitive obligations, playing for the first time in their history in the UEFA competitions, as they qualified in the preliminary round of the European Cup, having won the championship of the previous season. The draw brought them against the French champions, Monaco. The first appearance in a UEFA match quickly turned into a nightmare as they faced an imposing 7–2 defeat at Stade Municipal du Ray, on 18 September. The rematch in Athens on 2 October, was purely procedural, as 1–1 draw couldn't change anything in the qualification outcome, as it was secured by the Monegasques from the first match.
AEK started the championship race with 3 losses and 1 draw conceding a total of 8 goals in these games. Taking into account the 7–2 defeat in the team's maiden European appearance in Monaco, Serafidis returned to the starting eleven, but precious ground had been already lost in the title race. In the next 14 Championship matches, the yellow–blacks conceded only 3 goals, 2 of which in their fourth defeat in Drama against Doxa Drama, which gave a greater advantage to the advancing Panathinaikos. AEK eventually finished in third place in the table, 13 points from the top. The 72 goals they achieved won them the best attack, while after 4 consecutive firsts of Kostas Nestoridis, the title of the top scorer of the league "passed" to Mimis Papaioannou, who with 29 goals kept the award within the club.
In the Cup, AEK eliminated Anagennisi Arta by crushing them away from home with 0–7. The round of 16 brought AEK against PAOK again away from home. Despite the 0–0 at the regular time, the yellow-blacks got the qualification at the extra time, which ended at 0–3. The away matches continued in the quarter-finals, where AEK faced Proodeftiki at Karaiskakis Stadium and eliminated them by 0–1. The draw for the semi-finals brought Panathinaikos and Olympiacos against each other at Leoforos Alexandras Stadium and Pierikos against AEK at Katerini. The clearly superior AEK won by 1–3 and easily advanced to the final. In the other semi-final, which was held on the same day, a derby took place that was destined to go down in history for non-competitive reasons and characterized as the "Holocaust of Leoforos". After the match ended a draw at the regular time and the relaxed tempo by all players during the second half, as well as the extra time, enraged the crowd of fans of both teams and now certain that the match was fixed for a replay match to be set, broke the railings, destroyed the billboards and floodlights of the stadium and invaded the pitch. There they gathered all the wooden objects and set them on fire and then attacked the footballers, the referees and the managers, together and without getting involved with each other. The police did everything they could, but with the extent of the incidents, the intervention of the public prosecutor was called for. The HFF punished both teams for the events and fearing worse incidents, did not set one and recognized the finalist AEK, as the winner of the tournament by declaring it to UEFA as the country's representative in the organization for the next season's European Cup Winners' Cup. Many years later the HFF, recognizing the unjustified gap that had been created, awarded the trophy to AEK as well.
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 17 June 1964, 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 Defenders Giannis Marditsis CB / ST 1959 Egaleo ₯103,000 Alekos Sofianidis LB / LM / LW 1959 Beşiktaş Free Mimis Anastasiadis RB / CB / ST 1956 A.O. Nea Ionia Free Aleko Yordan CB / RB 1964 Beykoz Free Manolis Kanellopoulos RB / CB 1962 Egaleo Free Theofilos Vernezis RB / CB / GK 1956 AEK Athens U20 — Panagiotis Charalampidis CB / DM 1963 Iraklis Free Panagiotis Stasinopoulos CB 1963 AEK Athens U20 — Midfielders Miltos Papapostolou DM / CB 1956 Egaleo Free Giorgos Petridis AM / SS / ST 1957 Pera Club Free Stelios Skevofilakas LM / RM / AM / CM 1961 Eleftheroupoli Free Sofos Koulidis CM / AM 1962 Egaleo Free Emilios Theofanidis CM / CB 1963 Aris Ptolemaida Free Fanis Tasinos LM / CM 1963 Korinthos ₯500,000 Michalis Simigdalas CM / RM / LM / RB / LB 1963 AEK Athens U20 — Forwards Kostas Nestoridis ST / SS 1955 Panionios Free Andreas Stamatiadis (Captain) RW / LW / SS / ST 1952 AEK Athens U20 — Aris Tsachouridis LW / LM / RM / RW 1960 Makedonikos 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 — Nikos Sevastopoulos RW / SS / AM / ST 1963 AEK Athens U20 —
Transfers
In
PlayerFromFeeDateSource BeykozFree transfer IraklisFree transfer AEK Athens U20Promotion AEK Athens U20Promotion Aris PtolemaidaFree transfer Korinthos₯500,000 PanegialiosLoan return AEK Athens U20Promotion Atromitos₯200,000
Out
PlayerToFeeDateSource Free agentContract termination AEK Athens U20Demotion PanegialiosFree transfer PanachaikiFree transfer Greek Olympic Athletic club of ChicagoFree transfer Apollon LimassolFree transfer Anorthosis FamagustaFree transfer Al AhliFree transfer PanachaikiFree transfer AEK Athens U20Demotion
Loan out
PlayerToFeeDateUntilOption to buySource ArisFree30 June 1964
Overall transfer activity
Expenditure: ₯700,000
Income: ₯0
Net Total: ₯700,000
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
As Panathinaikos and Olympiacos were ejected from the competition, the final was scratched and AEK Athens were awarded the cup.
European Cup
Preliminary round
Statistics
Squad statistics
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="11" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
Goalscorers
The list is sorted by competition order when total goals are equal, then by position and then alphabetically by surname. RankPlayerAlpha EthnikiGreek CupEuropean CupTotal129 5 034220 2 022310 4 1154 4 0 155 4 0 046 1 2 037 1 1 028 1 0 01 1 0 01 0 0 11Own goals 1 0 01Totals7214 389
Hat-tricks Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored. PlayerAgainstResultDateCompetitionSource Mimis Papaioannou Aris 3–0 (H) 20 October 1963 Alpha Ethniki Mimis Papaioannou Ethnikos Piraeus 4–0 (H) 8 December 1963 Alpha Ethniki Mimis Papaioannou Anagennisi Arta 7–0 (Α) 26 April 1964 Greek Cup
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 CupEuropean CupTotal117 3 0202 0 0 09Totals17 3 020
Disciplinary record
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; text-align:center" | Goalkeepers
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Defenders
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Midfielders
! colspan="17" style="background:#FFDE00; color:black; text-align:center;"| Forwards
Awards PlayerAwardSource Mimis Papaioannou FW Alpha Ethniki Top Scorer
References
External links AEK Athens F.C. Official Website A.E.K. FC Database