AC Omonia

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AC Omonia Nicosia

Full name

Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Ομόνοια Λευκωσίας
Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia

Nickname(s)

Τριφύλλι (Shamrock)
Λαός (People)

Founded

1948

Ground

Neo GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus
(Capacity 23,404)

Chairman

Miltiadis Neophytou

Manager

Nedim Dudic

League

Cypriot First Division

2007-08

3^rd





Home colours





Away colours

Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (Greek: Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Ομόνοια Λευκωσίας) is a Cypriot football club, which plays in the capital, Nicosia. Omonia has won 19 league championships, 12 Cypriot Cups and 14 Super Cups. Omonia has also claimed a record five domestic doubles - in 1972, 1974, 1981, 1982 and 1983.The Cyprus Football Association declared them as the team of the 20th century, remaining the only team to have won the Cypriot Cup 4 times in a row: during the years between 1980 and 1984. Omonoia is by far the most popular team in Cyprus, with its supporters reaching 40% of the population of Cyprus.^{[citation needed]}

The club was established in 1948 and became member of Cyprus Football Association in 1953. As an athletic club, Omonia has basketball, volleyball, futsal and cycling sections.

[edit] History

[edit] Cyprus amateur football association

AC Omonia was founded in 1948, just after the Second World War. The establishment of the Club (along with that of a few others), was evoked from the political turbulence of that period and the conflict between left-wings and right-wings due to the Greek Civil War. In May 1948, APOEL sent a letter based on political content to SEGAS (Greek Gymnastic-Athletic Clubs Association), violating the club's statute to not be involved in politics. After that letter, several footballers of the club criticized the their club but that followed the expulsion of those players from the team. Those players with some other people established the new club of Nicosia, with the name Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia.

The Greek civil war affected Cyprus in the political fanaticism and patience and affected the political life of the island, as well as the sports. For that reason several clubs were established and together with Omonia they established the Cyprus Amateur Football Association, since those teams were not accepted as members of the Cyprus Football Association. The new association formed its own competitions, a championship and a cup and lasted until 1953. Omonia won the double of those competitions until 1952 (four consecutive doubles) and won the cup in 1953.

[edit] Trophy hall

In 1953, the Cyprus Amateur Football Association teams were accepted to become members of the Cyprus Football Association, including AC Omonia, who joined as a First Division team. The Club announced its arrival on the Cypriot football scene by winning their first league title in 1960/61. Omonia finished seven points above second-placed Anorthosis Famagusta FC that season - and they have subsequently stayed ahead of their rivals in the first division with an impressive hall of trophies.

[edit] The golden decades of 1970s-1980s

Omonia Nicosia's dominance in Cypriot football, however, didn't come until 1974. They were most dominant in the 1970s, winning the league for six consecutive seasons from 1974 to 1979, a record that until today remains unbeaten. It was then that Omonia produced one of Cyprus's greatest footballers in striker Sotiris Kaiafas, as well as the impressive Gregory Savvas. Kaiafas would win the European Golden Boot after finishing as Europe's top domestic scorer in 1976 with 39 goals - an accolade still considered the greatest achievement by any Cypriot player. After Kaiafas, the next great striker of the team was Spas Tsevizof.

Despite the gap in quality between Omonia and other European champions, Omonia proved to be worthy opponents in UEFA club competition. In the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1979/80, they recovered from a 10-0 defeat at AFC Ajax to win the return leg 4-0 with a dazzling display in Nicosia.

After the departure of Kaiafas, Omonia continued to produce talented players to keep up their winning ways. They were champions from 1981 to 1985 and again in 1987 and 1989. Stars of the 1980s golden decade were Georgios Savvidis and Spas Dzhevizov.

[edit] 1990s

But despite claiming the title in 1992/93, Omonia were forced to live in the shadow of Anorthosis in the 1990s. Even so, the fans were able to enjoy the goalscoring exploits of Hungarian Joseph Juriac during the first part of the decade, and later those of Rainer Rauffmann.

A native German, Rauffmann arrived at the club in 1998. He was the island's leading marksman for four years and also played for Cyprus national football team after gaining Cypriot citizenship. He retired due to injury at the age of 37. Another star of the 1990s was midfield player Kostakis Malekkos, who later played for APOEL.

[edit] Colours and badge

The badge of the club is the shamrock. The shamrock represents the strength, the struggle, the insistence of the Omonia founders who were in difficult situation and it is also green which is the colour of the hope. Thus, the colours of the club are the green and the white. The Omonia founders chose the green colour, the "hope's colour", because despite that they were in difficult situation after the political events that took place in Cyprus in 1948 with their expulsion from APOEL, they hoped that better days were coming for the football in Cyprus, and also the new club, Omonia, would lead, become a pioneer and triumph in Cypriot football and also would have been in the conscience of the Cypriot people.

[edit] Stadium

GSP Stadium in Nicosia

Main articles: GSP Stadium and Eleftheria Indoor Hall

The team's home ground from 1999 onwards, which they share with local rivals APOEL and Olympiakos Nicosia is the 23,400 seater Neo GSP Stadium, (also known as the Pancypria Stadium) the biggest stadium in Cyprus. The team's previous stadium was Makario Stadium, since 1978 and before that the Palaio (Old) GSP Stadium since 1953, when the team joined the Cyprus Football Association. Both stadiums, like the New GSP Stadium, were shared as well by the other Nicosian teams, APOEL and Olympiakos. In the first years of its establishment, as a team of Cyprus amateur football association, Omonia was using the "Goal" Stadium. Plans have been drawn for Omonia to construct its own privately owned stadium near Tseri, a village just outside Nicosia [1]. The new arena is currently under construction and will become (in terms of spectator capacity) the largest football stadium on the island, with a capacity of 32,000 people.

The club's basketball team hosts its matches at the biggest indoor sport venue in the island, the Eleftheria Indoor Hall with a capacity of 6,800 seats while the volleyball team shares the Lefkotheo Indoor Hall which was built in 1980 with APOEL Nicosia. For the 2006-07 season, the futsal team uses the Indoor Hall of Melkonian institute which is a part of the institute complex and has capacity of 500 seats.

[edit] The fans

Omonia's fans are considered to be left-wing in their majority. Today they are estimated to be around 35% of the Cypriot people. Unlike the other teams of Cyprus, Omonia is so popular that today they have a lot of supporters from all the cities, towns and places in Cyprus, especially in Limassol, where they are estimated as the third most supported team after the other town's teams Apollon and AEL FC. During the years, after the political crisis in many Cypriot football clubs, where new leftist clubs were founded, the Cyprus football amateur federation was having much more attendance in the stadiums than the Cyprus FA championship because of Omonia which is by far the most popular in the island. The popularity of Omonia was one of the main reasons for the unification of Cypriot football and the acceptance of the leftist teams in the Cyprus Football Association.

They had a big difference attendances, since they existed before any other team in Cyprus; also, the GSP Stadium, the venue the team had for home games before, was considered too small for the team. In many matches tickets were sold in few hours after they were available, especially in matches against the arch-rival APOEL Nicosia.

In 2001, the team broke the record in Cyprus concerning ticket sales, with the number of 109,303 tickets sold. In 2003, they broke their own record with the improved figure of 140,740 and the record was broken again the following year with 143,033 tickets sold. As a note, this number was bigger than many popular teams in Europe.

There are two major fan clubs supporting the team, PA.SY.FI. and Gate 9, which is the most active and biggest fan club. The club took its name from Kaiafas' father, Sotiris Kaiafas, who won the European Golden Boot in 1976 and was first organised in 1992. Since then they are following the team everywhere in the world. In some away European matches, there were more than 800 or sometimes 1000 supporters.

[edit] Current squad

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Nikolas Asprogenis
5	MF	Demetris Maris
6	DF	Marcelo José Pletsch
7	FW	Bernardo Vasconcelos
8	MF	Anton Žlogar
9	FW	Cafú
10	MF	Costas Kaiafas (captain)
16	MF	Noel Kaseke
17	MF	Kyriacos Pavlou
28	DF	Giorgos Tsikkos
30	GK	Antonis Georgallides
33	DF	Elias Charalambous

No.	Position	Player
38	MF	Elias Vattis
40	FW	Clayton
77	FW	Demetris Christofi
	DF	Timo Wenzel
	MF	Klodian Duro
	DF	Theofanis Lagos
	MF	David Kobylík
	DF	Thomas Scheuring
	DF	Rasheed Alabi
	DF	Hamad Ndikumana
	FW	Mustapha Bangura

[edit] Transfers 2008/09

No.		Position	Player
		MF	David Kobylík (from Arminia Bielefeld)
		DF	Thomas Scheuring (from SSV Reutlingen)
		DF	Rasheed Alabi (from Doxa Katokopias)
		DF	Hamad Ndikumana (from Anorthosis FC)
		FW	Mustapha Bangura (from Nea Salamina)
		FW	Clayton (from Alki Larnaca)
		DF	Elias Charalambous (from PAOK FC)
		DF	Timo Wenzel (from FC Augsburg)
		GK	Nikolas Asprogenis (Free Agent)
		MF	Klodian Duro (from SK Tirana)
		MF	Anton Žlogar (from Anorthosis FC)
		DF	Theofanis Lagos (from Chalkanoras Idaliou)
		FW	Demetris Christofi (from Enosis Neon Paralimniou)

Total spending: ▼ €1,630,000

Out

No.		Position	Player
		DF	Akis Ioakim (Retired)
		DF	Nicolas Georgiou (Retired)
		DF	Loizos Kakoyiannis (AEL Limassol)
		DF	Giorgos Theodotou (to Anorthosis FC)
		GK	Demetris Leoni (to AEP Paphos)
		GK	Elias Stogiannis (Released)
		MF	Edgar Marcelino (Released)
		MF	Ismail Ba (to AEP Paphos)
		MF	Magno Mocelin (to AEK Larnaca)
		FW	Kyriacos Chailis (to AEP Paphos)
		MF	Siniša Dobrasinović (to Anorthosis FC)
		DF	Nélson Veiga (Released)
		FW	Musawengosi Mguni (to Al-Shabab)

Total income: ▲ €900,000

[edit] Club officials

[edit] Board of Directors

President: Miltiadis Neophytou
Vice-President and Financial Director: Nick Nicolaou
Vice-President and General Head of Football's department: Christakis Giovanni
General Secretary: Andreas Leonidou
Team Supervisor and B' General Secretary: Christos Tsaggaris
Team Supervisor: Sotiris Kaiafas
Team Supervisor: Kokos Antoniou
Team Supervisor: Nikos Charalambous
Representative of Press: Marios Karamalakis
Public Relations: Costas Christou
Commercial Department - Marketting: Petros Petrou
Commercial Department - Marketting: Pavlos Chrysanthou
Stadium Facilities Director:: Stelios Milonas
General Manager: Koullis Georgiou
Director of football: Vesko Mihajlović
Executive Secretary: Michalakis Kyriakou
Assistant Executive secretary: Andreas Serafeim
Accounts Department: Giota Rotou

[edit] Coaching Staff

Manager: Nedim Dudić \
Assistant Manager: Arsen Mihajlović
Goalkeeping Coach: Christoforos Loizou
Fitness Coach: Spyros Spyrou
Chief Scout & European Scout: Rainer Rauffmann

[edit] Medical Staff

First Team Physiotherapist: Nikos Loizides
Assistant First Team Physiotherapist: Giorgos Mavros
Tutor: Giorgos Karagiannis

[edit] Sponsorship

Official Shirt Sponsor - Ocean Tankers
Official Sport Clothing Manufacturer - Lotto
Official Athletism Sponsor - Giovanni Developers
Official Stadium Sponsor - Rotos Developers
Official Communication Sponsor - LTV
Official Sport Drink - Powerade

[edit] Notable players

Listed according to when they debuted for AC Omonia (year in parentheses):

Sotiris Kaiafas (1967)
Mihai Mocanu (1972)
Gregory Savva (1973)
Giorgos Savvidis (1981)
Spas Djevizov (1984)
Georgios Christodoulou (1986)
Emil Spasov (1988)
Kostas Malekkos (1989)
\ Nedim Dudic (1991)
Joseph Juriac (1991)
Gocha Gogrichiani (1993)
Charis Nicolaou (1995)
Petros Konnafis (1996)
\ Rainer Rauffmann (1997)
\ Vesko Mihajlović (1999)
Dusan Tittel (1999)
Anders Nielsen (2000)
Efstathios Aloneftis (2001)
Marco Haber (2002)
Stefan Brasas (2003)
Holger Greilich (2003)
Vlatko Grozdanovski (2004)
Paul Ritchie (2006)
Jozef Kozlej(2004)
\ Paulo Rink (2006)
Daniel Bălan (2006)
Zé Elias (2006)
Magno Mocelin (2005)
Georgios Vakouftsis (2005)

[edit] Notable Managers

[edit] Trophies

[edit] Football

Cyprus Football Association

Cypriot Championship: 19

1961, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 2001, 2003

Cypriot Cup: 12

1965, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1991, 1994, 2000, 2005

Cyprus FA Shield: 14

1966, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2005

Cyprus Amateur Football Federation

Championship: 4

1949, 1950, 1951, 1952

Cup: 5

1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953

[edit] Volleyball

Cup:
- Winner (2): 1999, 2006

[edit] Records

Biggest Victory: 11-0 v Doxa Katokopia, Championship, January 17, 2004
Biggest European Victory: 6-1 v FA Red Boys Differdange, Champions Cup, Round 1, October 3, 1979
Worst Defeat: 0-10 v Ajax Amsterdam, Champions Cup, Round 1, October 24, 1979
Worst League Defeat: 1-7 v AEL FC, 1953-54
Most League Points (2 for a win): 54, 1976-77
Most League Points (3 for a win): 67, 1998-99
Most League Goals: 91, 1960-61
Most consecutive league matches unbeaten: 46, January 29, 1984 - December 14, 1985
Most Appearances : 503 Andreas Kanaris
Most Goals scored : 321 Sotiris Kaiafas
Most Goals scored in a Match: 8 Rainer Rauffmann v Anagennisis Deryneia, 1998
Most Goals scored in League season:: 44 Sotiris Kaiafas, 1976-77

[edit] External links

Cypriot First Division 2008-09

v • d • e

Football in Cyprus