‘The Barren Years’

Scene I… It’s Sunday, December 27, 1987, at the Athens Olympic Stadium. Under normal conditions, it would be simply another first division match. However, that Olympiacos-Panachaiki game had, for days, taken on the characteristics of a “final” for survival. After 11 games

This was an Olympiacos side that was the reigning champions of the 1986-1987 season, who had also picked up the Super Cup in August with a 1-0 victory against OFI Crete.

The scene was something out of the still far-into-the-future film “Matrix”, amid an era when fax machines were considered cutting-edge technology.

The situation was the result of egregious mistakes in planning over the summer, such as the sale of star striker Nikos Anastopoulos to then Seria A side Avellino without a capable replacement. Instead of a proper preseason training, the team resembled a touring troupe performing “gigs” in the United States and Canada – home to sizable Greek-American communities – in order to fill the empty Club coffers – a “brainchild” of manager Alketas Panagoulias, who was well-known in the “soccer world” of America. The start of the season also witnessed the disastrous seven-game passage of otherwise heralded Polish international goalkeeper Jacek Kazimierski. He hastily left in December, in mid-season.

Olympiacos managed to win that game 2-0 thanks to goals by Mitropoulos and Moustakidis and with more than 65,000 fans in the stands ensuring against any “hiccup”.

Scene II… Wednesday, July 13, 1988, at the Piraeus Town Hall. The port city is on fire from a pledge by the then president to pull off an explosive transfer worth an unfathomable 1.1 billion drachmas – something unimaginable at the time for a football player.  The transfer, in fact, was billed as the second most expensive in the world, after Maradona’s purchase by Napoli.

The legendary welcome that greeted Hungarian star midfielder Lajos Détári by some 50,000 fans in Piraeus’ Korai Square has been etched in Olympiacos’ history. At one point the Magyar appeared on a balcony above the square and addressed fans with the phrase “…Hello brothers, Oh my God, Oh my God, my Olympiacos…” Clunky in English, but it rhymes in Greek.

Two very different scenes, ranging from the nadir to the zenith within barely six months. What had happened in the meantime? The answer lay in the entrepreneurial “sensation” of the times: Giorgos Koskotas. The “barren years” were just starting…

This “bombshell” development emerged in November 1987, in the aftermath of a 1-4 defeat by Panathinaikos, which was accompanied by Panagoulias’ resignation. The fans are in an uproar and on the streets. President Stavros Daifas realizes that with now meager financial resources, there is no future. It’s at this point that a proposal arrives for the purchase of the Club, whose share capital is valued at 187 million drachmas. The offer is made by the owner of the Bank of Crete and the media group Grammi S.A. (one radio station, five magazines, three newspapers, one of which is the “flagship” pro-government “24 Hours”). The man behind the proposal is a previously unknown, mysterious and hyper-dynamic business executive and entrepreneur that arrived from the United States as a bank consultant, with 2% of the relatively obscure bank’s shares. He would quickly wind up owning a majority stake of Bank of Crete with a capital outlay of one billion drachmas over five years.

As you’d expect, the proposal was swiftly accepted, and with the… blessing, as it was claimed, of the then PASOK government. The date was Nov. 18, 1987.

Among the shipowner shareholders of Olympiacos, only two objected and didn’t sell: Miltiadis Marinakis and Lucas Hatzi-ioannou. They were prophetic.

For the fans, however, this “typhoon” of flashy money, lofty promises and hyper-activity was enough to give Koskotas the publicity and much-coveted “popular support” he craved and needed. One of his first actions was to charter trains to carry fans to away games, while within days Olympiacos’ roster was thoroughly reshuffled: 13 players were released, with 15 transfers made, including Juan “El Búfalo” Gilberto Funes from River Plate, a star who passed away young at the age of 28 a few years later. Finally, a new coach was lured from PAOK Thessaloniki south to Piraeus, Dutchman Thijs Libregts.

In the end, the season is only “salvaged”, with Olympiacos finishing in a disappointing 8th place. Other “low points” of the season, possibly the worst in the professional era for the Piraeus side, is that the team will not play in a European competition, along with a 1-6 thrashing by PAOK Thessaloniki.

Qualifying against AEK in the Cup competition (with a memorable 3-1 win in Nea Filadelfia) merely sustains a belief in a better day coming. Even a loss in a penalty shootout to Panathinaikos in the Cup “final of the century”, played amid a toxic atmosphere and punctuated by an outstanding performance by the opposition goalie, Nikos Sarganis, is seen as a harbinger of a coming revival. A deal to bring popular Polish manager Jacek Gmoch to Olympiacos’ bench – immediately after his epic championship with provincial Larissa – and a strong showing in terms of summer signings (to accompany Detari) merely fuels the slogan on fans’ lips: “Hands off Koskotas!”

Popular support is now imperative for Koskotas, as “clouds” had slowly but steadily gathered over his sudden business empire, although the latter continued to provoke in public. Things soon went “south” quickly, with the political opposition in the country now sniping at the heels of a teetering government. Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was recovering from major heart surgery in England, while his Cabinet back in Athens finally acquiesced to a regulatory audit of the Bank of Crete.

November 18. Of the shipowner shareholders only two objected and didn’t sell: Miltiadis Marinakis and Lucas Hatzi-ioannou. They were prophetic.

Saturday, October 29, 1988. On the eve of the “eternal derby” with Panathinaikos (1-2) a judicial board decision lands like a meteor on the political scene. Felony counts are filed against Koskotas for forgery and embezzlement, while his assets are frozen. Olympiacos FC is left in limbo, with 41% of its shares frozen by the state, tens of millions in arrears, blocked bank accounts and a court-appointed administration headed by the… remanded Argyris Saliarelis. In the meantime, Koskotas has fled to the United States, where he is duly arrested in Massachusetts on an outstanding warrant. He now faces the specter of bankruptcy.

The fact that Olympiacos reached the point where it was able to vie for the championship before losing it in a suicidal end-of-the-season match against AEK Athens at the Olympic Stadium (1-0), with Takis Karagiozopoulos’ goal in the 71st minute on May 7, constitutes, looking back calmly, as an overachievement.

Was it the quality of the roster, the fans? Was it the “weight” of the jersey? Everything mattered. All of these components kept the Club going until 1992.

Three long years of an administration under Saliarelis, dubbed the “king of the rubies”, came after he was released from pre-trial remand to take over the team’s reins in 1989 via a first instance court decision and a peculiar private contract by which Koskotas allegedly handed him 68% of Olympiacos’ shares – a contract that Koskotas later denied he provided.

Saliarelis takes over in early 1989; in June he receives a vote of confidence in a general assembly of shareholders and subsequently assumes full control over the football club, even though Marinakis and Efthymiou fought to block this. He personally covers a share capital increase, from 210 million drachmas to 420 million drachmas, a modus operandi that he’ll continue in the near future, coming up with cash and solutions to pressing problems as if by …magic.

Speculation was rife during this shaky period that an “invisible” and not so pro-Olympiacos “benefactor” wanted him at the Reds’ helm.

What followed was pandemonium, with auditors continually raising the sums of money gone missing, with confiscations by creditors coming left and right, with unpaid players and an opaque management.

The first game of the 1987-88 season. Polish goalkeeper Jacek Kazimierski has arrived on the back of an impressive reputation, but his brief passage with Olympiacos is highly disappointing. With the score tied 1-1 in an away game against Larissa he loses the ball from within his grasp and allows an opposing striker to push the ball into the net. The “barren years” have commenced for the Reds.

1989-90: Detari, who hasn’t been paid, apparently “hires” his father-in-law, Imre Komora, as the Club’s coach, a development that causes turmoil and a reaction by veteran Olympiacos stars Nikos Anastopoulos (who has returned from Italy) and Tasos Mitropoulos. Another defeat by Panathinaikos, 3-4, follows in February 1990, while Saliarelis even attacks a cameraman of the state-run television station filming the match. Fourth place in the championship is the best result for the team, with a Cup final victory against OFI Crete (4-2) a consolation prize for the season. That game was the last for Detari in the Reds’ uniform, and he recorded an impressive performance.

1990-91: Detari is sold to Bologna, purportedly for “50 million drachmas”, according to Saliarelis, a sum that practically no one believes. Later evidence showed the transfer fee was closer to 1.1 billion drachmas.

Standout defensive back Stratos Apostolakis, although he’s renewed his contract, is eventually signed by Panathinaikos, sparking more speculation of a “behind-the-scenes” parley.

The arrival of the so-called “MIGs” from the former eastern bloc – Protasov, Lytovchenko and Savichev – momentarily raises expectations and causes enthusiasm, but also raises questions about the Club’s financial dealings. With the championship title again lost, the “final break” with supporters comes with a 2-2 tie against a lesser Athens-area club, Athinaikos in February 1991.

The team is harshly punished by the federation with minus 2 points and five home games to be played at a neutral stadium. Saliarelis is also banished.

Amid a period burdened by scandals and special tribunals adjudicating scandals, Olympiacos is left with no protection against external threats. This was plainly evident in January 1991 in a game against AEK Athens at the latter’s Nea Filadelfia Stadium. Olympiacos holds a 1-2 lead going into the 83th minute and with AEK left with 10 players. The away victory seems unassailable when at that point the game is interrupted due to flares being thrown by the home team’s fans onto the pitch. A rematch is ordered, but on the island of Rhodes, with AEK now winning 1-0.

1991-92: The “swan song”. Acquisition of star Larissa midfielder Vassilis Karapialis fails to dampen the anger, while Dinamo Kiev and Larissa deliver confiscation notices for unpaid payments of players sold to the Reds. A first instance court freezes all Olympiacos FC assets, and the players remain unpaid, with the result being a “slowdown” on their part.  The players from the former Soviet Union, meanwhile, are abstaining from the team.

Saliarelis unveils another would-be scheme of investors, and “magically” comes up with 40 million drachmas in cash. Yet this time, the fans and Olympiacos’ boosters are not buying – the team’s “banners” are also on the frontline demanding a change in the Club’s leadership. On the field, a wounded team still wins the Cup against PAOK Thessaloniki, and challenges for the Championship until the very end.

Was it the quality of the roster, the fans? Was it the “weight” of the jersey? Everything mattered. All of these components kept the Club going until 1992.

With the situation now dire, the re-emergence of Stavros Daifas as head of a new board of directors appointed by the courts proves to be the first act in defusing of the crisis. The next step is to find a viable solution. One proposal is to approach the owner of the Olympiacos basketball club, Intracom founder and owner Socrates Kokkalis. He agrees and joins an interim management committee now running the football club.

The transformation and salvation wasn’t something that occurred overnight, it took four years (1992-96) for Olympiacos FC (third in 1993, 1994, 1996, second in 1995) to recover and for the new owner to patent the “formula” of success.

In the spring of 1993, Parliament passes Law 2166, which finalizes Olympiacos FC’s arrears at 3.1 billion drachmas, with repayment in 120 instalments (until 2000). Kokkalis takes over as president at the same time, with the overall burden of debts to the state and third parties exceeding 6.5 billion drachmas. This was resolved before a return to winning championships became a yearly event.

The “barren years” were over.