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Team
Overview
Stadium:
AEK
Stadium
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Honours:
League Winners:
1939,
1940, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1978, 1979, 1989,
1992, 1993, 1994
Greek Cup:
1931,
1939, 1949, 1950, 1956, 1964, 1966, 1978,
1983, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2002
Greek
League Cup:
1991
Greek
Super Cup:
1989,
1996
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Founded in the Greek
capital in April 1924 by a group of immigrants
from Constantinople, AEK - or Athletic Union of
Constantinopolitans Athens FC - proudly displayed
their origins by adopting the Byzantine two-headed
emblem as their own and also playing in the yellow
and black colours of the Byzantine flags.
In 1929, AEK moved to Nea Philadelphia in the
outskirts of the city, where they built their
own home ground, now named after board member
Nikos Goumas, who along with Athens mayor Konstantinos
Kotzias was the inspiration behind the move.
Success soon followed and the club picked up their
first piece of silverware in 1932 when AEK won
the inaugural Greek Cup, beating Aris Thessaloniki
5-3 in the final. In 1939 they went one better
and achieved a League and cup double, successfully
defending their championship title the following
year. However, in the years after the second world
war AEK's rebuilt side were often left languishing
in the shadows of Olympiakos Pireaus FC and Panathinaikos
FC, who monopolised the league titles. Even so,
AEK did win the Cup in 1949, 1950 and 1956 but
in the league it was often a case of so near,
so far as three successive second-place finishes
in 1957/58, 1958/59 and 1959/60 show.
The club's fortunes picked up in the 1960s and
AEK finally secured their third championship crown
in 1962/63, after a play-off against Panathinaikos.
Five years later a fourth league title was followed
by a run to the quarter-finals of the European
Champion Clubs' Cup. Then, despite enduring a
lengthy period without a trophy, they reached
the semi-finals of the 1976/77 UEFA Cup, before
losing to the eventual winners Juventus FC.
Further league championship success came in 1977/78
and 1978/79, but the 1980s - and the birth of
the reformed professional league in Greece - saw
AEK struggle again. However, as the decade drew
to a close AEK reclaimed the league title in 1988/89
under Dusan Bajevic. It got even better in the
early 1990s when AEK again scaled the heights,
taking their championship tally to eleven after
a hat-trick of titles in 1991/92, 1992/93 and
1993/94.
Yet success dried up with the defection of Bajevic
to Olympiakos, who then - much to AEK's chagrin
- proceeded to monopolise the national championship.
More recently the club have been further affected
by administrative and financial problems, but
despite the upheaval, there were with victories
in the Greek Cup final in 1996, 1997, 2000 and
2002.
In
2002 they won the Greek Cup, finished Second in
Greek League thus Qualifying for 2002/03 UEFA
Champions League (after 4-2 aggregate victory
over APOEL Nicosia FC in qualifying round).
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