Greek football Cup

Greek Cup Κύπελλο Ελλάδας
Greek Cup 2007-08
Sport	Football
Founded	1931
No. of teams	69
Country/ Countries	Greece
Most recent champion(s)	A.E. Larissa (2006-07)
TV partner(s)	Alpha TV

The Greek Football Cup (Greek: Κύπελλο Ελλάδος), commonly known as the Greek Cup, is a knockout cup competition in Greek football, run by and named after Hellenic Football Federation.

The Greek Cup began in 1931-32. Because it involves clubs of all standards playing against each other there is the possibility for "giant-killers" from the lower divisions to eliminate top clubs from the tournament, though lower division teams rarely reach the final.

The current holders of the Greek Cup are Larissa who beat Panathinaikos 2-1 in the 2007 final, on 5 May 2007.

Format

In the Greek Cup, participate only teams from three professional divisions, Super League, Second and Third Divisions. Until Fourth Stage, are carried out single matches. From Fifth Stage to semi-finals, are carried out double matches. Final is single.

History

Greek Cup began in 1931. In first years, the attendance was optional. The matches became with definition between the football associations, without draw. Later, and for a lot of years, was applied the system with draw and double matches up to final. In the 90s, the qualifying matches became in groups. The winners of each group played up to final in double matches. Until 1964, if the final score was draw (and in the extra time), the two finalists replayed. Penalties didn't exist. This system was suppressed in 1964, when in the semi-final match between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos (final score: 1-1), fans of both teams entered in the stadium, destroyed the ground and interrupted the game, believing that was arranged to end with a draw, in order to replayed. The next year (1965) was applied a new rule, fixing that, if the final score was draw, the winner would be resulet by draw. That rule was suppressed in 1969, the year that were applied the penalties. Until 1971, were participated teams from all over the divisions, professional and amateur. Each team played firstly in its football clubs association and the two winners continued in a Panhellenic competition. Since 1972, participants are only from the three professional divisions.

The current format was established since 2005-06 season.

Finals

Notes

• ¹ - The final between Panathinakos and Olympiakos was abandoned at 0-0. The Cup was not awarded.

• ² - The semifinal between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos was abandoned at 1-1 in extra time and never finished; this left AEK as the only finalists and they were awarded the Cup by the Greek FA.

• ³ - The Cup was awarded to AEK Athens after Olympiakos failed to show for the final.

Performance By Club

Titles by city

Donate to Wikimedia