Olympiakos Nicosia - Recent Decline

Recent Decline

With Olympiakos' TV rights hastily agreed at the lowest amount for any Cypriot first division club in 2007 for 9 seasons and these rights assigned to repay old debts until 2016 the club has little cash inflow appart from gate receipts and commercial sponsorships. After a disastrous 2007–2008 season, where economic problems hindered the building of a strong squad, Olympiakos Nicosia finished bottom of the Cypriot First Division (the first time the club finished bottom). The club was relegated for the third time in its history. In both the 1983–84 and 1997–98 seasons the club had spent just one season in the second tier of Cypriot football, only to win the Cypriot Second Division title each time and return to the Cypriot First Division.

The club tried to re-organise itself and to return to the top flight as quickly as possible. In the 2008–09 season the club finished fourth and missed the promotion to the Cypriot First Division on the last day of the season by one point.

In the 2009–10 season, an old goalkeeper of Olympiakos Petros Savva, was appointed as the new chairman. Savva initially re-appointed Andros Kouloumbris, an old player of Olympiakos, as manager. After the end of the first round, however, Kouloumbris was sacked due to the bad defensive record of the team, despite the team being in 3rd place.

The next coach for 7 games was Saša Jovanović who only managed two wins, with the team languishing in 5th place after some bad appearances, Saša Jovanović was removed to make way for old Olympiakos player and ex-manager Nikodimos Papavasiliou.

With Papavasiliou at the helm the team improved and entered the play-offs for promotion to the Cypriot First Division after finishing third at the end of the regular season. The club finished third at the end of the play-offs and therefore gained promotion, despite helping the team with winning promotion Nikodimos Papavasiliou's contract was not renewed at the end of the season.