Supporters
Olympiakos supporters since 2002 are organised under the Panhellenic Fans Association "Taktakalas 1931" which takes its name from the area of old Nicosia where the clubhouse and the original training ground and now football academy "Promahonas"(near the old Venetian Walls of Nicosia) are located. 1931 refers to the date of foundation of the football club.
Traditionally Olympiakos was supported by residents of the inner old part of Nicosia within the Venetian Walls, the attendance at home games peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s when fans from all over Cyprus would attend Olympiakos home games at the old GSP stadium filling it to its 12,000 capacity, especially when the club participated three times in the Greek First Division. After 1977 when the club won its last major title, the fanbase started to shrink. From a position where it could rival the other two Nicosia clubs, the fanbase dwindled for two reasons. Firstly outward migration from the Nicosia city centre to the suburbs after 1974 meant that the neighbourhoods of traditional Olympiakos supporters were becoming less populated, despite this trend the club made a conscious decision to leave the new clubhouse on the "green line" dividing Nicosia. Also the Turkish invasion spelt economic problems for the club and the fact that it was located in an inner city area next to the green line only made things harder. Up until the late 1990s many traditional Olympiakos supporters out of frustration for the lack of titles either stopped going to games and others switched allegiances to other Nicosia clubs that were richer and could still afford to win titles such as APOEL. It could be said that the club did not transition well from the era of amateur to semi-professional football in Cyprus beginning in the early 1980s mainly for the reasons mentioned above. Also the younger generation of Cypriots did not grow up with Olympiakos as a major power in the Cyprus league and despite their parents supporting Olympiakos they would often choose to support another side that won titles in the 1980 to 2000 years.
Despite all these factors that contributed to the dwindling of the fanbase Olympiakos supporters are still regularly polled as the 6th most populous in the Cypriot First Division behind Omonia, Apoel, Anorthosis, Apollon and AEL. In general Olympiakos supporters tend to be of an older age and very rarely engage in trouble with other fans unless severely provoked. They also tend to be right wing politically, although not officially affiliated to any political party, and speak fondly of the time when Olympiakos played with other Greek teams in the Greek First Division.
In the early 2000s, with the shift from semi-professional to professional status in Cyprus football and with a wealthy President at the helm, a brief revival of the club fortunes with an UEFA cup participation, as the club finished second, after 25 years, increased the fans at the New GSP to around 5000 in the two home European games. Olympiakos fans although now less than those of the other Nicosia, Limassol teams and Anorthosis are nevertheless fiercely loyal to their team. Even when the club fell to the Second Division between 2008 to 2010 due to economic problems, 300 supporters would follow the club to even the most remote village of Cyprus, with home attendance varying between 500 and 750. At home games now in the First Division around 1000 to 2000 Olympiakos supporters will cheer the team on and are quite demanding for their team due to its past glories, one could say as demanding as other teams that have recently won silverware.
Read more about this topic: Olympiakos Nicosia
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)