center
PAS Giannina it is not only a soccer club, it is not only a team with supporters...PAS is something else. PAS was born in the capital city of Epirus, Ioannina, in the north western part of Greece.In a mountainous area where natural beauty and wildness are combine. Like this, the people from Epirus are in some way a mixture of the previous statement. Although they offered many sacrifices for the creation of the modern Greek state through the time, unfortunately they were forgotten by the central government and sometimes mismanaged by its organs. So Epirus without a serious help in the financial domain, without founds for a real development, without modern routes of transport and communication, nowadays is the poorest part of Greece.For example unemployment in the young people between 20 to 30 years old is approximately 40%, and the European Union by its official statistics declared the region as the most undeveloped one from all the member states. So it is easy to understand that the people of Epirus feel offended and forgotten by the rest of the country, although Epirotians where the only persons which donated their personal fortunes to build up the capital Athens in the previous century, and thousands Epirotians gave their blood for the national liberation wars of Greece the last two hundred years. In these circumstances many people from Epirus was forced by the "ghost" of poverty to immigrate. They left their beloved mountains for the hot valleys of Australia or the frozen cities of Canada. Many of them emigrated internally to the big urban centers of Greece such as Athens, Salonica and other. So it easy to understand that PAS Giannina was, is and it will be the representative of their pride, demnity and honor. It is the team that make them to full all the stadiums around Greece just to sing and cheer for their land and their offended rights. It is the team that, with its exceptional achievements in the "70s of the previous century made all Greece to remember again the existence of Epirus.It is the team that unites the people of the Epirotic diaspora with their land and their customs. PAS is the first team which broke the monopoly of the so-called "big teams" of Athens and Salonica and finished in the high positions of the First soccer Division, previously occupied only by them. PAS is the only team of the Greek province that has always its stadium full of supporters, when the others sell only some hundreds of tickets. This is PAS...something more than a club.
THE STADIUM
the field of Pas Giannina is the National Stadium of Ioannina " The Zosimades ". Before the renovation of 2000 the stadium had a capacity of 15.000 people. Now after the placement of plastic seats and for security reasons, the capacity was reduced at 10.000, in which 7.000 are sitting places.The stadium has four pylons for electric lighting and a local dynamo for producing it. It is one of the very rare examples of still-full soccer fields in Greece. The atmosphere created here is the stimulus for the players, and the terror for the opponents.
THE FANS
c
The power of Pas Giannina are the fans of the team. From the southern part of Greece till the most upper part of the country, the "Crazy Bulls" are following the team with a "religious" in some way loyalty. There are present always, not only in the home games but in a every away match. Their excursions from Rhodes till Xanthi and from Kalamata till Serres became legendary. Famous in all Greece as the most loyal and prototypical are organized in the following structures:Tavroi club, Blue Vayeros Ioannina Club Blue Vayeros Salonica Club,. There are lot of fans in Athens which there the pas giannina club LOS TOROS LOCOS is very strong.pas has fans in cities like Preveza, Filippiada, Patra, Rhodes,and outside Greece England,Germany and Italy.
History
The Rise of the 'Ajax of Epirus'
PAS was formed in 1966 as a result of the union of the two local teams - Atromitos and Averof. During its 1970s and early 1980s prime, the provincial club was bolstered by the acquisition of six Argentine players of Greek descent (Oscar Alvarez, Edouardo Rigani, Juan Montez, Jose Pasternac, Alfredo Glasman and Edouardo Lisa, with De Faria as coach) and procured several finishes near the top of the National Division table, often earning victories over Greece’s more established big city teams such as Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, AEK and PAOK. The club’s effective and spirited play during the 1970s drew flattering comparisons with that of the renowned Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam, and the moniker “Ajax of Epirus†has stuck with the team ever since. In 1980 former Poland national team coach Jacek Gmoch took the helm of the Epirote club for what was a brief but reasonably successful tenure.
In the Doldrums: Mid 1980s and 1990s
The period following the club's aforementioned peak years generally marked a sharp decline in the club's fortunes as many of its top stars moved on or retired outright without being satisfactorily replaced. PAS languished in the lower rungs of Greek football from the mid 1980s onwards, having only managed to stubbornly climb back up to the top flight for a single season in 1990 before being immediately demoted. The club would spend the remainder of the 1990s in the lower divisions.
Bumpy Ride: 2000 to present
PAS has experienced a fair degree of instability in recent years. Under the stewardship of businessman Manthos Kolempas, the club showed signs of a mild resurgence by managing to be promoted to the National Division twice since 2000. The club was relegated, however, from the top flight after the 2000-1 season following a controversial 3-game playoff with OFI Crete and again after the 2002-3 season following sanctions of 65 points imposed on it by the Greek football association (EPO) due to outstanding debts. Related administrative and financial issues threatened to cause the club to be stripped of its professional status and relegated to the amateur division indefinitely. This was ultimately averted and the club's control switched over to attorney Alexis Kouyias, who has up to this point overseen the promotion of the team from the Tertiary Division (Gamma Ethniki) to the Second Division (Beta Ethniki).
Honors and Distinctions
Over the years, PAS has competed in the National Division for a total of 15 seasons. The club has never won the National Championship or the Greek Cup, but it has won lower division titles throughout its history and represented the Greek football league in the 1978-9 and 1993-4 Balkans Cup tournaments. During its peak years in the National Division, the club twice finished in the 5th place position (1975-6, 1977-8 seasons) and once in the 6th place spot (1979-80 season). The most famous player to have donned the blue and white PAS jersey in recent years is defender Giourkas Seitaridis, who later played for Panathinaikos, FC Porto, Dynamo Moscow, and Atlético Madrid as well as the triumphant Euro 2004 Greece squad. On January 31st, 2007, PAS clinched a spot in the Greek Cup semifinals by virtue of an extra-time goal from Evangelos Kontogoulidis before a hostile crowd in Karaiskaki Stadium. With an aggregate score of 3-2, PAS also became the first ever lower division club to eliminate Olympiacos from the Greek Cup tournament.
* National Division
o 1975-76, 5th place: 30 games, 36 points, 15 wins, 6 draws, 9 losses, goals 40-33
o 1977-78, 5th place: 34 games, 38 points, 14 wins, 10 draws, 10 losses, goals 45-39
o 1979-80, 6th place: 34 games, 37 points, 14 wins, 9 draws, 11 losses, goals 50-44
* Second division
o 1973-74, second division champion
o 1985-86, second division champion
o 2001-02, second division champion
Rivalries
PAS fans harbor a deep antipathy for the "establishment" teams from Athens-Piraeus, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and AEK. They also hold a grudge against OFI Crete based on the events surrounding their 2001 playoff. In contrast, derby matches against nearby AO Kerkyra are competitive in the sporting sense but do not evoke the same feelings of enmity from PAS supporters. In recent years, PAS Giannina have developed a rivalry against fellow provincial club Veroia FC mainly due to the questionable behind-the-scenes methods Veroia F.C. are believed to have employed in order to achieve success on the pitch.
