Patrick Comerford
As we face into the semi-finals and finals of the World Cup, of course I am hoping for an England win tomorrow night, and then in the final on Sunday night. This is where I live, but I also remember the enthusiasm with which I supported England in the final back in 1966.
Ireland and Greece have not in this competition at all. But I recall many a holiday in Greece, especially in Crete, when holidaymakers from many countries and nations filled the bars at night, and laughed, shouted, cried and commiserated with one another during World Cup matches, always in good humour and always with a shared sense of fun and passion, poured out in good measures.
Despite the absence of Greece and Ireland from the competition, and even though there are few tourists from Argentina in Greece, those bars will be filled again tonight for the semi-final between France and Spain (Tuesday), tomorrow between England and Argentina (Wednesday), and for the final on Sunday night.
Among Greeks, football (ποδόσφαιρο, podósfairo) is the most popular sport, followed by basketball, and over half the people of Greece share an interest in football.
English fans may chant ‘Football is coming come’ on Wednesday night, claiming football as an English game. But it seems there was a classical Greek version of football too. The Ancient Greeks played many ball games, and some of them were with their feet.
These games appear to have resembled rugby football, but they have many similarities too with today’s football or soccer.
ἐπίσκυρος (Episkyros, ‘over the line’) was also known as ἐπίκοινος (epíkoinos, ‘over the public’). This Ancient Greek ball game was typically played between two teams of 12 to 14 players each, and was focussed on teamwork. The game allowed full contact and the use of hands. While typically it was men who played, women also took part occasionally.
Although it was a ball game, it was quite violent – at least in Sparta. The game is comparable to rugby or American football, at least in concept. The two teams tried to throw the ball over the heads of the other team. There was a white line, the σκῦρος or skŷros between the teams, and another white line behind each team. The teams often changed possession of the ball, until one team was forced behind its line. A form of Episkyros was played in Sparta during an annual city festival that included five teams of 14 players.
A depiction on a vase in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens shows a Greek athlete balancing a ball on his thigh. This image is reproduced on the European Cup football trophy.
The Romans later adapted the Greek game of Episkyros, or a similar game called Φαινίνδα (Phainínda),which took its name from Phaenides, who first invented it.
The Romans renamed and transformed the Greek games of football into harpastum, a latinisation of the Ancient Greek ἁρπαστόν (harpastón), meaning ‘snatched away’, from the verb ἁρπάζω (harpázō), meaning ‘to seize’ or ‘to steal’. The Roman game harpastum is said to have been adapted from the Greek team game known as ἐπίσκυρος (Episkyros) or Φαινίνδα (phaininda), a game that is mentioned by the Greek playwright Antiphanes (388-311 BCE) and later referred to by the Greek-speaking theologian Clement of Alexandria (ca 150-215 CE).
Modern football is said to have been introduced to Greeks by expatriate British communities and military personnel. The first Greek football teams were created as part of long-established athletic and gymnastic clubs in the major port cities of Athens and Thessaloniki, as well as among the large Greek communities then living the Ottoman Empire, such as Constantinople and Smyrna, in the early 1900s.
In Athens, Panathinaikos played in red and white after they broken away from the sports club Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos in 1908 when it decided to discontinue its football team. The first name of the new club was Podosferikos Omilos Athinon or POA.
Panathinaikos adopted the shamrock as its emblem in 1918. The shamrock bears a closer resemblance to the emblem of Shamrock Rovers in Dublin. The shamrock was proposed by Michalis Papazoglou, an athlete, and was designed by George Hatzopoulos, director of the National Museum of Art and a member of Panathinaikos. But there are different popular myths to explain why Panathinaikos wears the shamrock as its logo.
Michalis Papazoglou had previously played for another Greek club, Chalkidona, who wore the green trefoil or τριφύλλι (trifylli) as their own emblem. Other accounts say Papazoglou was inspired by Billy Sherring, the Irish-Canadian athlete who won the Athens 1906 Olympic Marathon wearing a white shirt with a large green shamrock.
After the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922, which resulted in a large rnumber of Greeks being forcibly moved from Turkey to Greece, and several clubs, such as Panionios and Apollon Smyrnis, were moved too. Many athletes of other clubs, like Pera, formed new clubs in their new home. AEK Athens (Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Athletic Union of Constantinople) was founded in Nea Filadelfeia in 1923, and PAOK (Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινουπολιτών, Pan-Thesalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans), was founded in Thessaloniki by Greek refugees in 1926.
It seems every large town and city in Greece also needs to have two decent, rival football teams, if not three.
The two main football clubs in Athens, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, are often referred to as ‘the Eternal Enemies’ because of their fierce rivalry. These two, along with AEK Athens, form the ‘Big Three’ (Οι Τρεις Μεγάλοι, Oi Treis Megaloi) in Greek football and are usually the main contenders for the title. Together they share a total of 82 out of 90 Greek Football Championships and they usually end up sharing the top three positions.
The two main football clubs in Thessaloniki are PAOK and Aris Thessaloniki FC. Fixtures between these two rivals are known as the Thessaloniki Derby. PAOK’s success has also added them to ‘Big Three’, making it the ‘Big Four’ in Greece.
In Crete, the two Super League clubs based in Iraklion, Ergotelis and OFI, share a rivalry that can be traced back to social and political roots. Their first-ever game was a friendly match in 1929 that ended after 35 minutes. Ergotelis were ahead by 1-0 when the game was abandoned after violence broke out between the players.
OFI, officially ΠΑΕ Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Ηρακλείου 1925 (Iraklion Sportsmen’s Club 1925 FC), is part of the OFI multi-sports club and celebrated its centenary last year. This year, OFI won the Greek Cup for the second time in its history, defeating PAOK 3-2 after extra time in the final at the Panthessaliko Stadium in Volos on 25 April 2026.
Ergotelis Football Club (ΠΑΕ Εργοτέλης) plays in the FCA Iraklion A1, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system, and home games are played at the Pankritio Stadium. But the club’s traditional home ground is the Nikos Kazantzakis Stadium, also known as Ergotelis Stadium or Martinengo Stadium. It is below the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis on the Martinengo Bastion on the Venetian fortifications surrounding the city.
Ergotelis was formed in 1929 and is part of Gymnastics Club Ergotelis (ΓΣ Εργοτέλης), named after the ancient Cretan Olympic runner. Ergotelis was formed mainly by refugees from Asia Minor, and the first recorded game was a 4-0 win for Ergotelis in a friendly against local side Leon (Λέων) at Chandax (Χάνδαξ) stadium on 4 August 1929. Ergotelis suffered retaliation under the colonels’ junta having previously allowed the songwriter and composer Mikis Theodorakis, later a key voice against the regime, to perform a concert at the Martinengo Stadium. When the colonels seized power, they branded Ergotelis an unpatriotic organisation, and club officials were accused of ‘deviating from the purposes for which they were elected, turning the club into an instrument servicing political, and sometimes unpatriotic objectives’.
As for the Greek national team, its first match was on 7 April 1929, in a 4-1 loss to Italy. Greece has qualified for the FIFA World Cup on three occasions, in 1994, 2010 and 2014, for the European Championship in 1980, 2004, 2008 and 2012, and were the reigning European champions when they failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2006.
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end
47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse
48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις
51, Bimah, βῆμα
52, ἰχθύς (ichthýs) and ψάρι (psari), fish.
53, Τὰ Βιβλία (Ta Biblia), The Bible
54, Φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ (Philoxenia), true hospitality
55, εκκλησία (ekklesia), the Church
56, ναός (naos) and ἱερός (ieros), a church
57, Χριστούγεννα (Christougenna), Christmas
58, ἐπιφάνεια (epipháneia), θεοφάνεια, (theopháneia), Epiphany and Theophany
59, Ζέφυρος (Zéphuros), the West Wind
60, Αύριο (Avrio), Tomorrow
61, καλημέρα (κaliméra), ‘Good Morning’, and καλαμάρι, κalamári, ‘squid’
62, Ελευθερία ή θάνατος, ‘Freedom or Death’
63, Ποδόσφαιρο, ‘Football’
64, καφές (coffee), Φραπές (frappé)
Series to be continued
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