Nea Kavala F.C.

Kavala FC

Full name	Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα (Athletic Club Kavala)
Nickname(s)	Argonauts Light Brigade of the North
Founded	1965
Ground	Anthi Karagianni Stadium Kavala, Greece
Capacity	10,500
Owner	Amateur Kavala
Chairman	Konstantinos Kanakis
Manager	Kostas Anyfantakis
League	Gamma Ethniki
2014–15	Gamma Ethniki, 3rd (Group A)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Logo of Kavala F.C. until 2012

AO Kavala (Greek: Athlitikos Omilos Kavala, Αθλητικός Όμιλος Καβάλα), the Athletic Club Kavala, is a professional association football club based in the city of Kavala, Aegean Macedonia, Greece.

History^[1]

The club was formed in 1965 from the merger of Phillipoi Kavala, Iraklis Kavala and A.E. Kavala.

They have had a few runs in the top division of the Greek League. They were promoted to Alpha Ethniki for the first time in 1969 and stayed up for 6 years (1970 – 1975). They returned to top division in 1976 and played again for six seasons.

In 1982 the club were relegated to the Beta Ethniki (second tier of Greek football). After 11 years in Beta Ethniki and one year in Gamma Ethniki (third tier – 1988–89) they were promoted to Alpha Ethniki. There "black" period began for the team in which they played only in Beta Ethniki and Gamma Ethniki.

2009–2010 Season

In 2009 they signed Miltiadis Sapanis and EURO 2004 winner Fanis Katergiannakis. Kavala were promoted for the first time in 9 years to Greeces top division. In their quest to remain in the top flight they have signed Pepe Reina's back up at Liverpool, Charles Itandje and recently acquired Brazilian Denílson (January 2010 transfer window) a 2002 World Cup Winner. Additional season signings include Craig Moore, Željko Kalac, Ebi Smolarek, Diogo Rincón, Sotiris Leontiou, Serge Dié, Wilson Oruma and Frédéric Mendy. This combined with coach Aad de Mos meant that Kavala set the league alight. They subsequently achieved notable victories in the 2009–2010 season against Iraklis FC, Panionios, AEK FC and Panathinaikos FC.

2010–2011 Season

Ending in 6th place, the team entered the transfer season. In July, the Spanish goalkeeper, Javier Lopez Vallejo (who played in Real Zaragoza) was added to the roster. The team's owner sought the new manager throughout Europe and settled on the Serbian coach Dragomir Okuka who lasted until November, when he was replaced by Henryk Kasperczak. In Kasperczak's debut as a coach, Kavala beat AEK, 2–1, in what was considered a very good appearance.

But in March 2011, Kasperczak, retired as the coach of this team, and he was replaced by Ioannis Matzourakis, who was the coach in Kavala FC team in the seasons 1985–1986. Kavala finished 7th and later faced the threat of relegation to Football League (Greece) due to the match-fixing scandal.^[2] After an appeal, the team managed to avoid relegation by starting the new league with 8 points less.^[3] On 23 August, however, the Professional Sports Committee stripped both Kavala and Olympiakos Volou from their professional licence and demoted them to the Delta Ethniki.^[4]

2011–2012 Season

Kavala competed in Delta Ethniki Group 1. They only finished 4th, but were promoted two divisions to the Football League for 2012/13 after it was ruled that their demotion to Delta Ethniki in 2011 was as a result of government intervention and should not have been implemented by the football authorities.^[5]

2013–2014 Season

Ιn September 2013 Germans investors take the management of Kavala F.C..The agreement provides that the new investors will "catch" and a significant part of its debts to old players.

Indeed, the Germans will be able to buy a majority stake of the shares of FC paying €500,000 clause of the first season and €700,000 for the second, respectively.

Stadium

The Anthi Karagianni Municipal Stadium (Greek: Δημοτικό Στάδιο Ανθή Καραγιάννη), formerly the Kavala National Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Kavala, Greece. It is the homebase of Kavala F.C..[1] The stadium was built 1970, and currently has a seating capacity of 10,500.[1] It is named after the paralympic athlete, Anthi Karagianni, who won three silver medals in the 2004 Paralympic Games.

Current squad

2015–16 season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Panagiotis Kyfonidis GK Symeon Sinodinos GK Athanasios Athanasiou DF Savvas Toumanidis DF Diamantis Adamantiou DF Anestis Karypoglou DF Michail Bantanis DF Christos Batzios DF Giorgos Margaritis DF Nikos Liolios MF Grigoris Papadopoulos DF Pavlos Stamatopoulos MF Giorgos Paligiorgos

No. Position Player MF Tasos Dentsas MF Damianos Delis MF Lefteris Asimakis MF Fotis Doumanis MF Amvrosios Papadopoulos FW Charilaos Pappas FW Alexandros Chrysalidis FW Minas Ptinopolos FW Thanasis Kanoulas FW Alexandros Bracjani FW Vlasis Kazakis FW Iasonas Pantelidis

For latest transfers see List of Greek football transfers summer 2013

Personnel

Board of Directors

Technical staff
President	Konstantinos Kanakis
Curator of Football	Argyris Spanidis
Technical Director	Stelios Katrakilakis

Coaching & Medical Staff^[6]

Manager: Kostas Anyfantakis Assistant Manager: Panagiotis Diakakis

Coaches

Aad de Mos, manager (2009–2010)

• Giannis Papakostas
• Vasilis Daniil
• Michalis Bellis
• Grzegorz Lato
• Kostas Iosifidis
• Nikos Goulis
• Stratos Voutsakelis
• Aad de Mos
• Elvis Scoria
• Kostas Vasilakakis
• Ioannis Topalidis
• Diethelm Ferner
• Apostolos Charalampidis
• Michalis Iordanidis
• Babis Xrysostomidis
• Matthew Norman
• Bungewum Gresesiyatil
• Giannis Ispirlidis
• Kostas Anyfantakis

Achievements

• Greek Cup
  • Semi-finals (3): 1964–65, 1994–95, 2009–10

League Participation

• Superleague Greece: 1969–1975, 1976–1982, 1994–1995, 1996–2000, 2009–2011
• Football League: 1965–1969, 1975–1976, 1982–1989, 1990–1994, 1995–1996, 2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2008–2009, 2012–2014
• Gamma Ethniki: 1989–1990, 2001–2002, 2003–2008, 2014–
• Delta Ethniki: 2011–2012

League history

Anthi Karagianni Stadium

• 1965 – 69: Division 2
• 1969 – 75: Division 1
• 1975 – 76: Division 2
• 1976 – 82: Division 1
• 1982 – 89: Division 2
• 1989 – 90: Division 3
• 1990 – 94: Division 2
• 1994 – 95: Division 1
• 1995 – 96: Division 2
• 1996 – 00: Division 1
• 2000 – 01: Division 2
• 2001 – 02: Division 3
• 2002 – 03: Division 2
• 2003 – 08: Football League 2
• 2008 – 09: Football League
• 2009 – 11: Superleague
• 2011 – 12: Delta Ethniki
• 2012 – 14: Football League
• 2014 – 15: Football League 2
• 2015 – 16: Football League 2

Sources:^[7][8]

References

1. "Kavala's History".
2. "Relegation for Olympiakos Volou and Kavala" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
3. "Olympiakos Volou and Kavala escape relegation" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
4. "Olympiakos Volou and Kavala to Delta Ethniki" (in Greek). Contra.gr. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
5. http://www.epo.gr/News.aspx?a_id=43060&NewsType=21
6. "Kavala's Coaching & Medical staff".
7. Abbink, Dinant and Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2003-08-07). "Greece – Final Tables 1959–1999". RSSSF.
8. Abbink, Dinant and Mastrogiannopoulos, Alexander (2005-05-18). "Greece – List of Second Level Final Tables". RSSSF.

External links

• Official Website
• Fanclub website
• Internet fanclub website