| Olympiacos SFP | |
| Full Name: | Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós |
| Nicknames: | Thrýlos (The Legend) Erythrólefkoi (The Red-Whites) Dafnostefanoménos Éfivos (The laurel-crowned adolescent) |
| Colours: | Red, White |
| Chairman: | Michalis Kountouris |
| Club Titles: | Ιntercontinental Titles: 1 European Titles: 21 Balkan Titles: 1 |
| Anthem: | Thryle ton Gipedon (Legend of Stadiums) |
| Website: | https://www.olympiacossfp.gr |
Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς,[1] Olympic Association of Piraeus Sportsmen) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece.[2] Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, athletics, swimming, table tennis and boxing amongst many othersand have won numerous European and domestic titles over the club's history.[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Olympiacos SFP is one of the most successful and decorated multi-sport clubs in Europe,[8] [9] [10] being the only Greek club, as well as one of the few European multi-sport clubs to have won as many as 23 International titles[11] [12] [13] [14] –including 21 major European titles, 1 Intercontinental title and 1 Balkan title–[15] in six sports (Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Water Polo, Wrestling, Table Tennis)[16] (no other Greek club have won more than nine European titles). Overall, Olympiacos is the most successful Greek multi-sport club in terms of International titles won (23), European titles won (21), European Championships won (9), participations in European and International finals (49 –23 times Champions, 26 times Runners-up–) and the only Greek multi-sport club to have won European titles in four different team sports (football, basketball, volleyball, water polo). They have won European titles with nine of their sports departments (men's football, youth football, men's basketball, men's volleyball, women's volleyball, men's water polo, women's water polo, men's wrestling, men's table tennis)[8] while no other multi-sport club in Greece has more than three European title-winning sports departments.[17] [18]
Specifically, Olympiacos Men's Football Team have won 1 UEFA Europa Conference League (2024) and 1 Balkans Cup (1963), Olympiacos Youth Football Team have won 1 UEFA Youth League (2024), Olympiacos Men's Basketball Team have won 3 EuroLeagues (1997, 2012, 2013)[19] and 1 FIBA Intercontinental Cup (2013),[20] [21] Olympiacos Men's Volleyball Team have won 2 CEV Cups (1996, 2005) and 1 CEV Challenge Cup (2023), Olympiacos Women's Volleyball Team have won 1 CEV Challenge Cup (2018), Olympiacos Men's Water Polo Team have won 2 LEN Champions Leagues (2002, 2018)[22] [23] and 1 LEN Super Cup (2002), Olympiacos Women's Water Polo Team have won 3 LEN Euro Leagues (2015, 2021, 2022), 1 LEN Trophy (2014)[24] and 3 LEN Super Cups (2015, 2021, 2022), Olympiacos Men's Wrestling Team has won 1 CELA Cup (2006)[25] [26] [27] and Olympiacos Men's Table Tennis Team have won 1 ETTU Europe Trophy (2023).[28] [29] In total, Olympiacos departments (Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Water Polo, Wrestling, Table Tennis) have reached 49 times the final (23 times Champions, 26 times Runners-up) of the most prestigious and important European and Worldwide competitions, which is an all-time record for a Greek multi-sport club.
The club has also won one Triple Crown in Men's basketball in 1997 (FIBA Euroleague, Greek League, Greek Cup), two Quadruple Crowns in 2002 and 2018 in Men's water polo (2002 LEN Champions League, 2002 LEN Super Cup, 2002 Greek Championship, 2002 Greek Cup – 2018 LEN Champions League, 2018 Greek Championship, 2018 Greek Cup, 2018 Greek Super Cup),[30] two Quadruple Crowns in 2021 and 2022 (2021 LEN Euro League, 2021 LEN Super Cup, 2021 Greek League, 2021 Greek Cup – 2022 LEN Euroleague, 2022 LEN Super Cup, 2022 Greek League, 2022 Greek Cup) and one continental Treble in 2015 (2015 LEN Euroleague, 2015 LEN Super Cup, 2015 Greek League) in women's water polo[31] [32] and one continental Treble[33] in women's volleyball in 2018 (CEV Challenge Cup, Greek championship, Greek Cup).
Olympiacos FC is the only club in European football to have won European titles with two different departments (Senior Team, Youth Team) in the same year (2024).
With the 2002 achievement, Olympiacos Men's Water Polo Team became the first club ever in Water polo history (since the establishment of the modern Champions League format in 1996) to win four out of four competitions in a single year, thus completing the quadruple.[34] [35] After the 2015 LEN Euroleague win of Olympiacos women's water polo team, Olympiacos CFP became the only multi-sport club in European Water Polo history after Pro Recco to have been crowned European Champions with both its men's and women's departments,[36] and the only one with both its departments currently active (Pro Recco women's department has been dissolved since 2012).[37]
A similar impressive feat was achieved by Olympiacos CFP in another team sport in 2018: after the 2017–18 CEV Women's Challenge Cup win of Olympiacos women's volleyball department, Olympiacos CFP became the only multi-sport club in Greece and one of the very few in European volleyball history to have won European titles with its men's and women's teams.
Olympiacos men's basketball team holds several distinctions. Winning their third Euroleague title in 2013, they are the inaugural and only Greek club (only the third club in European basketball history) to be consecutive title defenders in the modern Final Four era of the EuroLeague. They beat Real Madrid in the final of the 2012–13 EuroLeague Final Four in London, 100–88.[19]
Olympiacos CFP has nurtured some of the greatest Greek athletes. Olympiacos' athletes have become Olympic medal winners, as well as World and European champions, while they are integral part of the Greek national teams. The club maintains Academies with state of the art training facilities, where thousands of children have the opportunity to learn about sports and practice. Olympiacos CFP have granted Greek sports and the club itself numerous Olympic, Worldwide and European honours. Olympiacos had 30 of its athletes and coaches from nine of its sports departments participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics.[38] [39] [40]
Olympiacos is the most popular Greek club[41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] with around four million fans inside Greece and millions of others in the Greek communities all over the world.[49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] As of April 2006, Olympiacos has 83,000 registered members and is placed in the top ten of the clubs with the most paying members in the world, holding the ninth place just ahead of Real Madrid.[56] [57] In 2014, that figure increased and the team boasts 98,000 registered members.[58] Olympiacos CFP was the first Greek club that made it possible for its fans to become members, and granted them the right of voting for the board of directors.
Olympiacos CFP was founded on March 10, 1925 in Piraeus, as a football club initially, and the club's aim, as stated in the statutes, is the systematic cultivation and development of its athletes’ possibilities for participation in athletic competitions, the spreading of the Olympic athletic ideal and the promotion of sportsmanship and fanship among the youth according to egalitarian principles, by stressing a healthy, ethical and social basis as its foundation. Members of "Piraikos Podosfairikos Omilos FC" (Sport and Football Club of Piraeus) and "Piraeus Fans Club FC" decided, during a historical assembly,[59] to dissolve the two clubs in order to establish a new unified one, which would bring this new vision and dynamic to the community. Notis Kamperos, a senior officer of the Hellenic Air Force, proposed the name Olympiacos and the profile of a laurel-crowned Olympic winner as the emblem of the new club. Michalis Manouskos, a prominent Piraeus industrialist, expanded the name to its complete and current status, Olympiacos Syndesmos Filathlon Pireos, a name that symbolizes and encompasses the morality, the honour, the vying, the splendor, the sportsmanship and the fair play value of the Olympic ideal of Ancient Greece, which was totally consistent with the club's emblem.[60] Besides Kamperos and Manouskos, among the most notable founding members were Stavros Maragoudakis, the Post Office director, Nikos Andronikos, a merchant, Dimitrios Sklias, a Hellenic Army officer, Nikolaos Zacharias, an attorney, Athanasios Mermigas, a notary public, Kostas Klidouchakis, who became the first goalkeeper in the club's history, Ioannis Kekkes, a stockbroker, and above all, the Andrianopoulos family. Andrianopoulos, a family of well-established Piraeus merchants, played a pivotal role in the founding of Olympiacos. The five brothers, Yiannis, Giorgos, Dinos, Vassilis and Leonidas Andrianopoulos raised the reputation of the club and brought it to its current glory.[61] Yiannis, Giorgos, Dinos and Vassilis were the first to play, while Leonidas, the youngest of the five, made his debut later on and played for the club for eight years (1927–1935). The club's offensive line, made up of the five brothers, became legendary, rising to a mythical status and soon Olympiacos gained enormous popularity and became the most successful and well-supported club in Greece. Olympiacos is also known as Thrylos (The Legend),[62] after the legendary, classic side of the 1950s which won a hatful of titles.
See main article: Olympiacos F.C..
Olympiacos football team is the most successful club in Greek football history,[64] and the only Greek club to have been crowned European Champions by winning UEFA Europa Conference League in 2024. Having won 47 League titles, 28 Cups and 4 Super Cups, all records.[65] Τotalling 79 national trophies, Olympiacos is 9th in the world in total titles won by a football club.[66] The club's dominating success can be further evidenced by the fact that all other Greek clubs have won a combined total of 38 League titles, while Olympiacos also holds the record for the most consecutive Greek League titles won, with seven in a row in two occasions (1997–2003 and 2011–2017), breaking their own previous record of six consecutive wins in the 1950s (1954–1959), when Olympiacos was unequivocally nicknamed Thrylos (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Θρύλος, "The Legend").
Having won the 2014–15 league title, Olympiacos became the only football club in the world to have won a series of five or more consecutive championships for five times in their history, a record that was praised by FIFA with a congratulatory letter of its president, Sepp Blatter.[67] They are also the only Greek club to have won five consecutive national Cups (1957–1961), as well as six League titles undefeated (1937, 1938, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1955).[68] Olympiacos are one of only three clubs to have never been relegated from the top flight of Greek football, and by winning the 2012–13 title, their 40th in total, they added a fourth star above their crest, each one representing 10 League titles.[69]
Olympiacos is the most successful Greek football club in European competitions, being the only club from Greece to have won a major European trophy; they won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023–24, sealing their title by winning against Italian side Fiorentina 1–0 in the Final. With their 2024 triumph, they became the first club outside the biggest four European leagues (Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga) to win a UEFA competition since 2011.
See main article: Olympiacos B.C..
Olympiacos men's basketball team is one of the most successful clubs in European basketball, having won three Euroleague Championships, one Triple Crown, one Intercontinental Cup, fourteen Greek Championships, twelve Greek Cups and two Greek Super Cup. As a traditional European powerhouse, Olympiacos have also been six times EuroLeague runners-up and, having played a total of nine finals, they are the Greek club with the most EuroLeague Final appearances. They have also participated in fourteen EuroLeague Final Fours. They play their home matches at Peace and Friendship Stadium.
They are the first Greek club that ever played in a Euroleague Final (1994), and they won their first Euroleague title in 1997,[73] achieving the first Triple Crown ever for a Greek team. As European champions, Olympiacos played in the 1997 McDonald's Championship and reached the final of the tournament, where they met Michael Jordan's NBA champions, the Chicago Bulls.[74] During the 1990s, besides their constant achievements in EuroLeague, also adding a third place in 1999, Olympiacos dominated the Greek Basket League with five consecutive titles, at a time when the Greek championship was considered Europe's best national basketball league. Thus, FIBA declared Olympiacos as the "Best European Team of the 1990s".[75] [76]
Olympiacos returned to the very top of European basketball in 2010, when they reached the final against Barcelona in Paris, but mostly in 2012, when they won their second EuroLeague title in Istanbul, by rallying from 19 points down in the championship game, to beat CSKA Moscow 62–61, on the last shot of the game, achieving the greatest comeback in European basketball finals history, and one of the greatest ever seen in European continental basketball. In 2013, Olympiacos won their third EuroLeague title and became the only Greek club and only the third club in European basketball history to be crowned back-to-back European champions in the modern EuroLeague Final Four era, after beating Real Madrid 100–88 in the London final.[77] Later on, Olympiacos won the Intercontinental Cup, celebrating a third international title in 17 months.
See main article: Olympiacos S.C..
Olympiacos men's volleyball team is the most successful club in Greek volleyball history, having won 32 Greek Volley League titles, 18 Cups, 6 League Cups, all national records, and 2 Super Cups.[79] They are the only volleyball club in Greece to have won a European title, having actually won 3 European titles, 2 CEV Cups in 1996 and 2005 and 1 CEV Challenge Cup in 2023. Olympiacos is a traditional powerhouse in European volleyball, having played in 8 European finals in all three main CEV competitions: 2 times runners-up in the CEV Champions League in 1992 and 2002 (with 7 CEV Champions League final four participations), 2 times winners (1996, 2005) and 2 times runners-up (1997, 1998) in the CEV Cup, one time winners (2023) and one time runners-up (2018) in the CEV Challenge Cup.
Domestically, Olympiacos holds the record for the most consecutive championships won, with eight in a row (1987–1994), and for winning seven championships undefeated (1968, 1974, 1979, 1981, 1988, 1991, 2018). Internationally, their most successful period was between 1992 and 2005, when they came to be included amongst the top volleyball powers in Europe. During this period, apart from their two European trophies, they progressed to eleven final fours in total, seven of them consecutive between 1992 and 1998 (the first four in the CEV Champions League and the next three in the CEV Cup Winners' Cup); they also won a fourth place in the CEV Super Cup and a third in the FIVB Volleyball Men's Club World Championship. Olympiacos came to European prominence again by playing in the 2017–18 CEV Challenge Cup final; at the same time, the women's department won their respective 2017–18 CEV Women's Challenge Cup. In this way, Olympiacos became the first volleyball club that had men and women playing simultaneously in European finals, and one of the very few to have won European trophies in both departments. In 2023, they won the CEV Challenge Cup, beating rivals Panathinaikos in the semi-finals and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final.
See main article: Olympiacos Water Polo Club.
Olympiacos men's water polo team is one of the most successful teams in Europe and a traditional powerhouse of continental water polo,[84] [85] having won 2 LEN Champions Leagues (2001–02, 2017–18),[86] [87] 1 LEN Super Cup (2002) and 2 Triple Crowns (2002, 2018), the only Greek club to have been crowned European Champions. They have also been six times runners-up (counting nine European finals overall), three in the LEN Champions League (2000–01, 2015–16, 2018–19), two in the LEN Cup Winners' Cup (1997–98, 1998–99) and one more in the LEN Super Cup (2018). In 2001–02, Olympiacos became the first club ever in water polo history to win all four competitions they claimed (LEN Champions League, LEN Super Cup, Greek League, and Greek Cup), completing a Continental Quadruple. They won their second Continental Quadruple in 2017–18 season (LEN Champions League, Greek League, Greek Cup, Greek Super Cup). After the 2014–15 LEN Euro League win of the women's department, parent club Olympiacos CFP became the second sports club in continental water polo history to have been crowned European Champions with both its men's and women's teams and the only one in Europe with both these departments currently active.
Domestically, Olympiacos is the most titled club in Greek water polo history, as the club's 67 domestic titles (70 overall) are the most out of any Greek club. They have won 38 League titles (sared record), a record 25 Cups, a record 5 Super Cups, and a record 21 Doubles. They are the dominant force since 1992, having set a number of records including a winning streak of 163 straight wins in both the Greek League's regular season and playoffs, which lasted from May 2013 to May 2019.
See main article: Olympiacos women's water polo team. Olympiacos women's water polo team is one of the most successful clubs in Europe and a traditional powerhouse of continental water polo, having won 3 LEN Euro Leagues in 2015, 2021[91] and 2022, 3 LEN Super Cups in 2015, 2021, 2022 and 1 LEN Trophy in 2014[92] and having, overall, a commanding presence in European competitions. Besides the 3 LEN Euro Leagues, 3 LEN Super Cups and 1 LEN Trophy titles, they were runners-up of the LEN Euro League in 2017 and 2019, runners-up of the LEN Super Cup in 2014, runners-up of the LEN Trophy in 2008 and 2018[93] and they have participated, altogether, in 9 Champions' Cup / Euro League Final Fours (1996, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022),[94] as well as in 5 LEN Trophy Final Fours (2001, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2018), being semi-finalists of the same competition in 2009 and 2012.[95] [96] Domestically, Olympiacos is the most successful Greek club, having won a record 15 Greek Championships, a record 5 Greek Cups, a record 1 Greek Super Cup and a record 5 Doubles. They also hold the all-time record for the most consecutive Greek Championships, as they are the only team to have won 10 consecutive Greek Championship titles (2014–2023).
In 2014 Olympiacos won the LEN Trophy in the Final Four in Florence, beating home team Firenze 10–9 in the final. One year later, Olympiacos were crowned European Champions,[97] winning the LEN Euro League in the 2015 Final Four in Piraeus, after a 10–9 win in the final against the then-reigning champions Sabadell, who were undefeated for more than 3 years with 115 consecutive wins in all competitions.[98] Olympiacos lifted the LEN Euro League title undefeated and having won 8 straight matches without even a single draw. Subsequently, Olympiacos won the 2015 LEN Super Cup as well, defeating Plebiscito Padova, thus completing a continental Treble[99] in 2015 (LEN Euro League, LEN Super Cup, Greek Championship), winning season's all three available titles.
In 2021 Olympiacos won their second LEN Euro League title in Budapest, beating home teams UVSE (9–8 in the semi-final) and Dunaújvárosi (7–6 in the final) with a roster composed entirely of Greek players. They went on to win the Greek League and the Greek Cup, thus completing the first ever Triple Crown for a Greek club in the sport's history, which eventually became a Quadruple Crown after winning the 2021 LEN Super Cup.
In 2022 Olympiacos were crowned back-to-back European Champions in Piraeus, beating UVSE (18–11 in the semi-final) and Sabadell (11–7 in the final). They went on to win the Greek League, the Greek Cup and the 2022 LEN Super Cup, thus completing the second and back-to-back Quadruple Crown in their history.
After the 2015 LEN Euroleague win of Olympiacos women's water polo team, Olympiacos CFP became the only multi-sport club in European Water Polo history after Pro Recco to have been crowned European Champions with both its men's and women's departments and the only club with both its departments currently active (Pro Recco women's department has been dissolved since 2012).
See main article: Olympiacos women's volleyball. Olympiacos women's volleyball team is one of the most successful volleyball clubs in Greece and the country's most successful in European competitions, having won 8 Greek League titles, a record 9 Cups, a record 7 Doubles, a CEV Challenge Cup (2018) and a Continental Treble (2018), the only women's volleyball club in Greece to have won a European title. They hold the unique records for winning eight consecutive Greek League titles (2013–2020), nine consecutive national Cups (2011–2019) and seven consecutive Doubles (2013–2019).
The season 2017–18 was the most successful in the club's history and the most successful by any Greek women's volleyball club in history; besides winning the aforementioned CEV Challenge Cup in their second final presence in a row, they won the domestic competitions undefeated, with 25–0 wins in the League, finishing the season with only two sets lost in an unprecedented 75–2 set record, and 4–0 wins in the Cup with a 12–1 set record, achieving a Continental Treble and their sixth consecutive domestic Double.[101] [102] In the same season, the men's volleyball team reached the CEV Challenge Cup final and Olympiacos became the first Greek volleyball club that had men and women playing simultaneously in European finals, and one of the very few in the continent to have won European trophies in both departments.
See main article: Olympiacos Women's Basketball.
Olympiacos women's basketball team was initially founded in 1947, being one of the best women's basketball clubs in Greece during the 1950s and the early 1960s, when they won 3 Women's Division Center Championships (1956, 1958, 1959), which was the most important competition of Greek women's basketball at the time (until 1967–68 when the Greek Women's Basketball League was officially organized).[107] The department was dissolved in the mid-1960s and after a long period of inactivity, it was reorganized in 2015.[108] [109] [110] [111]
Olympiacos is one of the most successful clubs in Greek women's basketball history, having won 8 Greek League championships, a record 5 Greek Cups and a record 5 Doubles. From the start of the 2015–16 season (which was the first after its reorganization), till the 25th of October 2020, Olympiacos remainded undefeated in all official or friendly games in all domestic competitions (for more than 5 years), setting a world record of 137 consecutive victories (118 of which were in the Greek League),[112] [113] winning 5 consecutive undefeated Greek League championships (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) and 4 consecutive undefeated Doubles (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), while the 2020 Greek Cup was not completed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[114] The world record of 137 straight wins was finally stopped on October 25, 2020, during the 2020–21 Greek League.[115]
See main article: Olympiacos H.C..
Olympiacos men's handball department was founded in 1931 and it has won 4 Greek Handball Championships, 3 Greek Cups and 2 Doubles.[117] [118]
In 2017–18 season, which was the first after its reorganization, Olympiacos won the domestic double. They won the Greek Handball Championship by beating AEK Athens with 3–2 wins in the finals in a dramatic fashion, as they overturned an initial 0–2 win lead by AEK and took three straight wins to secure the League title.[119] They also won the Greek Cup, beating PAOK in the semi-final and ASE Douka in the final to complete the domestic Double.[120]
See main article: Olympiacos (swimming club). Olympiacos (swimming club), founded in 1925, is the most successful team in the history of Greek swimming, having won a record 65 Greek League Championships, 9 Greek Open Water Championships, 4 Greek Cups (25m pool), 1 Panhellenic Masters Championship and 1 Greek Super Cup. The club's dominating success can be further evidenced by the fact that all other Greek swimming clubs have won a combined total of 34 Greek League titles. Olympiacos also hold the record for the most consecutive Greek League titles won, with twenty-seven (28) in a row (1996–2023), which is a record in Greek sports history. Olympiakos swimming department holds the world record of having won at least one title in every season, for fifty-four (54) consecutive years. Since 1997, the department is led by head coach Nikos Gemelos, who has coached Olympiacos to 27 consecutive Greek League titles.
Olympiacos has produced some of the greatest swimmers in Greek swimming history, such as the Olympic silver medalist, five-time Olympian, two-time World Champion, World Cup gold medalist, and two-time European Champion[122] Spyros Gianniotis, who is considered the greatest Greek swimmer of all time.[123] [124]
See main article: Olympiacos (athletics). Olympiacos track and field department was established in 1925. The department has had in its ranks some of the greatest Greek athletes ever in the track and field events including Olympic medalists, as well as World, European, Mediterranean, Balkan and Panhellenic Champions. Cases in point are: Konstantinos Kenteris, Fani Halkia, Ekaterini Thanou, Mirela Maniani, Niki Bakoyianni, Hrysopiyi Devetzi, Niki Xanthou, Dimitrios Chondrokoukis, Labros Papakostas, Periklis Iakovakis, Ekaterini Voggoli, Hristos Meletoglou, Stelios Dimotsios, Dimitrios Polymerou, Haralabos Papadias, Maria Karastamati, Flora Redoumi, Athina Papayianni, Spyridon Vasdekis, Aggeliki Tsiolakoudi, Louis Tsatoumas and Emmanouil Karalis.
See main article: Olympiacos (table tennis club). Olympiacos table tennis department was established in 1956 and has both a men's and a women's department. Olympiacos is one of the most successful clubs in Greek table tennis history, with its women's department being the most successful, having won a record 29 Greek Leagues and a record 11 Greek Cups.
Olympiacos men's department are the only Greek men's table tennis team that have won a European title, having won the ETTU Europe Trophy in 2022–23. They have also won 17 Greek Leagues and 8 Greek Cups.
See main article: Olympiacos (Wrestling). Olympiacos wrestling department was initially founded in 1934 and then reorganized in 1961. It was the first section in individual sports in Greece to win a european title, the CELA Cup in 2006. The most important athletes in the history of the department were the Koutsioumpas brothers, the Athens' Olympic Bronze Medalist Artiom Kiouregkian and Christos Gikas amongst many others.
See main article: Karaiskaki Stadium disaster.
The history of the Karaiskakis Stadium and Olympiacos was marked by the worst tragedy that ever hit Greek sports, known as the Karaiskakis Stadium disaster. On 8 February 1981, Olympiacos hosted AEK Athens for a League match, which ended 6–0, in an unprecedented triumph for the host team of Piraeus. During the last minutes of the game, thousands of Olympiacos fans at the Gate 7 rushed to the exit, to get to the stadium's main entrance and celebrate with the players, but the doors were almost closed and the turnstiles still in place, making the exit almost impossible.[134] As people continued to come down from the stands, unable to see what happened, the stairs of Gate 7 became a death trap; people were crushed, tens of fans were seriously injured and twenty-one young people died, most of them by suffocation.[135]
In memory of this event, every year on February 8, there is a memorial service at the stadium in honor of the supporters that died in that incident. The service is attended by thousands of fans every year, who are rhythmically shouting the phrase "Αδέλφια, ζείτε, εσείς μας οδηγείτε." (Adhélfia, zíte, esís mas odhiyíte, "Brothers, you live, you are the ones who guide us."). At the tribune part of the stadium where Gate 7 is now, some seats are colored black instead of red, shaping the number "7", whereas there is also a monument on the eastern side of the stadium, bearing the names of all 21 supporters killed on that day in the stadium.[136]
Even though this incident affected almost solely the fanbase of Olympiacos, other teams occasionally pay their respects to the people killed as well, as they consider the incident to be a tragedy not only for one team, but for the whole country. In the past, even foreign teams, such as Liverpool F.C. and Red Star Belgrade have honored the incident's victims.[137]
