Athenian Tragedy: Greece To Move Out Of Karaiskaki?

In cooperation with Goal.com:

Greece’s recent friendly against World Champions Italy should have packed out the Giorgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens. But not for the first time, it was virtually empty…

Despite the Greek national team’s recent success – the former European champions have now qualified for consecutive European championships and are currently 18th in the official FIFA world rankings – crowds during their qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup have been conspicuously low.

Following a particularly poor turn-out in their opening home match against Moldova, it took the pleas of national team players to produce an improved attendance against Switzerland.

It is currently unclear why there is such a lack of support for the Greek national team in Piraeus, particularly given the loyal weekly following that Olympiakos enjoy at the same stadium and the fact that the Karaiskaki was routinely sold out during Greece’s failed qualifying campaign for Germany 2006.

Unanimous Decision

Whatever the reason, it appears now that the Hellenic Football Federation are starting to look for an alternative home for the Greek national team, with a recent statement on their website confirming that a February friendly against Denmark has been moved to the Panthessalian Stadium in Volos, which has a capacity of 22,700 and was built for Olympic games football in 2004.

The move follows comments from Greece veteran Giorgios Karagounis during an interview with sports radio station Nova Sport 94.6, during which he claimed the entire Greece squad wanted to move out of Athens.

“We are very worried about the picture that our supporters have painted – empty seats.” Karagounis said.

“As a footballer you want to play in front of your supporters, especially when playing teams like Italy.

“That was not a good picture last night but we are used to it.

“We were playing against the World Champions and Lippi was touting a full stadium during his pre-game conferences.

“All of the players agree that the games should take place outside of the Athens area.

“It is not good to see that type of response in our stands.”

Bandwagon?

Karagounis, part of the Greek side that famously lifted the Henri Delaunay trophy in Lisbon four years ago, says the recent lack of support for the Greek national team is not unexpected.

“The Greek national team has never really had any real supporters.” He said.

“People were forced to react to our Euro 2004 triumph.

“We all knew that with our first loss things would be the same once again.”

Greece will travel to Israel in March for their next qualifier, before welcoming their opponents to Greece on April 1.

As it stands, the chances of that match being played in Athens appear slim.