AEK ( ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos, meaning Athletic Union of Constantinople) is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, a suburban town in the Athens urban area, Greece.
Established in Athens in 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), AEK is one of the three most successful teams in Greek football (along with Olympiacos and Panathinaikos), winning 33 national titles and is the only club to have won all the competitions organised by the Hellenic Football Federation (13 Greek Championships, 16 Greek Cups, 1 League Cup and 3 Super Cups).
The club has appeared several times in European competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup). It is the only Greek team to have advanced to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup (1976–77) and the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup twice (1996–97 and 1997–98). AEK was also the first Greek team to reach the quarter-finals of the European Cup (1968–69) and to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (1994–95).
History
Establishment and early years (1924–1944)
The large Greek population of Constantinople, not unlike that of the other Ottoman urban centres, continued its athletic traditions in the form of numerous athletic clubs. Clubs such as Énosis Tatávlon () and Iraklís () from the Tatavla district, Mégas Aléxandros () and Ermís () of Galata, and Olympiás () of Therapia existed to promote Hellenic athletic and cultural ideals. These were amongst a dozen Greek-backed clubs that dominated the sporting landscape of the city in the years preceding World War I. After the war, with the influx of mainly French and British soldiers to Constantinople, many of the city's clubs participated in regular competitions with teams formed by foreign troops. Taxim, Pera, and Tatavla became the scene of weekly competitions in not only football, but also athletics, cycling, boxing, and tennis.
Football in the city was dominated by Énosis Tatávlon and Ermís. Ermís, one of the most popular sports clubs, was formed in 1875 by the Greek community of Pera (Galata). Known as "Pera" since the mid-1880s, and "The Greek Football Team" when its football department was formed in 1914, it was forced to change its name to "Pera Sports Club", and then "Beyoğluspor Kulübü" in 1923. Many of its athletes, and those of most other sporting clubs, fled during the population exchanges at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, settling in Athens and Thessaloniki.
The founders of AEK – a group of Constantinopolitan refugees (among them former athletes from the Pera Sports Club and the other Constantinopolitan clubs) – met at the athletic shop "Lux" owned by Emilios Ionas and Konstantinos Dimopoulos on Veranzerou Street, in the centre of Athens, and created AEK. Their intention was to create a club that provided athletic and cultural diversions for the thousands of predominantly Constantinopolitan and Anatolian refugees who had settled in the new suburbs of Athens (including Nea Filadelfeia, Nea Ionia, Nea Chalkidona, Nea Smyrni).
The first AEK team was: GK: Kitsos, DF: Ieremiadis, DF: Asderis, MF: Kechagias, MF: Paraskevas, MF: Dimopoulos, MF: Karagiannides, FW: Baltas, FW: Milas, FW: Iliades, and FW: Georgiades. AEK played its first match against Aias Athinon in November 1924, winning 2–0.
AEK's football team grew rapidly in popularity during the 1920s, eclipsing the already-established Athens-based refugee clubs (Panionios, Apollon Smyrnis, etc.), thanks mainly to the large pool of immigrants that were drawn to the club, the significance of the name "Constantinople" for many refugees and Greeks, plus, in no small part, to the political connections and wealth of several of the club's board members. Not possessing a football ground, AEK played most of its early matches at various locations around Athens, including the grounds of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Leoforos Alexandras Stadium.
AEK's first president, Konstantinos Spanoudis (1871–1941), a journalist and associate of the Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, petitioned the government to set aside land for the establishment of a sports ground. In 1926, land in Nea Filadelfeia, which was originally set aside for refugee housing, was donated as a training ground for the refugees' sports activities. AEK began using the ground for training, albeit unofficially.
