Really, how do you feel when you are told that in a football match of the Greek league only two Greek players played as starters and a third came on as a substitute?
How do you feel when you are told that out of the 221 footballers who competed in the 5th Super League matchday, only 54 were Greeks (only 36 starters), i.e. a percentage of 24.43% against 75.57% of foreigners? Foreigners make up 58.8% of the 14 PAE rosters this season.
Be that as it may, what is certain is that the unforgettable Greek comedy by Alek Sakellarios in 1972 “Rena is offside” with Rena Vlachopoulou in the role of a seamstress who goes to deliver the outfits she sewed for a Greek team that would play a foreign one , but no one spoke Greek since they were all foreigners, it turns out to be more than prophetic! Half a century ahead of its time!
Disappointment
Documento’s research on the five matches that have already been held in the league has again this year disappointing conclusions for the Greek footballers, who, except for exceptions, seem to have a complementary role mainly in the rosters of the Big 5, with Aris as the “flag bearer” as last year, who to use Greek in the eleven or even as a change, one should pray to Panagia of Tinos! The “yellows” of Thessaloniki have used a total of 73 players in five matches. Of these, only three were Greeks (one starter, two substitutes), a percentage of 4.1% which shows that they are the most foreign team in the league. Aris is followed by PAOK with 12.9%, even if it is considered a team that offers many opportunities to the children of its academies. If it weren’t for Constantelias or the recently sold Koulierakis, the percentage would be even closer to that of his compatriot.
Third in the ranking is Olympiacos with a percentage of 17.9%. In the case of the “erythroleuks” we have the most oxymoronic thing happening in the… battle between Greeks and foreigners. With the club’s youth team (U19) having won the Youth League, Jose Luis Mendiliber took five of their players who impressed at the tournament into training. The children left a very good impression and gave promises for the future. In fact, the Spanish coach included all five youngsters (Koutsidis, Mouzakitis, Makoulas, Papakanellos, Kostoulas) in the squad for the premiere match in Volos with the team of the same name and used Kostoulas as the main centre-forward. But instead of there being continuity, little by little the little ones stopped even joining the missions. In the 2nd matchday (against Kallithea), no one was included in the team for good reason because the K19 was competing in the final of the Intercontinental Cup at the Maracana against Flamengo. In the 3rd matchday (in Lamia) only Kostoulas and Mouzakitis were in the squad but they were not used. On the 4th (within Panaitolikos) and the 5th (on Ari) not one was on the mission. All of them compete normally in the U19 league and continue to impress.
They are running low
Another important conclusion for the Super League is that, match by match, fewer and fewer Greek footballers are used in the starting eleven of the 14 teams. And it is typical that while the Greeks in the starting eleven in the premiere represented a percentage of 28.6%, in the 2nd they fell to 27.3%. They took a breather in the 3rd with 27.9% and fell even more in the 4th matchday, reaching 25.3%. However, the decline continued on the 5th day with the percentage falling to 24%.
And if Aris is the most “foreign” Greek team, OFI and Levadeiakos hold high the flag of the Greek players, who with a percentage of 43.8% each are the most… Greek teams in the league. With them in close proximity are two more teams from the region, Panaitolikos and Panserraikos, with 40% each.
The fact that out of the five most “foreign” matches in the league, three are of Aris, with the first being the premiere game against Atromitos in Peristeri where only three Greeks were used out of a total of 28 players who participated. In fact, in two games out of the five they played so far (against Astera Tripoli and Olympiakos), the team of Akis Manziou did not have a single Greek in the lineup. Especially with Piraeus, he didn’t even put a Greek as a substitute! Only two Greeks played in the starting lineup (with the home team) in the game Volos – PAOK, with the “two-headed” not having a Greek in the starting eleven and putting one as a substitute.
Finally, let’s say that the two most “Greek” games of the league so far were two of Panaitolikos. In the game against Lamia, the two teams used six Greek players in the starting line-up (a record number), while in the game against Panserraikos, the two teams each had five in the starting lineup. In total, 14 Greeks out of the 32 used played in these games (including substitutions). Rate 43.8%.
No measure
The European Club Association (ECA) highlighted something very important for Greek football in its multi-page report on the transition from a club’s academies to the first team. The study revealed that Greece lags far behind the rest of Europe when it comes to the utilization of talented native footballers, since in fact there is not the slightest measure to use a specific number of Greek players in matches and it is simply done what the country’s big clubs want. Xenomania and holy God. The only regulation that exists in the Super League is that our teams can use… up to eight foreign, i.e. non-EU, players. Neither how many community members are allowed to play in a game nor reason for the mandatory presence of natives on the roster or even in the eleven, despite the incentives given by UEFA to support young and native footballers.
A good example for Greek football is the tactic followed three years ago by the Turks with the compulsory use of gradually two and three natives in the eleven. However, after pressure from the country’s major clubs, the measure was set aside. Now the Turkish Football Federation has agreed at the start of this season that top-flight teams will have up to eleven foreign players on the pitch, while last season the regulation allowed a maximum of eight foreign players on the pitch. At the same time, however, from this year the teams reduced the presence of foreigners on the roster from 14 to twelve and in three years they will be further limited to eleven, with the footnote however that there will be no restrictions on how many will be in the eleven.
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