# 1985–86 AEK Athens F.C. season

The 1985–86 season was the 62nd season in the existence of AEK Athens F.C. and the 27th consecutive season in the top flight of Greek football. They competed in the Alpha Ethniki, the Greek Cup and the UEFA Cup. The season began on 8 September 1985 and finished on 23 June 1986.

## Kits

Supplier: Zita Hellas Sponsor(s): Ethniki Asfalistiki
| Home | Away |

## Overview

In the summer of 1985, AEK "moved" to the Athens Olympic Stadium, due to construction works at the AEK Stadium. Both Olympiacos and Panathinaikos already used the same stadium as their home ground at the time, which resulted in the introduction of league games on Saturday, so that all 3 teams could be served simultaneously. Antonis Georgiadis left the team's bench for Olympiacos, while Zafiropoulos hired Jacek Gmoch, who had won the 1984 double and he had reached the semi-finals of the European Cup with Panathinaikos. Christos Ardizoglou left the club to end his career at Apollon Athens, a team where he started his career, since for various reasons he failed to transfer to Olympiacos. In December, both Vangelis Vlachos and Lysandros Georgamlis left for Panathinaikos and greatly affected the team's later performance in the league. In the transfer period of December, AEK were strengthened with the addition of Greek-Australian expatriate, Jim Patikas.
AEK started the league with two convincing victories against PAOK and Aris, but the continuation was not proportional. The whole season was a year of successive ups and downs in the performance of the team, which could not acquire duration and rhythm. The club presented two different faces in their struggles at home and away matches. While at home they finished undefeated, but with 7 draws that knocked them out of the title race, at the away matches they gathered 7 defeats in 15 games. The team finished at the third place where they were tied with Iraklis, 7 points behind the champion Panathinaikos and 2 behind the second OFI. In the UEFA Cup, AEK were eliminated by the mighty Real Madrid, who were the eventual winners, in the first round, despite winning the first leg at Athens. In the Cup, AEK reached the semi-finals where they were eliminated by Panathinaikos in a margin. Top scorer at the league was Håkan Sandberg with 12 goals and Márton Esterházy in total with 17 goals, while Theologis Papadopoulos had a very good season. One of the few positives of that season was that AEK achieved an average league ticket record in their history with 31,254 tickets per game.
However, the whole season was accompanied by the court thriller that was reserved for the end. AEK were playing in the penultimate matchday in Serres against Panserraikos. ΑΕΚ wanted the victory to stay on track for a ticket to the next season's UEFA Cup. On April 19, at the eve of the match, the general manager of AEK, Giannis Chrysovitsianos, was arrested on the accusation that he tried to bribe the players of Panserraikos, Michalis Galatidis, Giorgos Sfakianakis and Giannis Antoniadis, through Giorgos Rigas, to underperform the game. The match took place normally with Panserraikos winning by 2–0, a result that eventually did not help him avoid relegation. The result of this whole story was that the league standings were not secured, until the case was finalized. Eventually, that happened in mid-June, with AEK being punished with the deduction of 3 points, but from the next season's championship. Thus, the organizing authority decided to conduct a third place play-off match between AEK and Iraklis. Iraklis considered a scandal the decision of the punishment of AEK for next year, as well as the acquittal of OFI for the double doping of their player, Alejandro Hisis. The play-off match was set for June 23 at Volos. The delay of the conduction of the match was such that Esterházy played in the match, after competing with his national team at the FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Meanwhile Gmoch left the club, with Nikos Christidis sitting at the bench for the match. Iraklis, disagreed with the conduction of the play-off match, considering themselves wronged by the non-punishment of AEK for the current season. Nevertheless they were forced to show up in order for the club not to be punished and tried to make a parody of the match. The squad of Iraklis was consisted of only 10 players, since according to their management, the rest of the players were on vacation. At the 53rd minute and while the match was at 0–0, Iraklis were left with 6 players after Zifkas and Karaiskos were sent off, while Santexis and Adamou left injured. According to the regulation, the referee interrupted the match and was awarded 2–0 to AEK, who won the European ticket.

## Management team

| Position | Staff |
| Manager | Nikos Christidis |
| Goalkeeping coach | Stelios Serafidis |
| Head of Medical | Lakis Nikolaou |
| Physiotherapist | Nikos Pantazis |

## Players
### Squad information

NOTE: The players are the ones that have been announced by the AEK Athens' press release. No edits should be made unless a player arrival or exit is announced. Updated 23 June 1986, 23:59 UTC+3.
| Player | Position(s) | Date of birth (Age) | Signed | Previous club | Transfer fee | Contract until |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||
| Spyros Ikonomopoulos | GK | (1959-07-25)25 July 1959 (aged 26) | 1978 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1989 |
| Theologis Papadopoulos | GK | (1960-01-12)12 January 1960 (aged 26) | 1984 | AEL | ₯9,000,000 | 1989 |
| Defenders ||||||||
| Makis Chatzis | RB / LB | (1957-03-30)30 March 1957 (aged 29) | 1984 | Apollon Athens | ₯6,750,000 | 1989 |
| Panagiotis Stylianopoulos | RB / LB | (1957-09-04)4 September 1957 (aged 28) | 1978 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1986 |
| Ilias Armodoros | LB | (1960-01-25)25 January 1960 (aged 26) | 1985 | Ethnikos Piraeus | Free | 1990 |
| Takis Karagiozopoulos | CB / DM / ST | (1961-02-04)4 February 1961 (aged 25) | 1981 | Veria | Free | 1991 |
| Polyvios Chatzopoulos | CB / DM | (1961-07-17)17 July 1961 (aged 24) | 1985 | Panionios | ₯10,400,000 | 1990 |
| Stelios Manolas | CB / RB | (1961-07-13)13 July 1961 (aged 24) | 1979 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1988 |
| Stefanos Porfyris | CB | (1965-09-02)2 September 1965 (aged 20) | 1985 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1990 |
| Midfielders ||||||||
| Pavlos Dimitriou | AM / LB | (1957-03-24)24 March 1957 (aged 29) | 1985 | Panserraikos | ₯11,000,000 | 1989 |
| Dinos Ballis | AM / CM / DM / SS / ST / CB | (1957-05-25)25 May 1957 (aged 29) | 1981 | Aris | ₯17,000,000 | 1986 |
| Pavlos Papaioannou | DM / RB / LB / RM | (1959-05-19)19 May 1959 (aged 27) | 1983 | Rodos | ₯10,000,000 | 1988 |
| Nikos Pias | CM | (1960-04-07)7 April 1960 (aged 26) | 1984 | Rodos | ₯1,350,000 | 1989 |
| Babis Akrivopoulos | AM / SS / ST | (1961-09-04)4 September 1961 (aged 24) | 1983 | Veria | ₯8,400,000 | 1988 |
| Jim Patikas | RM / LM / RW / LW / SS | (1963-10-18)18 October 1963 (aged 22) | 1985 | Sydney Croatia | ₯5,000,000 | 1988 |
| Dimitris Stafylidis | CM | (1965-01-01)1 January 1965 (aged 21) | 1985 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1988 |
| Forwards ||||||||
| Thomas Mavros (Captain) | ST / LW | (1954-05-31)31 May 1954 (aged 32) | 1976 | Panionios | ₯4,000,000 | 1987 |
| Márton Esterházy | SS / ST / RW / LW / AM | (1956-04-09)9 April 1956 (aged 30) | 1984 | Honvéd | ₯25,000,000 | 1986 |
| Håkan Sandberg | ST | (1958-07-27)27 July 1958 (aged 27) | 1984 | IFK Göteborg | ₯8,000,000 | 1988 |
| Andreas Voitsidis | ST / RW / LW | (1960-04-28)28 April 1960 (aged 26) | 1984 | Kastoria | ₯2,400,000 | 1989 |
| Giannis Dintsikos | ST / SS / RW / LW / AM | (1960-06-25)25 June 1960 (aged 26) | 1981 | Kastoria | ₯20,000,000 | 1991 |
| Georgios Christodoulou | ST / SS / LW | (1967-05-20)20 May 1967 (aged 19) | 1985 | Akratitos | Free | 1988 |
| Left during Winter Transfer Window ||||||||
| Christos Arvanitis | GK | (1953-01-23)23 January 1953 (aged 33) | 1982 | Olympiacos | ₯7,000,000 | 1986 |
| Lysandros Georgamlis (Vice-captain) | RB / CB / DM / LB | (1962-02-25)25 February 1962 (aged 24) | 1979 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1985 |
| Vangelis Vlachos | AM / CM | (1962-01-06)6 January 1962 (aged 24) | 1979 | AEK Athens U20 | — | 1989 |
| Michalis Pytharoulis | ST | 1966 (aged 19–20) | 1984 | A.O. Agios Nikolaos | Free | 1989 |

## Transfers
### In
#### Summer

| Pos. | Player | From | Fee | Date | Contract Until |
| GK | Fanis Kofinas | Korinthos | Loan return | 1 July 1985 | 30 June 1987 |
| DF | Polyvios Chatzopoulos | Panionios | ₯10,400,000 | 21 June 1985 | 30 June 1990 |
| DF | Stefanos Porfyris | AEK Athens U20 | Promotion | 1 July 1985 | 30 June 1990 |
| DF | Ilias Armodoros | Ethnikos Piraeus | Free transfer | 5 July 1985 | 30 June 1990 |
| MF | Dimitris Stafylidis | AEK Athens U20 | Promotion | 1 July 1985 | 30 June 1988 |
| FW | Georgios Christodoulou | Akratitos | Free transfer | 11 July 1985 | 30 June 1988 |

#### Winter

| Pos. | Player | From | Fee | Date | Contract Until | Source |
| MF | Jim Patikas | Sydney Croatia | ₯5,000,000 | 12 December 1985 | 30 November 1988 | |
| MF | Pavlos Dimitriou | Panserraikos | ₯11,000,000 | 16 December 1985 | 30 June 1989 | |

### Out
#### Summer

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date | Source |
| DF | Stavros Letsas | Egaleo | Contract termination | 9 August 1985 | |
| ΜF | Christos Ardizoglou | Apollon Athens | Contract termination | 15 July 1985 | |

#### Winter

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date |
| GK | Christos Arvanitis | Olympiacos | ₯6,000,000 | 16 December 1985 |
| DF | Lysandros Georgamlis | Panathinaikos | ₯9,100,000 | 22 November 1985 |
| MF | Vangelis Vlachos | Panathinaikos | ₯16,000,000 | 10 December 1985 |

### Loan out
#### Summer

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date | Until | Option to buy | Source |
| GK | Fanis Kofinas | Ionikos | Free | 15 July 1985 | 30 June 1987 | N | |
| DF | Dimos Tsimiliotis | Acharnaikos | Free | 15 July 1985 | 30 June 1986 | N | |

#### Winter

| Pos. | Player | To | Fee | Date | Until | Option to buy | Source |
| FW | Michalis Pytharoulis | Vyzas Megara | Free | 28 November 1985 | 30 November 1986 | N | |
Notes
    a. $^^$ AEK gave as an exchange from their reserve team Kagarakis, Keramiotis and Voulgarelis, plus Dimas and Aravidis as a loan.
    b. $^^$ Plus the incomes from a friendly match between the clubs in the following summer.
    c. $^^$ During the previous season, Vlachos was at the end of his five-year contract and Zafiropoulos proposed a relatively small offer for a renewal, while the player had also an offer from Vardinogiannis, to move to Panathinaikos, which he accepted. As the club owed him money as well he demanded to move to the "greens" on free. A court series that lasted several months began, which resulted in Vlachos moving for Panathinaikos. The cost of the transfer was ₯16,000,000 in cash plus the incomes from a friendly match between the clubs in the following summer.

### Contract renewals

| Pos. | Player | Date | Former Exp. Date | New Exp. Date |
| DF | Takis Karagiozopoulos | 13 June 1986 | 30 June 1986 | 30 June 1991 |
| FW | Håkan Sandberg | 28 May 1986 | 30 June 1986 | 30 June 1988 |
| FW | Giannis Dintsikos | 13 June 1986 | 30 June 1986 | 30 June 1991 |

### Overall transfer activity
## Competitions
### Overall record

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Alpha Ethniki | 8 September 1985 | 27 April 1986 | Matchday 1 | 3rd | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 42 | 28 | +14 | 043.33 |
| 3rd place play-off | 23 June 1986 | 23 June 1986 | Final | Winners | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 100.00 |
| Greek Cup | 6 November 1985 | 21 May 1986 | First round | Semi-finals | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 7 | +15 | 055.56 |
| UEFA Cup | 18 September 1985 | 2 October 1985 | First round | First round | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 050.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 42 | 20 | 12 | 10 | 65 | 40 | +25 | 047.62 |
Last updated: 23 June 1986 Source: Competitions

### Alpha Ethniki
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Panathinaikos (C) | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 58 | 26 | +32 | 43 | Qualification for European Cup first round |
| 2 | OFI | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 41 | 31 | +10 | 38 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 3 | AEK Athens | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 42 | 28 | +14 | 36 | Qualification for UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Iraklis | 30 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 34 | 22 | +12 | 36 | |
| 5 | Olympiacos | 30 | 14 | 6 | 10 | 57 | 42 | +15 | 34 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
* ↑ AEK Athens and Iraklis tied at third place with 36 points. Despite AEK was found guilty for bribe against Panserraikos, the HFF punished the club with three points deduction from 1986–87 season. A play-off game was scheduled to play in Volos on 23 June. Iraklis made a protest and showed up with 10 players. At the 53rd minute with the score at 0–0, the match interrupted permanently. At this minute Iraklis after two red cards and 2 injuries, stay with 6 players on the field. The game forfeited to AEK with 2–0.
* ↑ Since Panathinaikos, winners of 1985–86 Greek Football Cup, was qualified for the 1986–87 European Cup, losing cup finalists Olympiacos earned a spot in the first round of the 1986–87 European Cup Winners' Cup.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: Competitive matches

#### Results by Matchday

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| Ground | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H |
| Result | W | W | L | D | W | L | D | W | D | W | W | W | L | W | L | D | L | D | D | W | W | L | W | W | D | D | D | W | L | D |
| Position | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |

#### 3rd place play-off
### Greek Cup
#### Matches
##### Semi-finals
### UEFA Cup
#### First round
## Statistics
### Squad statistics

    As of 23 June 1986
| No. | Pos | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Greek Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Cup | Total | Total |
| No. | Pos | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers |||||||||||
| — | GK | Spyros Ikonomopoulos | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| — | GK | Theologis Papadopoulos | 23 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 |
| Defenders |||||||||||
| — | DF | Makis Chatzis | 24 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 33 | 0 |
| — | DF | Panagiotis Stylianopoulos | 14 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 |
| — | DF | Ilias Armodoros | 25 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
| — | DF | Takis Karagiozopoulos | 25 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 34 | 3 |
| — | DF | Polyvios Chatzopoulos | 19 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 1 |
| — | DF | Stelios Manolas | 20 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 4 |
| — | DF | Stefanos Porfyris | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Midfielders |||||||||||
| — | MF | Pavlos Dimitriou | 15 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| — | MF | Dinos Ballis | 22 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 6 |
| — | MF | Pavlos Papaioannou | 27 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 35 | 1 |
| — | MF | Nikos Pias | 24 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| — | MF | Babis Akrivopoulos | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| — | MF | Jim Patikas | 12 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 |
| — | MF | Dimitris Stafylidis | 11 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 |
| Forwards |||||||||||
| — | FW | Thomas Mavros | 17 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 4 |
| — | FW | Márton Esterházy | 29 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 17 |
| — | FW | Håkan Sandberg | 29 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 16 |
| — | FW | Andreas Voitsidis | 13 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
| — | FW | Giannis Dintsikos | 20 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 25 | 8 |
| — | FW | Georgios Christodoulou | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Left during Winter Transfer Window |||||||||||
| — | GK | Christos Arvanitis | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| — | DF | Lysandros Georgamlis | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| — | MF | Vangelis Vlachos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| — | FW | Michalis Pytharoulis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

### Goalscorers

    As of 23 June 1986
| Rank | Pos. | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | UEFA Cup | Total |
| 1 | FW | Márton Esterházy | 11 | 6 | 0 | 17 |
| 2 | FW | Håkan Sandberg | 12 | 4 | 0 | 16 |
| 3 | FW | Giannis Dintsikos | 5 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| 4 | MF | Dinos Ballis | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 5 | FW | Thomas Mavros | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | DF | Stelios Manolas | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | DF | Takis Karagiozopoulos | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | MF | Jim Patikas | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | DF | Polyvios Chatzopoulos | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | MF | Dimitris Stafylidis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | DF | Panagiotis Stylianopoulos | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | FW | Georgios Christodoulou | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | MF | Pavlos Papaioannou | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | 42 | 22 | 1 | 65 |

### Hat-tricks

Numbers in superscript represent the goals that the player scored.
| Player | Against | Result | Date | Competition | Source |
| Márton Esterházy | Ilioupoli | 10–0 (H) | 6 November 1985 | Greek Cup | |

### Clean sheets

The list is sorted by competition order when total clean sheets are equal and then alphabetically by surname. Clean sheets in games where both goalkeepers participated are awarded to the goalkeeper who started the game. Goalkeepers with no appearances are not included.
    As of 23 June 1986
| Rank | Player | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | UEFA Cup | Total |
| 1 | Theologis Papadopoulos | 10 | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| 2 | Christos Arvanitis | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Spyros Ikonomopoulos | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | Totals | 12 | 4 | 1 | 17 |

### Disciplinary record

    As of 23 June 1986
| N | P | Name | Alpha Ethniki | Alpha Ethniki | Alpha Ethniki | Greek Cup | Greek Cup | UEFA Cup | Total | Total | Total |
| Goalkeepers |||||||||||||||||
| — | GK | Spyros Ikonomopoulos | | | | | | | | | |
| — | GK | Theologis Papadopoulos | | | | | | | | | |
| Defenders |||||||||||||||||
| — | DF | Makis Chatzis | 2 | | | | | | 2 | | |
| — | DF | Panagiotis Stylianopoulos | 1 | | | | | | 1 | | |
| — | DF | Ilias Armodoros | 3 | | | 2 | | | 5 | | |
| — | DF | Takis Karagiozopoulos | 7 | | | | | | 7 | | |
| — | DF | Polyvios Chatzopoulos | 3 | | | 1 | | 1 | 5 | | |
| — | DF | Stelios Manolas | 9 | | | 2 | | | 11 | | |
| — | DF | Stefanos Porfyris | | | | | | | | | |
| Midfielders |||||||||||||||||
| — | MF | Pavlos Dimitriou | 2 | | | | | | 2 | | |
| — | MF | Dinos Ballis | 4 | | 1 | 3 | 1 | | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| — | MF | Dimitris Pittas | | | | | | | | | |
| — | MF | Pavlos Papaioannou | 7 | 1 | | 1 | | | 8 | 1 | |
| — | MF | Nikos Pias | 4 | | 1 | | | | 4 | | 1 |
| — | MF | Babis Akrivopoulos | | | | | | | | | |
| — | MF | Jim Patikas | 2 | | | 1 | | | 3 | | |
| — | MF | Dimitris Stafylidis | 3 | | | 3 | | | 6 | | |
| Forwards |||||||||||||||||
| — | FW | Thomas Mavros | 2 | | | | | | 2 | | |
| — | FW | Márton Esterházy | 4 | | | | | | 4 | | |
| — | FW | Håkan Sandberg | 8 | | | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 1 | |
| — | FW | Andreas Voitsidis | 1 | | | | | | 1 | | |
| — | FW | Giannis Dintsikos | 2 | 1 | | | | | 2 | 1 | |
| — | FW | Georgios Christodoulou | | | | | | | | | |
| Left during Winter Transfer Window |||||||||||||||||
| — | GK | Christos Arvanitis | 1 | | | | | | 1 | | |
| — | DF | Lysandros Georgamlis | | | | | | 1 | 1 | | |
| — | MF | Vangelis Vlachos | | | | | | | | | |
| — | FW | Michalis Pytharoulis | | | | | | | | | |