# 1996–97 Alpha Ethniki

The 1996–97 Alpha Ethniki was the 61st season of the highest football league of Greece. The season began on 6 September 1996 and ended on 25 May 1997. Olympiacos won their 26th Greek title and their first one in ten years.

## Teams
### Stadia and personnel

| Team | Manager$^1$ | Location | Stadium |
| AEK Athens | Petros Ravousis | Athens | Nikos Goumas Stadium |
| Apollon Athens | Babis Tennes | Athens | Rizoupoli Stadium |
| Aris | Georgios Firos | Thessaloniki | Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium |
| Athinaikos | Christos Archontidis | Athens | Vyronas National Stadium |
| Edessaikos | Luiz Villa | Edessa | Municipal Stadium of Edessa |
| Ionikos | Jacek Gmoch | Piraeus | Neapoli Stadium |
| Iraklis | Manolis Giovanopoulos | Thessaloniki | Kaftanzoglio Stadium |
| Kalamata | Bo Petersson | Kalamata | Kalamata Municipal Stadium |
| Kastoria | Konstantinos Tsagalidis | Kastoria | Municipal Stadium of Kastoria |
| Kavala | Georgios Paraschos | Kavala | Kavala National Stadium |
| OFI | Eugène Gerards | Heraklion | Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium |
| Olympiacos | Dušan Bajević | Piraeus | Karaiskakis Stadium |
| Panachaiki | Andreas Michalopoulos | Patras | Kostas Davourlis Stadium |
| Panathinaikos | Nikos Karoulias$^2$ | Athens | Athens Olympic Stadium |
| Paniliakos | Vasilios Daniil | Pyrgos | Pyrgos Stadium |
| PAOK | Angelos Anastasiadis | Thessaloniki | Toumba Stadium |
| Skoda Xanthi | Giannis Mantzourakis | Xanthi | Xanthi Ground |
| Veria | Nikolaos Karydis | Veria | Veria Stadium |
* $^1$ On final match day of the season, played on 25 May 1997.
* $^2$ Velimir Zajec was leaved the Panathinaikos spot before the last round, so Karoulias took their place for the last match.

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Olympiacos (C) | 34 | 26 | 6 | 2 | 72 | 14 | +58 | 84 | Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round |
| 2 | AEK Athens | 34 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 75 | 28 | +47 | 72 | Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 3 | OFI | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 51 | 28 | +23 | 66 | Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 4 | PAOK | 34 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 53 | 28 | +25 | 66 | Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round |
| 5 | Panathinaikos | 34 | 20 | 4 | 10 | 60 | 25 | +35 | 64 | |
| 6 | Kavala | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 42 | 43 | −1 | 55 | |
| 7 | Paniliakos | 34 | 13 | 6 | 15 | 39 | 49 | −10 | 45 | |
| 8 | Ionikos | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 40 | 47 | −7 | 44 | |
| 9 | Apollon Athens | 34 | 12 | 6 | 16 | 39 | 42 | −3 | 42 | |
| 10 | Veria | 34 | 11 | 8 | 15 | 33 | 33 | 0 | 41 | |
| 11 | Kalamata | 34 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 34 | 50 | −16 | 41 | |
| 12 | Athinaikos | 34 | 11 | 7 | 16 | 41 | 59 | −18 | 40 | |
| 13 | Iraklis | 34 | 11 | 6 | 17 | 41 | 54 | −13 | 39 | Qualification for Intertoto Cup group stage |
| 14 | Skoda Xanthi | 34 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 53 | 59 | −6 | 39 | |
| 15 | Panachaiki | 34 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 31 | 38 | −7 | 39 | Qualification for Intertoto Cup group stage |
| 16 | Aris (R) | 34 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 32 | 48 | −16 | 35 | Relegation to Beta Ethniki |
| 17 | Edessaikos (R) | 34 | 7 | 7 | 20 | 38 | 61 | −23 | 28 | Relegation to Beta Ethniki |
| 18 | Kastoria (R) | 34 | 1 | 5 | 28 | 13 | 81 | −68 | 8 | Relegation to Beta Ethniki |
* ↑ Aris were deducted 3 points.

## Results

| Home \ Away | AEK | APA | ARIS | ATH | EDE | ION | IRA | KAL | KAS | KAV | OFI | OLY | PNA | PAO | PNL | PAOK | XAN | VER |
| AEK Athens | | 2–1 | 5–1 | 6–1 | 2–0 | 2–1 | 6–1 | 6–1 | 1–0 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 3–1 |
| Apollon Athens | 1–2 | | 1–2 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 4–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 2–0 | 0–2 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 3–2 |
| Aris | 3–2 | 1–0 | | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–3 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 2–0 |
| Athinaikos | 0–7 | 3–2 | 2–0 | | 5–2 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | 0–2 | 3–0 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 2–1 |
| Edessaikos | 0–2 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 3–2 | | 1–1 | 3–4 | 4–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–3 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–4 | 1–1 | 2–0 |
| Ionikos | 0–0 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 0–1 | 1–3 | | 2–0 | 2–1 | 5–1 | 2–2 | 3–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–0 | 0–1 |
| Iraklis | 2–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 3–1 | 4–0 | | 2–5 | 2–1 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 |
| Kalamata | 0–3 | 2–2 | 5–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 1–0 |
| Kastoria | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 1–2 | | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–5 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 2–2 | 1–2 |
| Kavala | 1–1 | 2–1 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–0 | 0–4 | 1–0 | 0–3 | 5–2 | 1–0 |
| OFI | 2–1 | 3–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 4–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | | 0–1 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 3–1 | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| Olympiacos | 2–0 | 0–0 | 4–0 | 4–0 | 4–0 | 4–1 | 2–1 | 2–2 | 3–0 | 6–0 | 1–0 | | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 |
| Panachaiki | 1–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | 0–2 | | 3–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 |
| Panathinaikos | 2–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 4–1 | 4–1 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 3–0 | 7–0 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 2–0 | | 3–0 | 5–0 | 1–2 | 1–0 |
| Paniliakos | 0–2 | 2–0 | 1–1 | 2–3 | 4–0 | 2–2 | 3–1 | 4–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0–4 | 0–5 | 1–0 | 2–1 | | 0–2 | 3–1 | 2–0 |
| PAOK | 0–0 | 3–1 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 6–0 | 3–0 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | | 4–1 | 0–0 |
| Skoda Xanthi | 1–2 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 3–0 | 3–4 | 0–0 | 6–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 | 3–5 | 4–3 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 1–1 | | 3–2 |
| Veria | 1–1 | 3–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–2 | 2–0 | |
* ↑ Athinaikos-Aris awarded 2–0, Aris forgot to present the registration ID's and health certificates of the players to the referee.

## Top scorers

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Alexis Alexandris | Olympiacos | 23 |
| 2 | Kostas Frantzeskos | OFI / PAOK | 22 |
| 3 | Krzysztof Warzycha | Panathinaikos | 21 |
| 3 | Christos Kostis | AEK Athens | 21 |
| 5 | Demis Nikolaidis | AEK Athens | 19 |
| 6 | Petros Tengelidis | Skoda Xanthi | 15 |
| 7 | Vasilis Andradis | Edessaikos | 14 |
| 7 | Giorgos Papandreou | Kavala | 14 |
| 9 | Igor Klejch | Panachaiki | 11 |

## Awards
### Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 31 December 1997.
| Award | Winner | Club |
| Greek Player of the Season | Christos Kostis Demis Nikolaidis Kostas Frantzeskos | AEK Athens AEK Athens PAOK |
| Foreign Player of the Season | Krzysztof Warzycha | Panathinaikos |
| Young Player of the Season | Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos | Olympiacos |
| Golden Boot | Alexis Alexandris | Olympiacos |
| Manager of the Season | Georgios Paraschos | Kavala |