page_title: Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki)
section_title: Evangelos Mytilineos period (2000–2004)
hierarchical_section_title: Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) / History / Reconstruction and change of ownership (1990–2007) / Evangelos Mytilineos period (2000–2004)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ivan Jovanović Coach APOEL FC
context_page_description: Iraklis Football Club is a Greek football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. The club will compete in 2020–21 in the third tier of the Macedonia Football Clubs Association championships, the seventh and second-to-last tier of greek football pyramid, in the region of Thessaloniki, through a successor club named Iraklis 2015 F.C.. It plays its home matches at Kaftanzoglio Stadium.
  Founded in 1908 as "Macedonikos Gymnasticos Syllogos", they are one of the oldest in Greek football and the oldest in Thessaloniki, hence the nickname Ghireos. A year later, the name "Iraklis" was added to the club's name as an honour to the ancient Greek hero Heracles. The team's colours are cyan or blue and white, inspired by the Greek flag. Iraklis is a founding member of Macedonia Football Clubs Association, as well as the Hellenic Football Federation, as a part of G.S. Iraklis.
  Before the formation of the nationwide league of Alpha Ethniki, Iraklis competed in the league that was run by the Macedonia Football Clubs Association, winning it on no less than five occasions.
context_section_description: The team was sold in 2000 to prominent Greek businessman Evangelos Mytilineos for almost €3,500,000 (1.18 billion drachmas). Despite the acquisition of many promising players during the first summer, the 2000–2001 campaign didn't have the expected results, with the club finishing in 5th position, out of European qualification spots. However, Iraklis managed to progress to the 2nd round of UEFA Cup, where they achieved a memorable (although without any effect) win over 1. FC Kaiserslautern in Fritz-Walter-Stadion. Next summer, Mytilineos's first move was to sell the highly rated striker and fans' favorite Michalis Konstantinou to Panathinaikos, setting a new record for the highest fee received for a domestic transfer. That move worsened the relationship between the new owner and the fans, while it clearly weakened the club, since Konstantinou was not replaced. Manager Giannis Kyrastas, who was widely considered one of Greece's bests, was replaced by previous coach Angelos Anastasiadis who in his second tenure managed to qualified once again for the UEFA Cup on a very small budget. In 2004, Mytilineos announced his desire to leave the team and therefore sell it to Giorgos Spanoudakis (a friend of his from their school years, who used to be first vice-president of the club), for just €1, since the team was heavily in debt. Spanoudakis initiated a series of expensive but unsuccessful deals like Polish international Cezary Kucharski and Serie A veteran Giuseppe Signori, driving the team close to bankruptcy. He later tried to get rid of the team by selling it to yet another unknown businessman named Dimitris Houlis, who had been a president of Akratitos F.C.. After a 5-month period during which Houlis controlled the team, the Greek football commission finally annulled the transfer, raising questions in the media regarding its handling of the previous one between Mytilinaios and Spanoudakis, too.
  In January 2004, Savvas Kofidis, famous as a player of the team in the 1980s, became the team's manager. During the 2005–06, he led Iraklis to an acclaimed 4th-place finish, playing effective and attractive football, creating a club record for 13 consecutive wins at home. However, with considerable debts to players, coaches and the state, Spanoudakis started the 2006–07 season attempting to reconcile Iraklis finances by selling Joël Epalle and Panagiotis Lagos, who were instrumental in the previous year's success. Next year Kofidis resigned as manager of a considerably weakened team after Iraklis lost 7 and drew 2 of his first nine games in Greek Super League and additionally was eliminated from the UEFA Cup in extra time by Wisła Kraków. Eventually the 2006–07 season ended in a hard breaking fashion as the team gained its survival to Greek Super League only in the last matchday, after breaking a 39 matches unbeaten home run of Skoda Xanthi.
caption: Ivan Jovanović, player and later coach of the team
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "b'\\xcf\\xf0\\xee\\xe3\\xf0\\xe0\\xec\\xec\\xe0 \\xf6\\xe8\\xf4\\xf0\\xee\\xe2\\xee\\xe9 \\xee, ... ]", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:29 00:57:17", "Image Artist": "\u0412\u0430\u043b\u0435\u0440\u0438\u0439 \u0414\u0443\u0434\u0443\u0448", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2278", "Image XPAuthor": "0;5@89 C4CH", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF SubSecTime": "19", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "466", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "700", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}