Years of innocence

S01E08

Episode 8

The First National League was established in 1959 and Greek football took its first steps towards semi-professionalism, while still predominantly characterised by amateurism. The presence of a few great foreign coaches, the installation of artificial turf on some fields, as well as the emergence of great players and other factors in the sixties and the seventies, changed the climate. Our National Team came very close to the finals of major competitions twice, but on both occasions it failed in the end. Nonetheless, Panathinaikos reached Wembley Stadium, and we also admired the great teams of Olympiakos led by Goulandris, PAOK led by Koudas and AEK by Barlos. Eventually, after a lot of ups and downs, the Greek National Team managed to qualify for a major competition, the European Championship, for the first time in 1979, the same year that we entered the European Union and, thus, it became professional.