A look at Olympiacos in Greece a team very similar to Saints in many ways.

Olympiacos or to give them their full name, Olympiacos Club Of Fans Of Piraeus are a team based in Piraeus, which for those of you not hot on geography is a city in its own right around 10 miles outside of Athens and like Southampton is a port with a big trade in cruise liners.

But the simiarlarities do not end here, firstly the clus colours are red & white stripes, secondly the clubs ground, Karaiskakis Stadium, is very similar to our own St Mary's in many ways.

Its built in a residential area of the City like our ground and has a capacity of about the same number.

It was built in its current form in 2004 just in time to used for the Olympic games football tournament.

Strangely although Olympiacos have played on this site on and off over the years, it has a chequered history, originally it was built in 1895 around the time of our beloved Dell, for use as a cycle track for the 1896 olympics and back then it was a multi purpose stadium with an athletics track, Olympiacos moved in on forming in 1825 and it was basically unchanged till the sixties when it was renovated. 

The club played there continuously until 1984, in 1981 however it was ht by the biggest tragedy to his Greek sports when supporters celebrating a 6-0 win over local rivals AEK headed for the exits early to acclaim the team behind the main stand, the gates hadnt been open fully and 21 were killed and many more injured in a crush.

The team played in the Olympic Stadium (Some 25 miles away) from 1984 for around five years and then returned to KS till 1997, again returning to the Olympic Stadium for another five year spell, with the KS in disrepair, Olympiacos were offered it on a long term lease if they rebuilt the ground for the 2004 Olympics and this they did in only 14 months opening the stadium only weeks before the games started.

The ground has axcellent facilities with regard to transport links, being only 50 metres from both the train station on the direct route between Piraeus & Athens & right next door to the station is the tram terminus.  

Being residential there are plenty of bars etc around the stadium in the surrounding streets, including a marina with bars and clubs only a ten minute walk away.

The main supporters of the club are at Gate 7 and this is seen as symbolic of the disaster of 1981.

Their main rival is Panaithanaikos whom they play in the superbly entitled "Derby of the eternal enemies" and to a lesser extent AEK.

Olympiacos are considered to be the team of the working classes whilst Panathanaikos of the more affuent, this often breaks out into violence and many clashes have occured including the death of a Panathanikos fan in a clash between two hooligan groups at a Womens Volleyball Game between the two clubs ( the three main Athens clubs also have teams in other sports).

Since then away fans have not been permitted at derby games in Athens, including when Panathanaikos and AEK play each other despite both playing in the same Olympic Stadium          

Photo: Action Images

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