Origins

Football first appeared in Greece in 1894 and began to spread after the 1896 Olympiad, which was included in the games program. Many clubs started to establish football divisions while the first purely football clubs were also founded. The first years, until 1912, championship was organised by the Hellenic Association of Amateur Athletics (SEGAS). This championship was actually a local tournament among clubs from Athens and Piraeus.^[6]

After the Balkan Wars and World War I, two football associations were formed, one organising a football league in Athens and Piraeus, and one doing the same in Thessaloniki. These were the Athens-Piraeus FCA (EPSAP) and the Macedonia FCA (EPSM). In 1923, a Panhellenic Champion was determined by a play-off game between the Athens-Piraeus and the Thessaloniki champions. Peiraikos Syndesmos won 3–1 against Aris. This panhellenic final was not repeated the following year as the EPSAP was split into the Athens FCA (EPSA) and Piraeus FCA (EPSP) following a dispute.^[7][8]

Panhellenic Championship

On 14 November 1926, the Hellenic Football Federation is founded and organizes the first Panhellenic Championship in the period 1927-28, in which, however, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens did not participate due to conflicts with the EPO.^[9]

The initial events were held with teams from Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, excluding the provincial ones. Previously, the local championships of the cities were held and in the final phase, sometimes only the first ones qualified, sometimes the first two or the first three teams. In the championship of 1938-39, which was held in two groups, teams outside Athens-Thessaloniki (Doxa Drama, AEK Kavala and Filippi Kavala) participated for the first time. The maiden presence of provincial teams in a single group of the Panhellenic Championship took place in 1953-54 with the participation of Panachaiki from Southern Greece and Niki Volou from Central and Northern Greece.^[10]

Α΄ National division

In 1959 the Alpha Ethniki – the precursor of the current Super League – was set up as a national round-robin tournament. After several months of talks, the 1959–60 championship was the first nationwide league competition. It started on Sunday 25 October 1959 with the participation of 16 teams. The creation of a championship in the form of a single permanent national division rather than the way they have been held until then with the participation of the teams selected by the local competitions was a requirement of both the State and UEFA. The first wished to establish a fixed number of matches every Sunday in Greece to stimulate interest in PRO-PO while UEFA wished to nominate national champions with strict criteria and through joint events for all states. The Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) was obliged to proceed to the abolition of the competitions of the Football Clubs Associations (EPS) of Greece as qualifying stages for the Pan-Hellenic Championship. The first place was taken by Alpha Ethniki, a single division with clubs from all over the Greek territory and a stable participation, with the exception of those who would be relegated at the end of the season. The initial design provided for a number of teams well above the 10th of the 1958–59 Pan-Hellenic Championship and in particular 18 which, as the expanded division calendar would cover almost all the available dates of the year, would no longer participate in its local competitions their EPSs. Those would be the qualifier for the upcoming national division and not the participation in the final round of the current championship, so their significance was significantly reduced. On Saturday, 10 October 1959 at the General Assembly of the HFF, ie with the participation of all the members of the Association of Football Associations and in the presence of the General Secretariat of Sports (GGA) and representatives of the Karamanlis government, became the first national division of Greek football. The 1st game was set for 15 days. According to the general Assembly of HFF on 29 August 1959, it was decided that the newly created Alpha Ethniki would consist of 18 teams, with their determination being made in accordance with the positions in the local EPS competitions in the period 1958–59. The HFF, at its decisive General Assembly on Saturday, 10 October, decided to reduce the number of teams to 16 so that the racing program will not be extended in the summer. After the end of the first event in the summer of 1960, the teams did not increase despite HFF's initial intention, with the number 16 being considered the ideal for a championship in Greece and only 18 in 1967.^{[citation needed]}

The teams that participated in the first championship of the Alpha Ethniki were the following:

• The top four of the Athens FCA Championship: Panathinaikos, Panionios, AEK Athens and Apollon Smyrnis.
• The top four of the Piraeus FCA Championship: Olympiacos, Ethnikos Piraeus, AE Nikaia and Proodeftiki.
• The top four of the Macedonia FCA (Thessaloniki) Championship: Aris, PAOK, Apollon Kalamarias and Iraklis.
• The top two of the North Group of the Regional Championship: Doxa Drama and Megas Alexandros Katerini.
• The first of the two Sub-Groups of the South Regional Championship: Pankorinthiakos and Panegialios.

On 25 October 1959, the Alpha Ethniki was launched. Panathinaikos won the first Alpha Ethniki's Championship and became the Greek champions for the fourth time in his history. The club tied with AEK by 79 points and defeated them by 2–1 in the play-off, a match where Panathinaikos needed only a draw at the neutral Karaiskakis Stadium. In such a case, after the half-hour extension, the competition announcement set the best goal difference. Through the playoffs and with the same score was also the third place for the demotion, with the winner Panegialios to overtake Pankorinthiakos again in the event of a draw. The scoring system was 3 points for the win, 2 points for the draw, 1 point for the defeat.^{[citation needed]}

The next years

Time has been relentless for some teams that have participated in the first league of the Alpha Ethniki. The historic Ethnikos Piraeus, cup winner of Greece in 1933, participates in the Gamma Ethniki, as well as Proodeftiki while AE Nikaia participates in the local championship of Piraeus. Apollon Kalamaria, Doxa Drama and Iraklis are fighting in the Beta Ethniki, while Pankorinthiakos, a few years after joining Alpha Ethniki, merged with Aris Korinthos and created PAS Korinthos, which reached the Alpha Ethniki at the 1990s and is now participating in the Gamma Ethniki. Megas Alexandros Katerini is the ancestor of Pierikos. In 1961, they merged with Olympos Katerini and created Pierikos who plays in the Gamma Ethniki.^{[citation needed]}

On 19 January 1979 a bill was passed in the Hellenic Parliament under which football clubs became Football Incorporated Companies (PAE or ΠΑΕ in Greek). The Association of Football Incorporated Companies (EPAE, ΕΠΑΕ in Greek), under the supervision of the HFF, has since held the responsibility to hold the championship, with Makis Ithakisios being elected its first president. Initially the shares were owned by the sports union to which the football club belonged. Yet soon after, prominent Greek businessmen (shipowners, oil magnates, bankers etc.) began acquiring the newly formed PAEs by buying the majority of their shares, and then increasing their share capital, thus turning Greek football into a fully commercialised and highly profitable business for the decades to come.^{[citation needed]}

For a single racing season, 2000–01, the championship is renamed "Upper Category".^{[citation needed]}

Rename

On 16 July 2006, was founded the copartnership Super League. Members of the copartnership are the PAE's that have the right to participate in the professional football championship of the First Division. The main activity of the copartnership is the organization and conduct of the First Division's Championship according to the regulations and decisions of the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) and the supreme international football confederations (UEFA, FIFA).^{[citation needed]}

2023–24 season

The following 14 clubs will compete in the Super League in the 2023–24 season.

AEK Athens
Atromitos
A.E. Kifisia
Panathinaikos

Aris
PAOK

PAS Giannina

Asteras Tripolis

OFI

Volos

Olympiacos

Panetolikos

Panserraikos

Lamia

Locations of the 2023–24 Super League Greece teams

Names of the championship through the years

• 1905–06 to 1911–12: SEGAS Championship, 1921–22 to 1926–27 Greece FCA Championship and in between 1922–23 EPSE Championship (not counted by HFF)
• 1927–28 to 1958–59: HFF Panhellenic Championship
• 1959–60 to 2005–06: Alpha Ethniki
• 2006–07 to 2018–19  : Super League Greece
• 2019–20 to present : Super League 1

SEGAS, FCA and EPSE championships

Performance by city (1927–)

The six clubs that have won the championship are from a total of four cities:

Performance by region (1927–)

The six clubs that have won the championship are from a total of three regions:

Top three ranking (1959–present)

Seasons in Alpha Ethniki and Super League Greece

The number of seasons that each team (in alphabetical order) has played in the top division from 1959–60 until 2023–24. A total of 70 teams had competed in at least one season at the top division. Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and PAOK are the only teams to have played in the top division in every season since the league's inception in its modern form. The teams in bold participate in the 2023–24 Super League.

• APOEL avoided relegation in the 1973–74 season, but were forced to play in the Cypriot A Division the following season due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Hence they are the only team to have played a single season in the Greek league and not been relegated.

Country rankings

As of 29 May 2022, the Greek Super League ranks 15th in the UEFA coefficient database, with 28.200 points.

More information Rank, Competition ...

Rank	Competition	Points
1	Premier League	106.641
2	La Liga	96.141
3	Serie A	76.902
4	Bundesliga	75.213
5	Ligue 1	60.081
6	Primeira Liga	53.382
7	Eredivisie	49.300
8	Austrian Bundesliga	38.850
9	Scottish Premiership	36.900
10	Russian Premier League	34.482
11	Serbian SuperLiga	33.375
12	Ukrainian Premier League	31.800
13	Belgian First Division A	30.600
14	Swiss Super League	29.675
15	Super League Greece	28.200
16	Czech First League	27.800
17	Eliteserien	27.250
18	Danish Superliga	27.175
19	Prva HNL	27.150
20	Süper Lig	27.100

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Club rankings

As of 29 May 2022