The Greek Cup 1931-32

The final of the first Greek national cup competition was played at Panathainikos' stadium on November 8, 1931. AEK defeated Aris 5-3.

Athlitiki Enosis Konstantinoupoleos (Athletic Union of Constantinople) was founded in 1920 by Greek refugees who had fled Constantinople during the Greco-Turkish War.

Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos

Panathinaikos won their first National Championship in the 1929-30 season.
Winning the E.P.S.A. (Athens Football Clubs' Association) put them into a play off round robin with Aris (Thessaloniki- winners of the Macedonia Football Clubs' Association) and Olympiakos (Piraeus Football Clubs' Association champions).

The round robin matches went as follows:

18.05.30	Olympiakos	5	0	Aris	Pireas
01.06.30	Panathinaikos	8	2	Olympiakos	Athens
06.06.30	Aris	1	4	Panathinaikos	Thessaloniki
15.06.30	Olympiakos	1	2	Panathinaikos	Thessaloniki
22.06.30	Panathinaikos	2	2	Aris	Athens
29.06.30	Aris	2	1	Olympiakos	Thessaloniki

The final table:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	pt
Panathinaikos	4	3	1	0	16	6	7
Aris	4	1	1	2	5	12	3
Olympiakos	4	1	0	3	9	12	2

Angelos Messaris

Angelos Messaris scored 8 goals in the 4 matches. The resounding 8-2 win over their rivals Olympiacos was the stuff of legend for The Greens. A chant originated at the time:

Οκτώ στον Ολυμπιακό και τέσσερα στον Άρη, γεια σου Άγγελε Μεσσάρη!

Eight against Olympiacos 
Four more against Aris 
Yra for Angelos Messaris!

Andrianopoulos Brothers - Olympiacos C.F.P.

In the Greek port of Piraeus there was a great deal of activity amongst the local football clubs in the middle of the 1920s. Foundations, mergers and dissolutions abounded. Out of this in 1924  a club arose known as Olympiacos Omilos. The following year this club evolved into Olympiacos C.F.P (Olympiacos Syndesmos Filathlon Piraios-  Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus). 
The club enjoyed a great deal of popularity with a largely proletarian support and they won the regional championship in 1925, 1926 and 1927.

Instrumental in the foundation of Olympiacos was Yiannis (Ioanis) Andrianopoulos. Born in 1900 he had played in the Greek side that had  lost 9-0 to Sweden at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.  Yiannis was Olympiacos' first manager (as player coach from 1925-27) and was later president of the club (1929–1932).

Remarkably Yannis had four brothers who also played for Olympiacos and Greece:

Giorgios (b 1903), 5 caps 2 goals (1929-31)
Dinos (Ntinos) (b 1905)   6 caps 1 goal
Vasilis (b 1908) played for Olympiacos from 1929-33, 7 caps 2 goals (1929–31)
Leonidas (b 1911) played for Olympiacos from 1927–36, 11 caps 3 goals (1929–35). Leonidas captained Greece and represented them in the Balkan Cup.

When Greece played their first official international against Italy B on 07.04.29,  Vasilis (outside right), Dinos (inside right) and Giorgios (center forward) were in the team together, with Giorgios as captain.
In Greece's next match, away to Bulgaria on 30.06.29, Leonidas (outside left) joined his 3 brothers in the national team.
In addition to these 5 stars of Olympiacos and Greece there were 2 other brothers who played for minor clubs in Piraeus; Stelios (who died at the age of 22) and Aristides.

Balkan Cup 1929-31

The first edition of the Balkan Cup was played on a home and away league basis between October 1929 and November 1931.
The competing nations were Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Albania expressed an interest, but withdrew before the tournament got under way.
During the course of this tournament Romania and  Yugoslavia also traveled to the World cup in Uruguay (Yugoslavia finishing in notional third place.).

Romania at the 1930 World Cup

Romania
The Romanian football federation had been founded in (1909). They made their international debut in 1922
 in the King Alexander Cup (a tournament with Poland and Yugoslavia). Romania also competed  in the Paris Olympics of 1924, but lost all 3 of their games. During the first Balkan Cup the team were under the guidance of  Constantin 'Costel' Rădulescu, (he was either coach or manager for 42 games from 1923 to 1940). 

Yugoslavia at the 1930 World Cup

Yugoslavia

The Football Federation of what was then known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes  was formed in 1919, and the national team made its entry into the international football arena at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920,  losing to Czechoslovakia and Egypt. 

The country was renamed Yugoslavia 1929. Yugoslavia reached the semi-final of the 1930 World Cup, where they were beaten 6-1 by Uruguay. 

Following the World Cup  Blagoje "Moša" Marjanović and Aleksandar "Tirke" Tirnanić (both of BSK) became the country's first professional players.


Greece
Greece had been represented at 1920 Olympics, an Izmir dominated side losing their only game 9-0 to Sweden, but did not compete in a full international until 1929. In fact their opening game of the Balkan Cup, a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia, was only their third official international. The Greece team featured 4 brothers, Olympiakos' Ntinos, Georgios, Vassilis and Leonidas Andrianopolous.


Bulgaria
The Bulgarian national football team was formed in 1922. In 1923 The Bulgarian Football Union was formed and the team's first match was held in Vienna in May 1924, a 6–0 defeat by Austria.

06.10.29	Romania	2	1	Yugoslavia	Bucharest
26.01.30	Greece	2	1	Yugoslavia	Athens
25.05.30	Romania	8	1	Greece	Bucharest
12.10.30	Bulgaria	5	3	Romania	Sofia
16.11.30	Bulgaria	0	3	Yugoslavia	Sofia
07.12.30	Greece	6	1	Bulgaria	Athens
15.03.31	Yugoslavia	4	1	Greece	Belgrade
19.04.31	Yugoslavia	1	0	Bulgaria	Belgrade
10.05.31	Romania	5	2	Bulgaria	Bucharest
28.06.31	Yugoslavia	2	4	Romania	Zagreb
25.10.31	Bulgaria	2	1	Greece	Sofia
29.11.31	Greece	2	4	Romania	Athens

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Romania	6	5		1	26	13	10
Yugoslavia	6	3		3	12	9	6
Greece	6	2		4	13	20	4
Bulgaria	6	2		4	10	19	4

Iuliu Bodola

The tournament yielded an average of 5+ goals per game, and no draws. Bulgaria (twice, against Yugoslavia) were the only side to fail to score in all of their games. Despite finishing bottom Bulgaria were the only side to beat champions Romania.

Iuliu Bodola and Rudolf Wetzer of Romania were joint top scorers with 7 goals each. Bodola went on to represent Hungary.

Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos

Before 1908 football at the Olympic Games was merely an exhibition, played, if at all, between
club sides. The decision of the IOC to retrospectively publish 'medal tables' based on the outcome of these matches is frankly absurd.
The attempts to include football at the 1906 Intercalated Games offered no real encouragement for the prospects of a meaningful international tournament developing. On their foundation in 1904 FIFA had stated  their intention to introduce an international tournament in 1906, but nothing came of it.
What the 1906 tournament did give us though is the first seeds of a Greek national team. 
The Thessaloniki selection was largely made up of ethnic Greeks, but the Athens selection, effectively Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos, is the team from which the 2004 European Champions  trace their descent. 
Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos were primarily a gymnastic squad, and they had participated in the 1896 Olympics. At the time Greek football had no independent governing body. Football, along with other sports, was administered by the Hellenic Gymnastic Federation. 
The only non- Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos member of the Athens selection was Georgios Kalafatis of Panellinios Gymnastikos Syllogos.  Kalafatis later founded Panathinaikos and coached the Greek team in their first official international at the 1920 Olympics.
Sadly Ethnikos Gymnastikos Syllogos did not display the sort of sportsmanship that one associates with the Olympic ideal. 9-0 down to Denmark at half time in the final, they refused to take the field for the second half, and were promptly expelled from the tournament.