The Olympiacos Panathinaikos rivalry

Yesterday we discussed the situation in Scotland. The situation in Greece isn't that much better. Olympiacos and Panathinaikos are clearly the two best teams in Greece. Between them they have won the League 56 times, everyone else has 17 title between them. The last different team to win was AEK Athens in 1994. AEK was very strong around this but since has declined dramatically.

Again this two dominate Greek soccer but then struggle in Europe. The teams offer riches to players who aren't at the level of La Liga, the Serie A or the English Premier League. No one would play in Greece if there was the option to play in Spain, Italy or England.

Case in point is Djibril Cissé who is now playing at Panathinaikos or Matt Derbyshire who is now at Olympiacos. Not withstanding all this, Greece was able to win the 2004 European Championships but its success had nothing to do with the Olympiacos-Panathinaikos rivalry.