Panathinaikos F.C.

Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in the capital-city of Athens, Greece. Created in 1908 as "Podosfairikos Omilos Athinon" (Football Club of Athens) by Georgios Kalafatis, they play in the Super League Greece, being one of the most successful clubs in Greek football and one of three clubs which have never been relegated from the top division. Amongst their major titles are 20 Greek Championships, 18 Greek Cups, achieving eight times the Double, and 3 Greek Super Cups. They are also one of the two clubs that won a championship undefeated, going without a loss in a top-flight campaign in the 1963-64 season. Panathinaikos is also the most successful Greek club in terms of achievements in the European competitions. It is the only Greek team that has reached the European Cup (later renamed UEFA Champions League) final in 1971 (which they lost to AFC Ajax 2-0), and also the semi-finals twice, in 1985 and 1996. It is also the only Greek team that has played for the Intercontinental Cup (1971). Furthermore, they have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League on another two occasions (in 1992 and 2002), as well as the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup twice (1988 and 2003). They have also won the Balkans Cup in 1977. Panathinaikos is a member of the European Club Association. Since the 1950s, the club maintains some of the oldest and most successful academies in Greece, producing talent for the first team and feeding the Greece National Football Team. They have played their home games in the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, considered their traditional home ground, and the Athens Olympic Stadium. According to researches and polls, Panathinaikos is one of the most popular football teams in Greece. They hold a long-term rivalry with Olympiacos F.C., the clash between the two teams being referred to as the "Derby of the eternal enemies."