1986–87 AEK Athens F.C. season

Supplier: Zita Hellas
Sponsor(s): Ethniki Asfalistiki

Home

Away

In the summer of 1986, AEK Athens continued to be administratively at the hands of Andreas Zafiropoulos. The reactions of the fans towards the administration became even more intense, while the financial problems began to appear in the club. Nevertheless, AEK proceeded with the transfers of Dimitris Pittas from PAOK, Giorgos Peppes from Ethnikos Piraeus and Lampros Georgiadis from Anagennisi Arta. As for the wheel of the team, Zafiropoulos decided to entrust it to a practitioner of the Dutch "school" and brought Ab Fafié to Athens and signed him on July 7. The Dutch manager presented himself as a strict manager and from his first days on the yellow-black bench and punished various players in order to impose himself in the locker rooms. The expectations in his person were high, but his term at AEK was crowned with absolute failure. AEK faced many problems beyond the financial ones. Thomas Mavros was suffering from injuries and Márton Esterházy was in bad condition. In addition, AEK started the championship with 3 points deducted, from a punishment that they "carried" from the previous season, due to the "Chrysovitsianos" case. The club continued to use the Athens Olympic Stadium as their home ground and this would be another burden throughout the season.^[2]

AEK started the Championship badly. Even though they prevailed in difficult grounds, such as Aris Stadium and Alkazar Stadium, they won at home only once against PAS Giannina in the 2nd matchday. It was noteworthy that it took five months to win again at home. In the UEFA Cup, AEK were unlucky since they were drawn against Internazionale of Giovanni Trapattoni with players such as Pasarella, Rummenigge and Bergomi. In the first match at San Siro, AEK stood with the demands and surprised by their performance, especially in the first half during which they had the opportunity to score a goal. However, in the second half, they conceded the two goals that shaped the final result, in a match that was attended by about 1,000 Greek fans. In Athens, Inter took the lead very quickly and ended the qualifying case. However, the players of AEK tried their best and had two opportunities in the first half, while in the second there was a significant improvement with the creation of several dangerous chances, but without scoring a goal. At the end of the first half, the Swedish referee, Eriksson did not count AEK's goal, as he whistled for half time in a corner kick while the ball was midair and fractions of a second before the ball reached the net, to everyone's surprise, which fruistrated the supporters.

In the Cup, AEK exceeded the obstacle of Olympiacos Volos in the first round, but were eliminated at the next round by Panionios at the extra time. Fafié was fired in December and would take over the bench of the only team he ever won at home. Furthermore in another game of fate for the AEK, they were defeated by their former manager in the game of the second round at Ioannina.^[3]

In one of the worst choices in his presidency, Zafiropoulos entrusted the technical leadership of AEK to Nikos Alefantos. In the winter transfer window they were strengthened with Rajko Janjanin, from OFI. At the same time, however, Esterházy left for Panathinaikos and Ballis returned to Aris. The team continued their instability in their performances until the end of one of the worst seasons in their history. The fans were running out of patience for a long time and found the opportunity to break out on 11 April, in the home game against Apollon Kalamarias. The match was at the 80th minute and AEK were ahead by 2–0, when Alefantos provocatively subbed off Thomas Mavros, who had returned after many months of injury, resulting in the supporters turning against the manager and the president. In the press conference of the match, Alefantos spoke out against Mavros, considering him "finished" as a footballer.^[4] All that in combination with the unjustified tolerance of the administration, led to the departure of Mavros from the team as a result of which that would be his final match at AEK. Shortly after, Alefantos was sacked and AEK finished the season with Nikos Christidis as an interim manager. In the last three matchdays of the league, AEK did compete along with 11 other clubs in the strike declared by the Footballers' Union. The result of their participation in the strike was the deduction of 6 points, which in the end did not affect the final standings.^[5] Eventually, AEK finished at the 7th place, 30 points behind the champions Olympiacos. Theologis Papadopoulos, Stelios Manolas and Jim Patikas were the players whose performances stood out, in a very bad season for the club.^[6][7]