The Current State Of Football In The Greek Province Of Western Macedonia!

The Current State Of Football In The Greek Province Of Western Macedonia!

By Alexander Koutakos


The Greek province of Western Macedonia is home to the Greek cities and large towns of Kastoria, Kozani, Florina, Grevena and many others. 


This area has produced decent and quite good footballing talent over the years, which includes: Alexis Alexoudis, Ioannis Amanatidis, Pantelis Kapetanos and many others. The biggest teams in the province are Kastoria FC and Kozani FC. 


Kastoria even won the Greek cup in 1980. 


Since then, all the teams in the region have seen a huge drop in performance and quality. In this article, I will be going over the current state of Kastoria FC, Kozani FC, youth development in the area and the sole bright spot in the region in terms of football (Kastoria Women’s FC). 


The Current State Of Kastoria FC


The Beavers (the nickname for Kastoria FC) have fallen significantly since their 1979-1980 Greek cup winning season. 


At the time, Kastoria had the likes of Sarganis (a phenomenal GK), Paraschos (Kastoria’s captain who was also just recently the manager of Apollon Smyrni) and many others. Currently, the Beavers are playing in the local "Kastorian" league with other teams in the city and in the city's suburbs and premises. In terms of history, the club itself was founded in 1963 when three local clubs merged("Aris Kastorias", "Atromitos Kastorias" and "Orestias Kastorias".) Kastoria played in the #SLGR from 1974-1983 and once more in the 1996-1997 season. Like many other rural clubs, Kastoria FC has significant financial problems and systematic problems. However, the Beavers do boast a 8000 seat stadium. 


Hopefully, the Beavers can climb up a few leagues/tiers in the future. But if they don't, there will be a serious possibility that the club dissolves or evolves into another entity entirely. 


For more information on the team you can check out their website (it hasn't been updated in a few months but there is an adequate amount of information on the website to understand the current situation for Kastoria FC).


The Current State Of Kozani FC


Kozani FC has never experienced the same glory as Kastoria FC. However, they are a powerful team in the region. Moreover, they have at multiple times played in the second division.


The club formed in 1964 by a similar merger as Kastoria FC. In this case, Kozani FC was formed by the merger of “Makedonikos Kozanis” and “Olympiakos Kozanis”. Kozani's stadium has a capacity of 4000. 


They also currently play in the local divisions as well. It is safe to say that both Kastoria FC and Kozani FC have fallen extraordinarily! Both of their futures look gloomy to say the least. Hopefully, they can both string together a couple of promotions and thus return to their former respective statuses.


Youth Development In The Greek Province Western Macedonia


Youth development in the area is also quite bad and the local teams do not have the ability and the capability to promote and expand the talent of their youth. 


PAOK and PAS Giannina(even though they are not from the region) are the teams that truly have the best youth from the area. 


The reason being is that they are able to promote and expand the talent of the province’s youth.  Currently, there are many players from the Greek province of  “Western Macedonia” that play for those two sides. 


They include: Georgios Doumtsis (PAS GIANNINA- RW), Angelos Liasos (PAS GIANNINA- CM) and many others. The systems in the region are severely underfunded and underdeveloped like in other rural provinces in Greece. 


Some stadiums/pitches here also follow the "Pay for centimeter policy". This policy is also in the province of Laconia, Greece(as you have most likely read in one of my previous articles). The "Pay for centimeter policy"  states that the groundskeeper is paid for the amount of grass that he cuts. Many teams in Greece are financially strapped and therefore decide to not make the groundskeeper cut the grass inside the net and in other "less desirable" places on the field. 


This causes huge amounts of grass to grow inside the net! Thus, it results in having a pitch with literal "jungles" inside the net. This also slows down the progress of development for young goalkeepers especially. 


Hopefully, this changes, but many of the owners and facilities that follow this policy run on a totally different system!


Kastoria Women's FC (the sole bright spot in the entire region)


Kastoria WFC currently plays in the top female division in Greece. Recently, they have been trending upwards and have been playing some good football. They are considered as a mid-table club. 


Almost like a Volos or Atromitos type team in the #SLGR. They also have a pretty good academy. At the moment, they have a highly talented and young midfielder named Andriana Markou. She has been called up to the u-19 Greek women's national team even though she is only 17 years old! Kastoria WFC are on all social media platforms. However, they do not have a website and it was quite hard to find information about the team. 


To conclude, the current state of football in the Greek province of Western Macedonia is quite grim and sad except for the outlier of Kastoria WFC. There is a huge lack of investment, facilities and funds for football in the region. 


If this does not change, football in the Greek province of  Western Macedonia will face even greater challenges than it does today! Hopefully it changes, but I am quite pessimistic about it changing!


Hellas Football 


Follow @AKoutakos on Twitter

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