5 things to know about Karaiskakis, the stadium of the UEFA Super Cup Final

The first major European trophy will be awarded on August 16 in Athens, when Manchester City and Sevilla will compete to award the UEFA Super Cup. The winners of the last Champions League and Europa League will face each other at the Geōrgios Karaiskakīs Stadium, one of the best European venues, located in the historic area of ​​Piraeus and which crosses its sporting and architectural history with that of the 2004 Olympic Games, perhaps the greatest sporting event in the recent history of Greece. The history of Karaiskakīs is long, it starts in 1895 and is marked by some key steps for all of Greek football, but there are also some lesser-known curiosities about the stadium which is only a few hundred meters away from the Aegean Sea.

1. Who was Geōrgios Karaiskakīs?

The stadium is named after Geōrgios Karaiskakīs, a Greek patriot who lived between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the following century. At the beginning of the 19th century he participated in the great battles for the independence of Greece, prompting public opinion to support the cause of independence, which was then achieved in 1821. He continued to fight for the freedom of Greece and fell in battle, right at Piraeus, in 1827.

2. Restructuring for the Olympic Games

The history of Karaiskakīs is linked to that of the Olympic Games, in fact it was inaugurated as a velodrome for the 1896 summer games and when the event was assigned to Athens again in 2004, the stadium became one of the centers for football matches. The choice was to massively demolish the old plant in the spring of 2003 and rebuild a new architecture in record time. It took just 428 days to admire the new stadium and on 30 June 2004, on the eve of the games, the inhabitants of Athens were able to admire a more modern structure, without an athletics track and with innovative technologies for the time. Olympiacos' first official match in the new stadium was on 19 September 2004, in a 2-1 victory against Kallithea.

3. Who plays in the Karaiskakīs Stadium?

The stadium has always been the home of Olympiacos, a team that celebrated many of the trophies won in recent years at the Karaiskakīs. However, the red and white have had to leave the stadium on several occasions due to the renovations undergone over time. In 1964 for the first time, when the stadium was renovated with the form maintained until 2003, but the club also moved to the Athens Olympic Stadium in 1985, returning only five years later and remaining there until 1997. The two years required for the renovations at the beginning of the 21st century again forced Olympiacos to change venues for home matches, right up until the new and last inauguration. The club does not own the stadium, but has a concession until 2052, with the obligation to take care of the maintenance costs and to pay 15% of the proceeds to the state.

4. The 1981 tragedy

On 8 February 1981, one of the saddest tragedies in Greek football took place at Geōrgios Karaiskakīs. After a 6-0 victory for Olympiacos against AEK Athens, the fans, wanting to celebrate with the players, flocked to the entrances to the pitch. The accesses were blocked, creating a crowd that crushed several people, causing as many as 21 deaths by suffocation and over 50 injuries. This is the biggest tragedy in Greek football and the Gate 7 disaster is still remembered with a ceremony by the club and fans today.

5. How big the Karaiskakīs Stadium is?

The structure of the stadium reflects the standard one of the largest European fields. The pitch is 120m x 80m, built with innovative technology and cost the club half a million euros, surrounded by stands that can accommodate 32,115 spectators. In these grandstands, the press area can accommodate 20 television broadcast stations and 224 commentary stations. The entire area of ​​the stadium, a stone's throw from the port of Athens, reaches 6500m2 and features commercial activities and the Olympiacos museum. The position and the very nature of the city make the Geōrgios Karaiskakīs a real tourist attraction, which welcomes around 600,000 people a year.