The organization of this year’s Cup hides a situation that, regardless of the outcome, is encouraging and a reminder that Greek football can still hope in the region. One of the prefectures always referred to as “football fanatics”, Serres will be represented by two teams in the quarter-final phase adjacent to the top six in Super League 1: Panserraikos, who are starring in the Super League 2 championship and are flirting with their promotion to the elite 12 years later, Apollo Paralimniou, representing a village of 600 people, competes in the 3rd national team and is the first amateur team in the institution’s history to compete in the 8th round. “Being in 8th place is timely as it was the result of relatively passable draws and was not an end in itself, but Serrai’s football has blossomed again in the last two or three years.” refers to “K” Lviv president Tasos Kazias.

Apollon Paralimniou and Panserraikos are constantly collaborating to exploit the talents.

Once Panserraikos was an inexhaustible source of talent. The head of the prefecture, in cooperation with Paralimnio and EPS Serres, is trying to return the weight to the production of football players. Apollon is a very well structured and organized team with which we have excellent cooperation both at the level of transfers and at the level of trade unions. We keep an eye on other teams in the prefecture, there is a network that, in cooperation with academies, informs us about talents that should not be left unused. Panserraikos takes precedence in this case, it is logical.” President of EPS Serres, Nikos Katsavakis, says: “This is a great success, but it does not hide the problems that Greek football faces, especially at the amateur level. This is also a motivation for other groups in the area. As an EPS, we are trying to work to promote talent using unions as a pyramid scheme. In other words, if we see some children who demonstrate the ability to go higher, they take the next step to Paralimni and then Panserraikos says the first word, but this does not mean that if the proposal comes from a larger team, the road will be closed. . Serra’s football world has woken up and we have to take advantage of it.”