When sports newspapers experienced their “golden” days, in the late 90s and early 2000s, good friday always hid the expectation.

The material for the Passion Sabbath sheet was closed on Maundy Thursday, everyone was leaving for the Easter holidays, and there was a blank page that had to be filled in the next day by noon, “with the game”, the materialist and the editor. who in this case they were accidents.

Mirt “why should I write this?” and “why should I sit shift?” it started on Maundy Monday, unless someone granted and used their leave, in which case they did not participate in the selection process.

The game was unlike any other. It wasn’t a big derby that made you say cool. Night – Uncomfortablewhich also suited the climate of that day, perhaps soothed the souls… of the downtrodden who felt both misery and laziness, but those who went to the Proodeftia Stadium to see the veterans were left well fed.

The great aces of the past, as if wanting to return to the great moments that marked them, gave everything. Hair may have fallen out or turned grey, bellies may have bloated, speed may have fled, but mind and memory ran fast. At the same time, nostalgia swept in, and for those who saw them fight young, their presence was a reminder that time flies by. Their moments were also audience moments.

The institutional match between veterans Olympiakos (Vecherniy) and Progressiv (Thalaiporiakos) is back this year after 2019, where it was interrupted mainly due to the pandemic.

It was the 54th game between the two teams and it was a 3-3 draw and there were a lot of people in the stadium in Nice. Tsiantas, Kelesidis, Tzanetoulakos, Karavitis, Gaitatsis, Aggelis, Vamvakulas, Vaytsis, Kalogeropoulos are some of those who took part and revived the custom of Good Friday.

The idea of ​​Yurkas Seitaridis

This Good Friday football tradition began 62 years ago. It was April 1961 when the idea of ​​Yurkas Seitaridis came to life. Grandfather of 2004 European champion Yurkas Seitaridis and father of Dimitris and Miltos Seitaridis (veteran football players), born in Sevastopol, Crimea, was one of the most emblematic figures of Piraeus football, wearing the jersey of Proodevtis (1937-1954).

The idea was that every Good Friday morning, convenient for everyone in connection with the holiday, the players of Olympiacos and Progressive, who had just completed their careers and most of whom lived in the vicinity of Nicaea and Korydallos, had a fun match. . Hence the comic names given to them and allegedly inspired by sportswriter Nikos Tsapidis.
However, historical evidence indicates that a team called Vradiporiakos previously existed in Piraeus and competed in local independent championships of the wider region.

The first match (07/04/1961) was won by Vradiporiakos with a score of 8-5.

The specific matches, which began and continued as mere puns, proved especially important for the fans of the region, who filled the stadium of Nice every Good Friday, at other times, romantic and certainly more real. Huge footballers such as Muratis, Rosidis, Soulis, Bebis, Polichroniou, Kotridis, Drosos, Ifantis, Seitaridis, Mesolongitis, Terkesidis, Christofidis, when they “hung up” their football boots, they could not even imagine that they would stay away from the pitch and gave a gift.

However, the first problems were not long in coming, as the old ones, despite their years, did not want to leave the game so that younger veterans could also play, and many times there was no referee to blow the whistle and they asked the stadium loudspeakers to a sports fan stepped off the podium and became a referee.

On May Day 1964, Taipariokos won their first draw (2-2) and, as FOS ton SPOR wrote, “the match ended 2-2 and gave the overcrowded fans an opportunity for unimaginable fun. It is noted that the average age of the players was 40 years old, and weight 95 kg…”

Under the nose of the junta

Holy Week 1967 coincided with the first days of colonels in the country. Everything “died”, as the explicit order was to ban gatherings of more than three people, and not the scheduled date of Good Friday at the Progress stadium. Officially on Maundy Monday, two sports newspapers of the time, Athletic Echo and Fos, recorded the veterans’ announcement of the postponement of the game “due to special circumstances.” However, this turned out to be a smokescreen to prevent this fact from becoming public knowledge.

At the initiative of Olympiakos ace Tanasis Bebi, who just retired from active work at the age of 38 just a year ago, there was an agreement with the rest of the veterans and they secretly met at the stadium, not at 11 am, but according to indications, at 6 pm.

The first twilight found them in a normal but calm match, with the stadium doors closed and without fans in the stands…

External amplification “crimson”

The potential of Olympiacos veterans compared to Progress made them strengthen with veterans of other teams. So, from time to time, Domasos, Papaioanna, Nestoridis, Baevich, Mavros put on a raspberry jersey, giving a different flavor and interest to the match, which at that moment acquired such brilliance that artists were also present.

Of course, the presence of Ilias Rosidis will remain unsurpassed. The legendary captain of Olympiacos played his first match in 1961 and his last in 2011 at the age of 84! For 50 years, he has not missed a single meeting.

In 2008, at the age of 100 and eight months before his death, the first blow was given by Achilleas Grammatikopoulos, who at the age of 100, and a year later, in 2009, his brother Leonidas Andrianopoulos did the same, at the age of 98.

The factor that supported the institution as little as possible was the first president of Olympiacos in professional football, Stavros Daifas. He was not absent from almost any match in the 80s, while he also made a financial contribution so that the match acquired prestige and officiality. This was the time when the Olympiacos veterans’ association began to operate according to professional standards.

Matches were abandoned in 2013 when there was controversy among the veterans. Since 2009, excessive competition has begun, which certainly did not fit into the philosophy of the veteran race. After mutual explanations and agreements, the misunderstandings were resolved, the matches were resumed in 2019, when the traditional match took place on Good Wednesday (04/24/2019), but they were again interrupted the following year due to Covid-19.

According to reports, the top scorer of the games is Sinisa Gogic with 11 goals. Next comes Kotridis with 9 goals, as does Vamvakulas. The hat-trick was recorded twice: by Michalis Kritikopoulos in 1986 and by Davelis in 2001.