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Alpha Ethniki
Season	1996–97
Champions	Olympiacos; 26th Greek title
Relegated	Aris; Edessaikos; Kastoria
Champions League	Olympiacos
Cup Winners' Cup	AEK Athens
UEFA Cup	OFI; PAOK
Intertoto Cup	Iraklis; Panachaiki
Matches played	306
Goals scored	787 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Alexis Alexandris; (23 goals)
	← 1995–96 1997–98 →

The 1996–97 Alpha Ethniki was the 61st season of the highest football league of Greece. The season began on 6 September 1996 and ended on 25 May 1997. Olympiacos won their 26th Greek title and their first one in ten years.

Teams

Stadia and personnel

AEK Athens
Apollon
Athinaikos
Panathinaikos

Location of teams in 1996–97 Alpha Ethniki

Team	Manager¹	Location	Stadium
AEK Athens	Petros Ravousis	Athens	Nikos Goumas Stadium
Apollon Athens	Babis Tennes	Athens	Rizoupoli Stadium
Aris	Georgios Firos	Thessaloniki	Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium
Athinaikos	Christos Archontidis	Athens	Vyronas National Stadium
Edessaikos	Luiz Villa	Edessa	Municipal Stadium of Edessa
Ionikos	Jacek Gmoch	Piraeus	Neapoli Stadium
Iraklis	Manolis Giovanopoulos	Thessaloniki	Kaftanzoglio Stadium
Kalamata	Bo Petersson	Kalamata	Kalamata Municipal Stadium
Kastoria	Konstantinos Tsagalidis	Kastoria	Municipal Stadium of Kastoria
Kavala	Georgios Paraschos	Kavala	Kavala National Stadium
OFI	Eugène Gerards	Heraklion	Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium
Olympiacos	Dušan Bajević	Piraeus	Karaiskakis Stadium
Panachaiki	Andreas Michalopoulos	Patras	Kostas Davourlis Stadium
Panathinaikos	Nikos Karoulias²	Athens	Athens Olympic Stadium
Paniliakos	Vasilios Daniil	Pyrgos	Pyrgos Stadium
PAOK	Angelos Anastasiadis	Thessaloniki	Toumba Stadium
Skoda Xanthi	Giannis Mantzourakis	Xanthi	Xanthi Ground
Veria	Nikolaos Karydis	Veria	Veria Stadium

¹ On final match day of the season, played on 25 May 1997.
² Velimir Zajec was leaved the Panathinaikos spot before the last round, so Karoulias took their place for the last match.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Olympiacos (C)	34	26	6	2	72	14	+58	84	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	AEK Athens	34	22	6	6	75	28	+47	72	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round
3	OFI	34	20	6	8	51	28	+23	66	Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round
4	PAOK	34	19	9	6	53	28	+25	66	Qualification for UEFA Cup second qualifying round
5	Panathinaikos	34	20	4	10	60	25	+35	64
6	Kavala	34	16	7	11	42	43	−1	55
7	Paniliakos	34	13	6	15	39	49	−10	45
8	Ionikos	34	12	8	14	40	47	−7	44
9	Apollon Athens	34	12	6	16	39	42	−3	42
10	Veria	34	11	8	15	33	33	0	41
11	Kalamata	34	10	11	13	34	50	−16	41
12	Athinaikos	34	11	7	16	41	59	−18	40
13	Iraklis	34	11	6	17	41	54	−13	39	Qualification for Intertoto Cup group stage
14	Skoda Xanthi	34	10	9	15	53	59	−6	39
15	Panachaiki	34	9	12	13	31	38	−7	39	Qualification for Intertoto Cup group stage
16	Aris^[a] (R)	34	9	11	14	32	48	−16	35	Relegation to Beta Ethniki
17	Edessaikos (R)	34	7	7	20	38	61	−23	28
18	Kastoria (R)	34	1	5	28	13	81	−68	8

Source: RSSSF
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th decision match.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Aris were deducted 3 points.

Results

Home \ Away	AEK	APA	ARIS	ATH	EDE	ION	IRA	KAL	KAS	KAV	OFI	OLY	PNA	PAO	PNL	PAOK	XAN	VER
AEK Athens		2–1	5–1	6–1	2–0	2–1	6–1	6–1	1–0	2–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–2	2–1	3–1
Apollon Athens	1–2		1–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	4–1	3–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	0–3	2–0	0–2	2–0	0–0	2–1	3–2
Aris	3–2	1–0		0–0	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–3	1–2	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–0	2–1	2–0
Athinaikos	0–7	3–2	2–0^[a]		5–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	3–0	1–4	0–0	0–1	3–1	0–2	3–0	2–3	0–0	2–1
Edessaikos	0–2	0–1	1–0	3–2		1–1	3–4	4–0	2–0	0–0	1–2	2–3	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–4	1–1	2–0
Ionikos	0–0	1–0	4–1	0–1	1–3		2–0	2–1	5–1	2–2	3–2	0–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	3–0	0–1
Iraklis	2–2	2–1	1–2	2–0	3–1	4–0		2–5	2–1	2–3	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–2	3–0	2–0	0–0	0–0
Kalamata	0–3	2–2	5–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–0		2–0	1–0	1–1	1–4	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–0	2–2	1–0
Kastoria	0–2	0–0	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–3	1–2		0–1	0–1	0–5	0–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	2–2	1–2
Kavala	1–1	2–1	3–1	1–1	2–2	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–0		2–1	1–2	1–0	0–4	1–0	0–3	5–2	1–0
OFI	2–1	3–0	2–2	3–1	2–1	4–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–0		0–1	2–1	0–0	3–1	3–1	3–0	2–0
Olympiacos	2–0	0–0	4–0	4–0	4–0	4–1	2–1	2–2	3–0	6–0	1–0		0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–0
Panachaiki	1–1	0–2	1–0	3–0	3–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	3–0	1–2	2–0	0–2		3–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–0
Panathinaikos	2–0	0–2	1–0	4–1	4–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	7–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	2–0		3–0	5–0	1–2	1–0
Paniliakos	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–3	4–0	2–2	3–1	4–0	2–1	0–0	0–4	0–5	1–0	2–1		0–2	3–1	2–0
PAOK	0–0	3–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0	6–0	3–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–1		4–1	0–0
Skoda Xanthi	1–2	3–0	3–2	2–3	0–1	3–0	3–4	0–0	6–0	1–0	3–0	3–5	4–3	1–3	1–0	1–1		3–2
Veria	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	4–0	0–1	2–0	1–0	4–0	0–0	2–0	1–2	2–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ Athinaikos-Aris awarded 2–0, Aris forgot to present the registration ID's and health certificates of the players to the referee.

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Alexis Alexandris	Olympiacos	23
2	Kostas Frantzeskos	OFI / PAOK	22
3	Krzysztof Warzycha	Panathinaikos	21
3	Christos Kostis	AEK Athens	21
5	Demis Nikolaidis	AEK Athens	19
6	Petros Tengelidis	Skoda Xanthi	15
7	Vasilis Andradis	Edessaikos	14
7	Giorgos Papandreou	Kavala	14
9	Igor Klejch	Panachaiki	11

Awards

Annual awards

Annual awards were announced on 31 December 1997.^[1]

Award	Winner	Club
Greek Player of the Season	Christos Kostis Demis Nikolaidis Kostas Frantzeskos	AEK Athens AEK Athens PAOK
Foreign Player of the Season	Krzysztof Warzycha	Panathinaikos
Young Player of the Season	Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos	Olympiacos
Golden Boot	Alexis Alexandris	Olympiacos
Manager of the Season	Georgios Paraschos	Kavala

References

^ "Kathimerini Page 14" (PDF). Kathimerini (in Greek). 31 December 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2013.