Hellas for heroes

By Vassilki Papantonopoulou

It is almost a year since Greek football celebrated their greatest ever triumph following victory in the final of UEFA EURO 2004™, but mementos of the 4 July win against Portugal - posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs - are still everywhere. However, even eleven months on there is still a lingering sense of disbelief about perhaps the greatest shock result in the history of the UEFA European Championship.

Improbable success
"I don't believe I will be able to grasp what it all means until I've retired from the game," AS Roma defender Traianos Dellas told uefa.com. "Then, when the everyday worries and troubles of football have gone, I guess I will come to terms with what we did. Needless to say, it certainly goes beyond any success in Greek sport ever."

Spontaneous thanks
The scorer of the last ever silver goal - the winner in Greece's semi-final against the Czech Republic - Dellas has seen how the Greek public's attitude towards the players has changed. "We have become more recognisable," said the 29-year-old. "Even among women and children or senior citizens, and people who do not like football, who had never watched a football match in their lives. The spontaneous 'thank you' we get each day is perhaps the most rewarding feeling there is."

Bigger challenge
For Dellas and his team-mates, the next step is to prove their success in Portugal was no fluke by qualifying for the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, but the challenge for Greek football as a whole is arguably greater, as events this season have only served to underline.

'Golden opportunity'
Success at EURO 2004™ marked an opportunity for wholesale change which Dellas feels was missed. "I believe that we lost a golden opportunity to make everything better in domestic football," he said. "We are still behind in terms of organisation and marketing and the fans' behaviour hasn't changed."

Crowd violence
The 2004/05 season has already featured 16 Alpha Ethniki matches played behind closed doors because of crowd violence, with last Sunday's game between FC Aris Thessaloniki and Iraklis FC, which was abandoned because of a pitch invasion by home fans, only the most recent example.

New stadia
Dellas believes new stadia could help alleviate such problems. "A decent stadium should predispose fans to be on their best behaviour, Olympiacos [CFP] proved that this season," he said. "Their fans only create trouble at away matches and not in their beautiful and newly-renovated home ground.

Underlying flaws
"I hope that someday in Greece, opposite fans will become civilised enough to watch a match together without causing trouble and without the need to have the policemen outnumbering the fans," he added. "But this will not happen overnight, not even with a European trophy on display."

Local standards
None the less, Dellas has recognised an increase in the quality of domestic competition since EURO 2004™. "The league has been spectacular," he said. "The provincial clubs have been able to stand up to Athens and Thessaloniki's big names. There are good omens, that one could build on."

Future generation
However, the conditions are still not good enough to tempt Dellas and all his EURO 2004™ team-mates to return to Greek football. "Let's be honest, in Italy, England or Spain, football is played and organised at the highest level," he said. "Far be it from me to put Greece down, but the differences are obvious. I can only hope that one day, our domestic football will be at a level that will meet the needs of first-class players, both Greek and foreign."