Olympiakos Confirm Greek Super League Title, but Volos Are the Bigger Story

The regular season in the Greek Super League finished on Sunday, although the main issues were settled a couple of weeks ago. Olympiakos won their eighth title in the last 10 years, finishing 13 points ahead of Panathinaikos.

In some ways, the Greek Super League is similar to La Liga and the Scottish Premier League in so far as it almost always seems to be the two biggest clubs playing for the title, leaving most of the rest to attempt to avoid relegation or—in the case of PAOK, AEK and Aris—qualify for Europe. 

The biggest problems facing Greek football are that there aren't many goals (just 2.2 goals per game) and not many spectators to see them. Four clubs had an average home attendance of less than 2,000.

Kerkyra's 1-1 draw with Iraklis last October took place in front of 151 spectators.

No, that's not a typo.

Having said that, one of the least reported underdog stories in European football this season came from the Greek Super League. Olympiakos Volos' success this season might be a sign that a new club could upset the pecking order.

After two decades outside the top flight, the club from Thessaly were never lower than 11th for the entire season and only lost two of their last seven games.

A thrilling 3-2 win over Panathinaikos in the last game of the season ensured their best-ever league place and a shot at qualifying for the Champions League in the end of season playoffs—at the expense of Aris, who were knocked out of the Europa League by Manchester City earlier this season.

At the bottom of the table there were no real surprises. Playoff winners Panserraikos spent most of the season in the bottom three, Larissa's midseason seven-game losing streak caused irreversible damage and Asteras' inability to score goals (they failed to score in 57 percent of their games) was always going to be their downfall.

Former Liverpool, Marseille and Sunderland striker Djibril Cisse (Panathinaikos) was leading scorer with 19 goals, but the fact that only one Greek player made the top-10 list (Konstantinos Mitroglou of Panionios) indicates that homegrown goalscoring talent needs to be cultivated rather than imported.

Against the background of the economic crisis in Greece, that could be a policy that pays off long into the long-term.