Athlitikos Omilos Kerkyra (; ) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based on the island of

Corfu Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

(Kerkyra),

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

History

It was formed in 1967 as "Kerkyraikos F.C." following a merge of three Corfu clubs ("Aris Kerkyras" est 1924, " Helespontos" est 1923 and "Asteras Kerkyras" est 1926). These three teams alongside "Olympos Kerkyras" were dominating Corfu Local Championship before the creation of Greek National Leagues in 1967. In order to represent Corfu in the National B' Class League the three teams decided to merge in 1967. Due to some players' dispute with "Olympos Kerkiras" in 1968 the team had to change its name to "A.O. Kerkyra".

Colors, emblem and ground

The club's colors are

Maroon Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown". Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...

and

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

, depicting the colors of the island and its emblem is the ancient Corfiot's (" Faiakes") trireme, which is the island's emblem. The National stadium of the town of Corfu, "E.A.K.K.", (built in 1955) hosts A.O. Kerkyra since its foundation.

Golden age

After 36 years in lower divisions A.O. Kerkyra managed to reach top-level

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

in 2004. The long effort to success was inspired by chairman Spyros Kalogiannis who took control in 1999 and managed to climb three divisions in 4 years. Though the long-awaited "

" didn't end up as expected as the club was relegated, taking the last place in the final table. After a successful year in B' Ethniki, 2005–06 season ended with Kerkyra celebrating another chance in

. 2006-2007 was another failure in

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

, with Kerkyra fighting bravely against relegation, but ending up relegated after a 2–2 tie on the last match against

Panathinaikos FC Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional Association football, footbal ...

. In the 2009–2010 season in

Beta Ethniki The Football League () was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super League 2 as the new second tier ...

they secured promotion to the super league on 2 May 2010 with a 0–0 draw against

Panetolikos Panetolikos Football Club (), or with its full name officially romanized as Panaitolikós Gymnastikós Filekpaideftikós Sýllogos (''; Pan- Aetolian Gymnastic and Educational Club''), is a Greek professional football club. It is based in Agrini ...

. The next years were the best for the Corfiot team managing to remain at

for three consecutive years.

Seven years of inactivity

In 2012–2013 season A.O. Kerkyra was relegated (16th place) to

.
At the same time another team from the island of Corfu, A.O. Kassiopi was promoted from third tier to

and proposals for a merger were made. As part of the merger, amidst protests from fans and veteran players, it was decided that A.O. Kerkyra would cease to exist, and that A.O. Kassiopi would be renamed to "Kerkyra". Efforts to revive the club even at Amateur level were unsuccessful, and the club's administration was controlled by the shareholders of A.O. Kassiopi.

Return to local championships

After 7 years of inactivity of the club, on March 12, 2020, with the 393/2020 decision of the Corfu Magistrates' Court, the club acquired a temporary board of directors. The goal of this effort is for the club to enter the championships of the next season. Since the 2020-2021 season, it has been competing in the A' division of the Corfu Football Association.

Final dissolution

In the 2024-2025 season, A.O. KERKYRA announced that it will not participate in the local championships due to excessive debts and will only operate a football academy.

Fans

Their nickname is ''Vourligans'', a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of Vourlismenos (crazy in

corfiot Corfu ( , ) or Kerkyra (, ) is a Greece, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands; including its Greek islands, small satellite islands, it forms the margin of Greece's northwestern frontier. The island is part of the Corfu (regio ...

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

) and Hooligans.

Rivalries

A.O. Kerkyra's longest rivalry is with local club Olympos Kerkiras, though due to A.O. Kerkyra's high division presence, the two teams don't play often against each other. Kerkyra also have long rivalries with nearby

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

clubs as

PAS Giannina PAS Giannina Football Club (), or with its full name Panipirotikós Athlitikós Síllogos Giánnina (, ''Panepirotic Athletic Club Giannina'') is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in the city of Ioannina, the capita ...

, Anagennisi Artas,

and Tilikratis of

Lefkada Lefkada (, ''Lefkáda'', ), also known as Lefkas or Leukas (Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Λευκάς, ''Leukás'', modern pronunciation ''Lefkás'') and Leucadia, is a Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island in the Ionian Sea on the ...

. The reason for the rivalry is that historically these clubs competed against each other in order to advance to higher leagues. PAS Giannina and Anagennisi Artas, especially, are from nearby Epirus and there is a historical and cultural, (usually friendly), rivalry between the islanders and their mainland neighbours that also extends to their respective football clubs and fans.

is another mainland team from nearby

Aetolia-Acarnania Aetolia-Acarnania (, ''Aitoloakarnanía'', ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Central Greece (geographic region), Central Greece and the administrative regions of Greece, ...

and the same rivalry logic applies as with the Epirus teams.

Stadium

*Built in 1961 *Capacity of 2,685 (all seated) *Biggest Attendance 5,000 (AO Kerkyra v PAS Giannina 1974) The stadium has two stands, the main one has a roof and is where the players and officials emerge from. The second stand is situated directly opposite and is a famous and very hostile terrace during big games. This is also where a lot of the Vourligans will watch from. This stand was constructed in 1973.

Technical team

* Manager: Giannis Xondrogiannis

Managers

* Nikos Pantelis (1996) *

Babis Tennes Babis Tennes (; born 17 November 1953) is a Greek professional football manager and former midfielder. He is the current head coach of Super League Greece 2 club Iraklis. Managerial career Babis Tennes began his professional coaching caree ...

(2003) *

Nikos Anastopoulos Nikos Anastopoulos (; born 22 January 1958) is a Greek former footballer and manager. He was one the most prolific strikers in the Greek league during the 1980s and is widely regarded as one of the best players in the history of Greek footb ...

(July 1, 2003 – Jan 11, 2005) * Giorgos Foiros (Jan 25, 2005 – April 21, 2005) *

(July 1, 2005 – Feb 12, 2008) * Nikos Pantelis (Dec 1, 2008 – May 31, 2009) *

(July 27, 2009 – Nov 30, 2010) * Božidar Bandović (Nov 30, 2010 – Nov 9, 2011) * Javi Gracia (Nov 14, 2011 – March 28, 2012) * Timos Kavakas (March 28, 2012 – June 30, 2012) * Apostolos Mantzios (July 1, 2012 – Feb 6, 2013) * Giannis Papakostas (Feb 7, 2013 – April 29, 2013) * Giannis Xondrogiannis (April 2020–)

Historic presidents

* Dimosthenis Tsagaratos (1970) * Spiros Kalogiannis (2000–10)

AO Kerkyra season performances 1969 – present

*1969–70: B' National A Group (11th) *1970–71: B' National A Group (17th) *1971–72: B' National A Group (14th) *1972–73: B' National A Group (16th *1973–74: B' National A Group (14th) *1974–75: B' National A Group (20th; Relegation) *1975–76: After the fall of the Second national, AOK is in the First Division of the Football Association of Corfu *1976–77: A' Division of F.A. Corfu *1977–84: A' Division of F.A. Corfu *1984–85: C' National South Group (14th) *1985–86: C' National South Group (11th) *1986–87: C' National South Group (12th) *1987–88: C' National South Group (12th; Relegation) *1988–89: D' National (4th; Promotion) *1989–90: C' National South Group (16th; Relegation) *1990–91: D' National (3rd) *1991–92: D' National (1st; Promotion) - Finalist in Greek Amateur Cup *1992–93: C' National South Group (14th; Relegation) *1993–94: D' National (7th) *1994–95: D' National (3rd) *1995–96: D' National (1st; Promotion) *1996–97: C' National South Group (9th) *1997–98: C' National South Group (12th; Relegation) *1998–99: D' National (5th) *1999–00: D' National (3rd) *2000–01: D' National (1st; Promotion) * 2001–02: C' National (1st; Promotion) * 2002–03: B' National (5th) * 2003–04: B' National (1st; Historical Promotion to A' National) * 2004–05: A' National (16th; Relegation) * 2005–06: B' National (2nd; Promotion) * 2006–07: Super League (14th; Relegation) * 2007–08: B' National (7th) * 2008–09: B' National (5th) * 2009–10: B' National (2nd; Promotion) *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

: Super League (12th) * 2011–12: Super League (13th) * 2012–13: Super League (16th; Relegation) *2020–21: Corfu FCA Second Division (The season was abandoned after 3rd round) *2021–22: Corfu FCA Second Division (2nd) *2022–23: Corfu FCA First Division (7th) *2023–24: Corfu FCA First Division (4th) ''Note: A' National =

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

, B' National =

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

, C' National =

Gamma Ethniki The Gamma Ethniki (, C National Division) is the Greek football league system, third highest football league in Greece. History The Gamma Ethniki began in 1965 as an amateur championship, while in 1983 it was changed to professional. Although no ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{Super League Greece teamlist Football clubs in the Ionian Islands (region) Corfu (city) Association football clubs established in 1968 1968 establishments in Greece