PAEEK (; short for Ποδοσφαιρική Αθλητική Ένωσις Επαρχίας Κερύνειας, ''Podosfairiki Athlitiki Enosis Eparxeias Kerynias'', translated as "Football and Sport Union of

Kyrenia District The Kyrenia District, or simply Kyrenia, is one of the six districts of Cyprus. Its capital city is Kyrenia. It is the smallest of Cyprus's districts, and is the only one controlled in its entirety by the unrecognised de facto state of Northern C ...

", literally "Footballing Sportive Union of the District of Kyrenia") is a Cypriot

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

founded in

Kyrenia Kyrenia is a city on the northern coast of Cyprus, noted for its historic harbour and castle. It is under the '' de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. While there is evidence showing that the wider region of Kyrenia has been populated before, ...

in 1953 by graduates of Kyrenia Gymnasium and represented the first force to be reckoned from the small city. It now plays in exile in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

since the

Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish Cy ...

in July 1974. This union has

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 ...

division competing in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

. PAEEK used to have also a basketball division, but due to economic difficulties had to suspend it for some years up to date.

Basketball

The PAEEK was a founding member of the Cyprus Basketball Federation in 1966 rising to fame in the early 1970s after its basketball division won the Cyprus top division basketball league in 3 consecutive years. In 1974 during the

, were killed seven basketball players who played at the last championship. They were Giorgos Moustakas, Christos Karefilidis, Andreas Charalampous, Dinos and Louis Tsangaridis (siblings), Foivos Fieros and Giorgos Trigkis. After this tragedy the basketball club dissolved and refounded in 1989. The PAEEK reached the Cyprus Basketball Cup final on 5 occasions, losing them all. In 1995 was APOEL's year, when they took the basketball double. As finalist of the Cup final, PAEEK automatically qualified to represent Cyprus in Europe in the

Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup, founded as ''FIBA European Cup Winners Cup'', was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against eac ...

. They were knocked out by

PAOK BC PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

Salonika, which in turn went on to reach the final of the competition. The game with

was very special for both teams, as they were all refugees and victims of the wars between Greece and Turkey, in 9th of September 1995 it was the fraternization ceremony. PAEEK Kyrenia was reactivated in 2020 under adverse conditions. In the 2022/2023 season, he succeeded and won the championship and the B1 category cup. In the 2023/2024 season he competed in the Basket League (First Division) successfully, managing to stay in the division, but due to financial difficulties he chose to compete in the B1 division the following year. The head of the Basketball Division of PAEEK Kyrenia is the General Secretary of PAEEK Kyrenia, Mr. Christos Meleounis.

Runners

On November 11, 2023, PAEEK Kyrenia following the initiative of the General Secretary of Mr. Christou Meleounis created a Division of Runners, who ran for the first time in the 40th Marathon of Athens and continue to this day with their motto "Our destination is Kyrenia".

Football

The football team has not matched the basketball team's success in terms of trophies. They have been a mainstay in the Cyprus Second Division. Paeek is considered to be the team with the most appearances in the Cyprus Second Division, with 41 in total. The club plays its home matches in Keryneia Epistrofi Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus. PAEEK has built a reputation for unearthing young talent and moving them on, most notably

Alexandros Paschalakis Alexandros Paschalakis (; born 28 July 1989) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Super League club Olympiacos and the Greece national team. Club career Early career Paschalakis started playing football in Terpsith ...

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

and the Greece national team, Giorgos Economides and Giorgos Papadopoulos.

Promotion to Top Division

During the 2020–21 season, PAEEK finished as champions of the second division and were promoted to the top division for the first time in club history.

Current squad

Colours

The colours of PAEEK shirt are symbolic, with the black symbolising the sadness from the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the white symbolises the hope that one day they will return to their hometown. When this happens the colours will change back to yellow and black as they were before the Turkish invasion.

Honours

Basketball

Cyprus Basketball Division 1 The OPAP Basket League is currently the top-tier level men's professional basketball competition of the Cypriot basketball league system. It is run and governed by the Cyprus Basketball Federation. Format All teams are playing against each othe ...

**Winner (3): 1970, 1971 and 1972. *

Cypriot Basketball Cup The Cypriot Basketball Cup is an annual professional basketball national cup competition, organized by the Cyprus Basketball Federation since 1969. Format Starting in 2007, the Cypriot Cup competition's format changed to where only teams from th ...

**Runner-up (5): 1969, 1970, 1971, 1995, 1999.

Football

Cypriot Second Division The Cypriot Second Division () is the second highest association football, football division of the Cypriot football league system. Administered by the Cyprus Football Association, it is contested by 16 teams, with the top three teams being Prom ...

**Winners (1):

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Cypriot Third Division The Cypriot Third Division (Greek language, Greek: Πρωτάθλημα Γ΄ Κατηγορίας) is the third tier Association football, football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Each year, the top finishing ...

**Winners (3): 1991–92, 2002–03, 2007–08

References

External links

*
The history of PAEEK – The First Ten Years
– PDF {{Cypriot First Division Basketball teams in Cyprus Football clubs in Cyprus Association football clubs established in 1953 1953 establishments in Cyprus