Ethnikos O.F.P.F. (men's association football)

Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. is a Greek football club based in Piraeus and its parent sports club is Ethnikos OFPF. The club was officially formed in 1923 as Keravnos, but existed since 1922. One year later the club was renamed to Young Boys Titan, after some players' secession that formed Peiraikos Podosfairikos Omilos. The club was renamed to Ethnikos on 23 December 1924, after it merged with Peiraikos Podosfairikos Omilos. Ethnikos Piraeus was one of the founding members of Hellenic Football Federation in 1926, and represented Piraeus to the finals of the Panhellenic Championship's inaugural season in 1927–28. They have won the 1932-33 Greek Cup, thus they are one of the only 11 clubs that have won either the championship or the cup in Greece. Ethnikos was one of seven clubs, including AEK Athens, PAOK, Panathinaikos, Aris Thessaloniki, Olympiacos and Panionios, never to have been relegated from the league until 1990. They have also been involved in international football playing a number of friendlies against famous clubs such as Inter Milan, Galatasaray S.K., and Hungary national football team in the 1950s, and participated in the Balkans Cup on two occasions. They have had a turbulent recent history, and are currently competing in the third division Gamma Ethniki. Background Known as the club of the upper classes of Piraeus (whereas Olympiacos has always been the team of the lower classes), Ethnikos was established in 1923 from a merger of local sides - Peiraikos Omilos FC and elements of Omilos Filathlon Piraeus - as Omilos Filathlon Piraeus - Faliro (Greek: Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς - Φαλήρου) -meaning Fans' Club of Piraeus and Faliro- after the Piraeus-based football club Athletic and Football Club of Piraeus, winner of the 1924 Athens-Piraeus Regional Championship, split into two. From the break-up, one group, led by Giorgos Chatziandreou, brothers Kostas and Dimitris Ferlemis, and Christos Peppas, ultimately formed Omilos Filathlon Piraeus – Faliro, meaning Fans' Club of Piraeus and Faliro in 1924, and then changed the name to Ethnikos O.F.P.F. in 1925 the other group, led by Yiannis Andrianopoulos and his five brothers, formed the club that evolved into Olympiacos CFP in 1925. During a meeting in late 1924, members of Peiraikos Omilos and Omilos Filathlon Piraeus Faliro were discussing the final name of the new merge. Christos Peppas dropped the idea of naming the club Olympiacos but it was turned down by the rest of the members.