Greek math without an abacus (…but you might need a calculator)!

By: Peter Katsiris | March 24th, 2009

So, on Sunday night, through a combination of a win for Olympiacos and a draw for Panathinaikos, Olympiacos officially became the Champions of the Greek Super League for the fifth consecutive season.

Now, those who know little or next to nothing about the Greek game will probably say something along the lines of a derogatory remark towards this triumph; however, they should first take a look at all the facts…

Dynasty, or not?
Olympiacos is currently the holder of quite the impressive streak when it comes to Greek Championships as the ‘Erythrolefki’ claimed their twelfth title in thirteen seasons. I’m not majoring in mathematics at York University, but I do know how to do some long division. Gone are the days where I have to show my work, so take the below equation for example where D stands for Dynasty, C equals Championships, and S represents Seasons. However, for the equation to hold truth in its subject, the multiplied average must equate to let’s say, 75 or higher; that sounds fair.

D= C/S x 100
D=12/13 x 100
D=92.3076923 %

Therefore, Olympiacos is truly a dynasty having claimed approximately 92.3 % of the available Greek Championships in the past thirteen years.

Kings of Greece?
Greece hasn’t had a Royal family rule the country since King Otto (not Rehhagel, the other one), but Olympiacos has definitely emerged as the Kings of Greek football. If their twelve titles in thirteen years weren’t enough, a further look back in the history of the Greek top flight features the Piraeus side collecting thirty-seven of a possible seventy-three titles. Now you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that Olympiacos is clearly the heavyweight in terms of triumphs. So, let’s consider the following equation which features the title wins of all teams in Greece against the lone count from Olympiacos. WARNING: Some of you will likely be astonished!

K is true if O>G

O stands for the number of titles won by Olympiacos.
G represents the number of titles won by all the other clubs in Greece.

O=37

G=Panathinaikos+AEK+Aris+PAOK+Larissa
G=19+11+3+2+1
G=36

Therefore, 0 > G and Olympiacos is in fact Kings of Greek Football through the 2008-2009 season.