Panathinaikos lacks supporters' funds to ease debt

Panathinaikos major shareholder and president Giannis Alafouzos on Sunday explained to fellow club supporters that he had personally provided the team with 23 million euros in order to help pay off debts.

"We had about 40 million euros in debt, today we have fewer than 10 million of debt and most is owed to the tax office. Since 2012 we have paid 23.2 million euros in taxes," Alafouzos told members of the Panathinaikos Alliance

"Despite all the difficulties, we have achieved our goal which was not to let Panathinaikos collapse and to have a good presence on the pitch."

The alliance was set up by Alafouzos in 2012 in order to "ensure the stability of Panathinaikos ownership status, the financial viability and prosperity of the club as well as to safeguard and preserve the club's cultural inheritance and tradition."

However Alafouzos admitted that financial support from fans has been limited.

"Unfortunately we have few members of the alliance. I had hoped for 40 to 50 thousand members, but we have less than 10,000. We had hoped for financial injections, but unfortunately because of the financial crisis in the country this was limited. For this reason I was forced to invest 23 million euros of my own," Alafouzos said.

Alafouzos took over the oldest active football club in Greece -- established in 1908 -- in 2012 after violence at the Panathinaikos-Olympiakos derby left the club without an administration.

Under Alafouzos, Panathinaikos has won one Greek Cup and has finished second behind Olympiakos in the Super League the last two seasons.

Panathinaikos is one of the most successful teams in the country having won 20 Greek league titles, 18 Greek Cups and eight doubles.

The Athens team managed to reach the European Cup final in 1971 where they lost to Ajax and reached the semi-finals twice in 1985 and 1996.