Football league
Greek Amateur Cup (Greek: Κύπελλο Ερασιτεχνικών Ομάδων Ελλάδος) was the most known competitions for amateur AND semi-professional teams in Greece, organised by the Hellenic Football Federation . It was founded in 1971 and folded in 2018 featuring the winners of the prefectures Cups in a knock-out format. Despite the term amateur on its official name the competition always featured clubs from Delta Ethniki and later the third-tier Gamma Ethniki.
History
The competition started in the 1971-72 due to the high volume of teams competing in the Greek Football Cup . It was played in two stages: the prefectures with the local finals and the panhellenic which would decide the overall winner. With the Amateur Cup running in the 1971-72 season, the Greek Football Cup would only accept teams from the first three tiers for the years to come. After the introduction of the Gamma Ethniki Cup in 2013 the winner of the competition would play in the Amateurs' Super Cup Greece.
Players like Giorgos Karagounis, Vasilis Dimitriadis, Sakis Tsiolis, Angelos Basinas, Kostas Chalkias, Giannis Goumas, Babis Tennes, Kostas Orfanos, Nikos Soultanidis have played in second stage or the final of the competition (panhellenic), while numerous later-well known players who started their careers from lower leagues featured in the first stage (prefectures). Alexis Alexandris, Demis Nikolaidis, Kyriakos Karataidis, Zisis Vryzas, Theodoros Zagorakis are some of them.
Structure
The competition was split into two stages. The first stage listed the knock-out matches in every prefecture of Greece such as Athens Football Clubs Association, Macedonia Football Clubs Association. Clubs participated in semiprofessional Delta Ethniki until 2013 and professional Gamma Ethniki after 2013 were eligible to participate. The second stage featured the prefectures' Cup winners in knock-out rounds culminating with a single final.
The reserve teams of top clubs were also eligible to participate. Panathinaikos, PAOK and Aris Thessaloniki reserve (or called amateur) teams reached the final of the Cup on three occasions. The majority of the teams who won the Cup were playing in the 4th or 5th tier including clubs with Greek top-flight history like Niki Volos, Kerkyra and Veria.
After 2018 and its last edition, the winners of the prefectures' Cups are directly qualify to the Greek Football Cup despite the club's official financial status as either professional, semiprofessional or amateur.
Greece