EARLY HISTORY

• 1890 – Est. in Smyrni  (Minor Asia, western coast of today’s Turkey, now called Izmir) as a music & sports club
• 1901 – Panionios is the first club to organize School Games and  indirectly forces the State to make the lesson of gymnastics mandatory at schools
• 1902 – Panionios establishes the first school for gymnasts/trainers and trainees from scholls all over Greece arrive in Smyrni.
• 1913 – Panionios introduces the first Volleyball team in Greece.
• 1922 – Forced to transfer to Athens, after the disaster of the city of Smyrni, together with the thousands of Greek refugees
• 1925 – Panionios suggests the establishment of women sports.
• 1927 – Panionios organizes the first women’s sport games.
• 1940 – Settled down in the Athenian suburb of Nea Smyrni, named like that to honor the memory of the burned city in Minor Asia
• The club has a tradition of cultivating all major sports and was the first Greek club to establish a track & field division for women, in 1925 as well as introduce women’s volleyball in the decade that followed

 RECENT HISTORY

• With the gradual transformation of men’s football and basketball into professional sports, Panionios Football Club (FC) and Panionios Basketball Club (BC) became privately owned clubs operating under the auspices of the traditional “amateur sports” Panionios GSS.
• Since late 2011, under the weight of financial crisis and the absence of investors, the ‘amateur sports” Panionios GSS is also the majority owner of the professional football club (Panionios FC)
• Today, our club is in the process of reviving  the  cultural part of its activities,  having ensured the co-operation of top figures of the local cultural life.
• In our minds, SPORTS = CULTURE = CIVILIZATION

 ALONG THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION STRATEGY POINTS

Social Inclusion

• In 2012, Panionios G.S.S. in co-operation with the largest relevant school in Athens, established a department for children with physical handicaps (disabled)
• The club introduced lower fees for the children of  multi-member families and unemployed citizens.

Violence -Discrimination

• Encouraging sports spirit , promoting fairness and openness among youths in sporting competitions , via lectures  & events
• Promoting “no to violence”and “no to racism” logos on teams’ shirts and sports fields

Promotion of grass-root activities 

• Athletes and coaches promoting sports by visiting the  schools of the Municipality
• Holding events connecting Health and Sports

Fight against doping

• Co-operate with local authorities and stressing the advantages of “healthy” competition to sporting youths

OUR VISION

• Manage to persuade  local decision makers  that especially in  financial crisis times, sports should be encouraged, not considered as “luxury”, not deprived of their social and educational function (Lisbon Treaty: “contribute to the promotion of European sporting issues, while taking account of the specific nature of sport, its structures based on voluntary activity and its social and educational function”)
• Welcome/Attract more youth in well maintained, improved sporting facilities
• Self  Sufficiency (find “ways to strengthen financial solidarity mechanisms between professional sport and grassroots sport”)

 IT’S ABOUT TIME

• It’s about time we think of sports as a means of  driving a healthy life, not necessarily a  one-way road to create professional athletes
• It’s about time we care for the long run benefits of our children
• It’s about time  we all enjoy the game
• It’s about time all of us encourage a Pan-European co-operation of multisport clubs to this direction
• It’s about time we DO IT TOGETHER!