Niki Volos F.C.

Niki Volos FC

Niki Volou FC emblem
Full name	PAE Niki Volou (Victory of Volos FC)
Nickname(s)	Niki (Victory)
Founded	1924
Ground	Panthessaliko Stadium Nea Ionia,Volos, Greece
Capacity	23000 (all-seated)
Chairman	Stratos Gidopoulos
Manager	Jorge Walter Barrios
League	Third Division North
2009-10	Third Division pattern_la1=
Home colours Away colours

Niki Volou FC (Greek: Νίκη Βόλου), the Victory of Volos, is a Greek association football club based in the city of Volos, in the region of Thessaly.

The club currently competes in the Third Division - North Group, the third tier of Greek football.

History

The club was established in Nea Ionia, on the outskirts of the Magnesian port city of Volos as the Gymnastikos Syllogos Prosfygon Volou (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Προσφύγων Βόλου), Gymnastic Association of Refugees of Volos, in 1924 by Greek refugees from Ionia at the end of the Greco-Turkish War.

In 1926, the club was renamed the Gymnastikos Syllogos I Niki (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Η Νίκη), the Gymnastic Association Victory, after the goddess Nike, the original emblem of the Smyrna-based athletic club Panionios, one of the largest Ionian athletic clubs.

Niki Neas Ionias FC managed to enter A' Ethniki in 1961. It stayed there for five seasons, but in 1966, fell once more to the B' Ethniki and since then, struggling with various economical problems, the club has tried unsuccessfully to return to the A' Ethniki.

It is one of the two professional football teams of Volos and is - by far - the more historic and fans' supported.It was the first team that represented Volos in A' Ethniki. Moreover, Niki Volou FC numbers many sports fans(the majority of the sports fans in the perfecure of Magnesia,actually)and although it origins from the municipality of N. Ionia,it represents the metropolitan municipality of Volos,Greece. The "Pantelis Magoulas" (Greek: Παντελής Μαγουλάς,with a capacity of 3,500, was used as its home ground until recently. Since 2004, many of its games are also played at the Panthessaliko Stadium, after their former home ground - the Pantelis Magoulas Stadium - was proved too small for its growing supporters.

The club maintains a small but vibrant football academy with 300 children.

Colours and Crest

The Niki Volou FC crest displays the goddess Nike as depicted in the statue Winged Victory of Samothrace. The image of the goddess was the original emblem of the Smyrna-based athletic club Panionios, one of the most popular Greek athletic clubs of Ionia, before it was uprooted and re-established in Athens after the Greco-Turkish War. The founding members of Niki Volou FC, many of them refugees from Smyrna (now Izmir) and the surrounding region, decided to restore the emblem as part of their new club.

The club colours are blue and white.