Additionally, Olympiacos set a new record as around 7,500 spectators were present at the Peace and Friendship Stadium for the return leg of the final in Greece. The Hellenic Handball Federation confirmed this was the highest-ever attendance at a match featuring a Greek team in the EHF's club competitions. However, the ambitious club does not want to stop there and has even bigger plans for the future, as sports director Grigoris Sanikis points out.
"Olympiacos SFP is the most popular team in Greece. Not only in Piraeus, where we are based, but in the whole country. In various measurements made by companies it seems that about 50 per cent of the Greek population support Olympiacos SFP. Another characteristic of Olympiacos SFP's fans is that they are the most enthusiastic and follow their team everywhere," says Sanikis, proudly.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Olympiacos SFP's matches were some of the best attended in the EHF's third-tier club competition this season and one of the main reasons about why the club decided to move the return leg from Chalkida to the larger Peace and Friendship Stadium was due to the high demand in tickets.
"Moving to the Peace and Friendship Stadium was initially a challenge for us, since so much had to be done in such a short period of time, on the other hand, apart from the high demand for tickets, we wanted to give the final more glamour in a stadium worthy of a European final. It was very, very difficult because it was a very short period of time. Fortunately, in our organisation there are staff members who have a lot of experience of similar situations," explains Sanikis. "Here I would also like to thank the people of the Peace and Friendship Stadium for their valuable help so that the final could take place without any problems," he adds.
Furthermore, the visionary sports director wants to believe that with the ever-growing attendance at their European matches this season, Olympiacos SFP helped to popularise the sport even more in Greece, and adds that the painful loss in the final will further fuel their desire to win a European trophy.
"Our primary goal every year is to win all domestic titles and to be the best we can be in Europe. We have already won the Greek Super Cup, lost the Greek cup, are competing for the championship and reached the final of the EHF European Cup Men. My big vision for the next few years is for Olympiacos to have won a European title and to have its own indoor gym."
