Four teams entered the football tournament, one from Denmark and three from Greek cities, of which two (Smyrna and Thessaloniki) were then part of the Ottoman Empire. While the Athens and Thessaloniki teams consisted of Greek nationals (the Thessaloniki team featured one English national), the Smyrna side was composed of sons of foreign (English, French and Armenian) merchants in the city (nowadays called İzmir). The Athens team was in fact the club side of Ethnikos Syllogos, reenforced with one player of Panillinios. The Thessaloniki side consisted of players from a group of 'art friends' (Omilos Philomuson). The fact that a truly foreign side eventually participated owed much to the fact that King George of Greece was a son of King Christian IX of Denmark. As the DBU (Danish FA) had already selected a stronger team for matches in England, a selection was eventually made by the KBU (Copenhagen FA); the team can therefore be considered a KBU XI, comparable to the Copenhagen selections entering the early editions of the Fairs' Cup in the late fifties.
The 1906 Olympics are often referred to as 'Interim' Olympics, as Baron de Coubertin had never liked the idea of regularly returning to Athens for Olympic Games. However, following the disastrous events in both Paris 1900 and St. Louis 1904, he did not manage to prevent the 1906 event, which at the time was planned to be repeated every four years (so 1910, 1914 etc.).
SEMI-FINALS
Athens, 23rd April, 1906
Denmark 5-1 (1-1) Smyrna
Denmark:
Viggo Andersen - Peter Petersen, Charles Buchwald - Parmo Ferslev,
Stefan Rasmussen, Aage Andersen - Oskar Nielsen, Holger Frederiksen,
August Lindgren, Henry Rambusch, Hjalmar Heerup
Smyrna:
Edwin Charnaud - Zaren Kouyoumtzian, Edouard Girard - Jacques Girard,
Henry Joly, Percy de la Fontaine - Donald Whittal, Albert Whittal,
Godfrey Whittal, Herbert Whittal, Edward Whittal
Referee: Goster Drake (Sweden)
Attendance: 3000, Podilatodromio
Scorers: unknown; other sources list the result as 5-2, but the official
bulletin published on 2nd June, 1906, gives 5-1
Athens, 23rd April, 1906
Athens 5-0 (unk) Thessaloniki
Athens (Greece):
Panayotis Vrionis - Nikolaos Dekavalas, Giorgios Gerondakis -
Giorgios Pandos, Alexandros Kalafatis, Konstantinos Botasis,
Giorgios Merkouris, Panayotis Botasis, Giorgios Vrionis,
Konstantinos Siriotis, Omiros Iosiphoglou
Thessaloniki:
George Vaporis - Nikolaos Pindos, Andonios Tegos - Nikolaos Pentzikis,
Ioannis Kirou, Giorgios Sotiriadis - Vasilios Zarkadis, Dimitrios Michitsopoulos,
Andonios Karagkonidis, Ioannis Saridakis, John Abbot
NB: Abbot was an English national.
Referee: Carl Andersen (Denmark)
Attendance: unknown, Podilatodromio
Scorers: unknown; other sources list the result as 6-0, but the official
bulletin published on 2nd June, 1906, gives 5-0
FINAL
Athens, 24th April, 1906
Denmark abd (9-0) Athens
Denmark:
Viggo Andersen - Peter Petersen, Charles Buchwald - Parmo Ferslev,
Stefan Rasmussen, Aage Andersen - Oskar Nielsen, Holger Frederiksen,
August Lindgren, Henry Rambusch, Hjalmar Heerup
Athens (Greece):
Panayotis Vrionis - Nikolaos Dekavalas, Giorgios Gerondakis -
Giorgios Pandos, Alexandros Kalafatis, Konstantinos Botasis,
Giorgios Merkouris, Panayotis Botasis, Giorgios Vrionis,
Konstantinos Siriotis, Omiros Iosiphoglou
Referee: Goster Drake (Sweden)
Attendance: unknown, Podilatodromio
Scorers: unknown
NB: match was abandoned at half-time, as Athens retired.
The organisation committee decided all three Greek clubs had to play off
for second place, but Athens refused to do so. Their protest was rejected,
and Athens withdrew from the tournament. Therefore, Smyrna and Thessaloniki
played off for second place.
MATCH FOR 2ND PLACE
Athens, 25th April, 1906
Smyrna 12-0 (unk) Thessaloniki
Smyrna:
Edwin Charnaud - Zaren Kouyoumtzian, Edouard Girard - Jacques Girard,
Henry Joly, Percy de la Fontaine - Donald Whittal, Albert Whittal,
Godfrey Whittal, Herbert Whittal, Edward Whittal
NB: Kuyumtzian was Armenian, the Girard brothers and Joly French, the
Whittal brothers and cousins and the other players English.
Smyrna is a city currently in Turkey (Izmir) then part of the Ottoman
Empire.
Thessaloniki:
Giorgios Vaporis - Nikolaos Pindos, Andonios Tegos - Nikolaos Pentzikis,
Ioannis Kirou, Giorgios Sotiriadis - Vasilios Zarkadis, Dimitrios Michitsopoulos,
Andonios Karagkonidis, Ioannis Saridakis, John Abbot
NB: Abbot was an English national.
Referee: Carl Andersen (Denmark)
Attendance: unknown, Podilatodromio
Scorers: unknown; other sources list the result as 3-0, but the official
bulletin published on 2nd June, 1906, gives 12-0
Sources included: [BuL] (Band 1), [iff], Olympiade Bogen De Olympiske Lege 1896-1936
Additional information thanks to Frédéric Pauron and Davide Rota
Prepared and maintained by Søren Elbech and Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Authors: Søren Elbech and Karel Stokkermans
Last updated: 23 Feb 2024
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