Anorthosis Famagusta FC

, the abandoned hometown of Anorthosis Famagusta The early years Anorthosis Famagusta was founded on 30 January 1911. In the early years the club was not focused on sports but mainly national, spiritual, cultural and social activities. In 1928 it began to develop sporting activities. However, the young men of the club had been active in football much earlier. In the early 1920s they had formed a team with the name "Football Club of Greeks of Varosha" (POEV, ). In 1929, POEV officially joined Anorthosis and its players, all of whom were also members of Anorthosis, formed the club's first football team. The fourth tournament was due to be organised by Anorthosis. However, after the announcement of a championship in Nicosia by Trust (to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its foundation), and a resulting dispute between the two clubs, as well as other issues on which there were disagreements (Olympiakos Nicosia and Aris Limassol raised the issue of players freely moving from one club to another), the clubs decided to create an authority which would be responsible for organising the championships. Thus, on 23 September 1934, the Cyprus Football Association was established, with Anorthosis and 7 other clubs as the founding members. Anorthosis reached the final of the 1946–47 Cypriot Cup. They would lose 4–1 to APOEL. Five additional clubs (AMOL Limassol, Larnaka Türk, Mağusa Türk Gücü, Mağusa Türk Ujiu and Çetinkaya Türk) joined this federation. The conflict between the two federations ended after one year when PAOK was dissolved and Anorthosis, EPA and Pezoporikos were reintegrated into the CFA in the autumn of 1948. The following season Anorthosis won the First Division for the sixth time and again reached the Cypriot Cup final. They lost the trophy to APOEL, after a 2–2 draw and then a 1–0 loss in the replay. Anorthosis Famagusta continued with a temporary base in Larnaca. Despite the difficulties that the club was facing, Anorthosis managed to finish in sixth position in the 1974–75 First Division. In addition, they reached the 1974–75 Cup final and lifted the trophy after a 3–2 victory against Enosis Neon Paralimni. In 1982–83 they finished as runners up by just three points to Omonoia. In 1984–85 they once again fought for the championship but after a poor end to the season they finished third. Anorthosis only managed to reach the semi-final stage of the Cypriot Cup once during the decade, in 1982–83, when they were eliminated by Omonoia. They lost the 2003 CFA Shield match 3–2 against Omonoia. In 2004–05, Anorthosis won the league again. They lost the 2005 CFA Shield match on penalties against Omonoia. Despite being heavy underdogs, Anorthosis still had a chance to progress to the knockout round ahead of the final group game, after producing some great results. They beat Panathinaikos in the first match 3–1 at home, drew twice with Werder Bremen and drew their home game against José Mourinho's Inter Milan, who would win the competition the following season. 2010s After the most successful decade in the club's history in the 2000s, Anorthosis would not win a single trophy in the next decade. They suffered from financial problems in the first years of the 2010s, although in the 2012–13 season they fought for the championship, and were leading by 6 points after 20 weeks. However, they had a poor run of results and ultimately finished in second position. The following season in 2020–21, Anorthosis were just 5 points behind leaders Omonia with 10 games to go, however they earned just 6 points in the remainder of the season, finishing in fourth and 22 points adrift of the eventual champions. Silverware would return to Anorthosis that season, as they were 2–1 victors after extra time against Olympiakos Nicosia in the 2020–21 Cypriot Cup final. The cup victory earned Anorthosis a place in the 2021–22 Europa League qualifying rounds. They lost to Rapid Wien, and dropped into the Europa Conference League playoffs. They beat Hapoel Be'er Sheva 3–1 on aggregate and secured their return to the group stage of a European competition. They were drawn in Group B with Gent, Partizan and Flora. Despite losing their opening two games and then drawing both games against Flora after leading 2–0, they were still in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages ahead of the final game thanks to a spectacular long-distance goal by Lazaros Christodoulopoulos which gave them a shock 1–0 home victory over Gent. They would draw 1–1 in Belgrade against Partizan, missing out by 2 points on progression to the knockout rounds. In the 2021–22 league season, Anorthosis were hopeful of qualifying to the Champions League by finishing in the top 2 positions with two games remaining in the season, however a 1–1 draw against APOEL and a 3–0 home defeat to Aris Limassol left Anorthosis in fifth position and outside of the European qualification positions. Manager Temur Ketsbaia left the club in June 2022 by mutual consent. The first round of the 2022–23 Cypriot First Division saw Anorthosis out of the Championship playoffs, with the team eventually finishing in seventh place. The team's struggles forced Christos Poullaidis to step down from his position, with Cypriot businessman and former vice-president of the club, Andreas Santis taking over as the new president. Antonio Prieto was appointed as the team's technical director, and David Gallego was appointed as head coach ahead of the 2023–24 season. ==Colours and badge==

Anorthosis have worn blue and white colours for the majority of their history, chosen because they were the colours of the Greek flag. While often using a striped pattern, Anorthosis has had much variety in their home shirts, with many different uses of the colours blue and/or white. The shade of blue has varied over the years, and Anorthosis home shirts have been worn with either blue or white shorts, and blue, white or black socks. The inaugural football team of Anorthosis wore Byzantine-inspired black and yellow kits, which was brought back as the home kit for the centenary year of the club in the 2011–12 season. Anorthosis have often used black for their away or third kit since 1974, intended to represent their lost hometown Famagusta. In 2020–21, Anorthosis used a white third kit with a photograph of Varosha's seafront printed on the front of the shirt. For the 110th birthday of the club, a limited edition shirt of only 110 units was released, using the colour gold for the first time and the original crest. The gold is meant to represent the colour of the sand of Famagusta's coast. A map of the town is also printed on the kit. Anorthosis have used the phoenix as a symbol for most of the history of the club. In 1970, Anorthosis adopted as their first crest an image of the phoenix and the club's name in Greek, ΑΝΟΡΘΩΣΙΣ, inside a circle. The crest remained for the next 15 years, though it never appeared on the shirts. In 1985, Anorthosis changed their crest for the first time, though again it never appeared on the shirts. In 1990, Anorthosis announced their first official crest as a part of an attempt to modernise the club, that was used on the shirts. It featured the image of a burning phoenix and the club name in Greek, as well as 1911, the year the club was established. In 2000 under president Kikis Konstantinou, the club's crest was changed again as a part of an attempt to further modernise and capitalise on new marketing opportunities. The new badge featured a blue phoenix standing over the fire. It lasted for the next 11 years, with some minor modifications such as the use of different colours, appearances of the phoenix and the addition of a star to celebrate the tenth championship of the club. For the centenary season in 2011–12, the new president Savvas Kakos announced a special emblem to celebrate 100 years that featured the year of the club's establishment and the current year, 1911 and 2011 respectively, on the crest. In 2012, Anorthosis made some alterations to the 100 years crest, which became the permanent new logo of the club. In 2020, the football department came up with a new logo that was intended to help with the marketing of the club. The blue phoenix rising from the flames was no longer surrounded by the traditional shield and its wings shaped the blue and white stripes using negative areas. Above the phoenix, the year 1911 is featured as well as a gold star representing the 10 championships. Initially, the new logo was used on the 2020–21 shirts, however after backlash from fans of the club it was removed, and the 2012 version was restored. Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors ==Stadium==

Anorthosis, in order to recover from their relocation, had to build a new stadium. Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium is the home of Anorthosis Famagusta and it was built in 1986 in the city of Larnaca. The ground was given the name of a person who helped Anorthosis in various ways through the years, he was a fighter in EOKA war for Cyprus independence and unity with Greece and Anorthosis helped the war and he was also a very talented football player of Anorthosis and later a manager. The initial capacity of the ground was about 6,000 but gradually increased during the years to 13,000. With a major reconditioning in 1998, capacity was reduced to 10,230 (all seated). In 2005 the east stand was named "Quality Stand" after the club's main sponsor. "Quality Stand" is a two-story stand which holds the newly built VIP boxes (upper story), press room, dressing rooms, and bar. In 2006, the stadium went through another reconditioning including the building of VIP Boxes in the upper section of west stand, the launching of the automatic ticketing issue and entrance system, the replacing of the metal front fence with clear acrylic glass for security reasons and for maximized field view. Also, some other facilities are offered in the west stand such as new restrooms, bar, and fans' shop. The stadium also is approved by UEFA for European games. It has hosted some matches of the Cyprus national football team. In this stadium, Cyprus achieved its greatest success against Spain by a score 3–2. On 16 May 1992, the stadium hosted the 1992 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship Third position final between Italy and Portugal, which Italy won 1–0. On 23 November 2011, D. Ellinas group signed a contract with Anorthosis to build new offices for Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium. The old offices of the stadium will be a joint area outside the locker room, journalistic theory, clinics and other. The cost is €400,000 but the D. Ellinas group will build the offices for free in exchange for advertisements on the Anorthosis side. ==Supporters==

The fans of Anorthosis are spread throughout Cyprus due to the occupation of Famagusta by the Turkish military, with many living near Larnaca where the current stadium is located. There are supporters associations all over the island and in other countries as well including Greece, the UK and the USA. In 2022, a study found Anorthosis to have the support of 15.1% of football fans in Cyprus, making it the third most popular team behind Omonia and APOEL. The main ultras group of Anorthosis was formed in 1994 and is known as 'Maxhtec', meaning 'Fighters' (, stylised as MAXHTEC). The idea is to never stop fighting until they return to their beloved town of Famagusta. The emblem of Maxhtec is an ancient warrior helmet, similar to those worn by the Spartans. The Anorthosis ultras have a friendly relationship with their counterparts from Russian club Dynamo Moscow and Serbian club OFK Beograd. The Anorthosis fans are known for being very passionate about their team, their lost hometown Famagusta and their Greek Cypriot heritage. In the stands there can often be seen many Greek flags, Greek Orthodox flags and tributes to former EOKA members, many of whom were also members of Anorthosis, such as Grigoris Afxentiou. ==Players==

First-team squad Out on loan Retired numbers 14 – Temur Ketsbaia (1992–1994, 2002–2007), club legend ==Staff==

Technical and team staff Coaching staff Source: == Honours ==

• * shared record ==See also==