PAOK

PAOK FC (Greek: ΠΑΕ ΠΑΟΚ, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινουπολιτών, Panthessalonikios Athlitikos Omilos Konstadinoupoliton, "Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans"), commonly known as PAOK Thessaloniki or simply PAOK, is a Greek professional football club based in Thessaloniki, Macedonia. PAOK are one of the top domestic clubs, the most widely supported in Northern Greece and with the 3rd largest fanbase in the country, according to the latest polls and researches. A research by Marca in August 2018, reported that PAOK are the most popular Greek football team on social media.

Established on 20 April 1926 by Greek refugees who fled to Thessaloniki from Constantinople in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), they play their home games at Toumba Stadium, a 29,000 seating capacity football ground. Their name, along with the club's emblem, the Byzantine-style double-headed eagle with retracted wings, honours the memory of the people and places (mostly from the city of Constantinople) that once belonged to the Byzantine Empire.

PAOK currently plays in the top-flight Super League, which they have won three times (in 1976, 1985 and 2019). They are eight-time winners of the Greek Cup (in 1972, 1974, 2001, 2003, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021). The club has never been relegated to a lower national division, a feat equalled only by rivals Olympiacos and Panathinaikos. PAOK are the only team in Greece that have won the Double (in 2019) going unbeaten (26–4–0 record) in a national round-robin league tournament (league format since 1959).

The team has appeared several times in the UEFA Europa League, but has yet to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. Their best European performance was in the 1973–74 season, when they reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. PAOK is the only Greek team that has more wins than losses in their European record (72 wins, 58 draws and 70 defeats, as of 10 December 2020) and the 0–7 away win over Locomotive Tb

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