Ethnikos Piraeus F.C.

Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. (Greek: Εθνικός Πειραιώς) or simply Ethnikos is a Greek football club based in Piraeus and its parent sports club is Ethnikos OFPF. The club was officially formed on 21 November 1923 as Keravnos Piraeus (English: Lightning Piraeus), but existed unofficially since 1922. One year later the club was renamed to Young Boys Titan, after some players' secession that formed Peiraikos Podosfairikos Omilos (English: Piraeus' Football Group). The club was renamed to Ethnikos (English: National) on 23 December 1924, after it merged with Peiraikos Podosfairikos Omilos.

Ethnikos Piraeus is one of the founding members of Hellenic Football Federation in 1928, and represented Piraeus to the finals of the Panhellenic Championship's inaugural season in 1927–28. Ethnikos ranks 10th all time in first division victories (427) despite last competing in the first tier back in 1998–99 season.

They have won the 1932–33 Greek Cup, thus they are one of the only 11 clubs that have won either the domestic championship or domestic the cup in Greece. Ethnikos was one of seven clubs, including AEK Athens, PAOK, Panathinaikos, Aris Thessaloniki, Olympiacos and Panionios, never to have been relegated from the league until 1990. They have also been involved in international football playing a number of friendlies against famous clubs such as Inter Milan, Galatasaray, and the great Hungary national football team in the 1950s, and participated in the Balkans Cup on two occasions. They have had a turbulent recent history, and are currently competing in the third division Gamma Ethniki.

Known as the club of the upper classes of Piraeus (whereas Olympiacos has always been the team of the lower classes), Ethnikos was established in 1923 from a merger of local sides - Peiraikos Omilos FC and elements of Omilos Filathlon Piraeus — as Omilos Filathlon Piraeus - Faliro (Greek: Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς - Φαλήρου) — meaning Fans' Club of Piraeus and Faliro — after the Piraeus-based football club Athletic and Football Club of Piraeus (Greek: Αθλητικός και Ποδοσφαιρικός Σύλλογος Πειραιώς), winner of the 1924 Athens-Piraeus Regional Championship, split into two.

From the break-up, one group, led by Giorgos Chatziandreou, brothers Kostas and Dimitris Ferlemis, and Christos Peppas, ultimately formed Omilos Filathlon Piraeus – Faliro (Greek: Όμιλος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς – Φαλήρου), meaning Fans' Club of Piraeus and Faliro in 1924, and then changed the name to Ethnikos O.F.P.F. in February 1925 the other group, led by Yiannis Andrianopoulos and his five brothers, formed the club that evolved into Olympiacos CFP in March 1925.

Ethnikos O.F.P.F., colloquially referred to as Ethnikos Piraeus, is a multi-sport club with teams competing in football, water polo, volleyball and basketball.

The club's most significant teams, in terms of history and success, are their football and water polo teams, though football is the more popular sport.

Prior to 1959–60 Greek football was played in regional championships (Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki championships and/or North and South championships) and then the top teams from each region would advance to play for the national championship. In some pre-War years a traditional Final match was played between 2 regional champions, but generally the Panhellenic Championship was played as a final round-robin between at least 3 teams.