This edition of our Squandered series features Panathinaikos’s slapstick conclusion to the 1964-65 Greek Alpha Ethniki League. Now, the whole point of this particular series is to highlight teams that threw away League titles from seemingly unassailable positions. Records show that Pana were actually crowned Greek champions that season, so it appears to make them a rather contrary choice here.

It’s true that while they technically do not quite belong here, I have decided to grant Pana an honorary nomination thanks to the scarcely believable manner the club somehow contrived to – seemingly impossible though it sounds – almost throw away a title that was already mathematically won.

Every footballing nation has its share of hotheads, yet volcanic temperament was a character trait in its players that impacted more on the Greek game than most. Difficult footballers were common to all nations, but there was a uniquely obstinate mentality among Greek players when it came to accepting refereeing decisions they didn’t agree with. In the minds of many players, referees were representative of the country’s venal and hated establishment class. To accept their authority and their decisions – whether correct or not – was demonstrating complicity on a certain level with their corruption and their bias – a bias invariably seen as being skewed against their particular club of course.

So it was very common for games to be abandoned because players simply refused to accept penalty decisions awarded against their team. Or leave the field when dismissed for violent conduct. Or many other things if truth be told. Games degenerated into comedic farces as a player trying to take a penalty placed the ball on the spot, only for a petulant opponent to repeatedly kick it away.

During the early 1960s the Greek Federation came up with a change to the points system as an innovative response to alleviating this problem. Teams that won League games would earn three points, a draw would give teams two points each and a losing team would earn a single point – and this was the clever part, only if the full 90 minutes had been completed. It was thought that if at least there was some reward for losing teams then that might be a greater motivation not to force the abandonment of games.

It seemed a sensible and practical approach to a difficult problem, but never underestimate the capacity for footballers to cut off their noses to spite their faces. With a single round of fixtures remaining in the 64-65 Greek League, Panathinaikos were virtual champions. They travelled to play their final game against Niki Volos with 77 points in the bag, 3 points better off than second-placed AEK Athens who entertained Olympiakos. Even if AEK won their match, those three points would take them to 77 whilst Panathinaikos could lose 10-0 to Niki and still pick up the single point that would make them champions. All they had to do was remain on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.

AEK opened up an impressive, if apparently futile, 3-0 half time lead in their game. Then things took a turn for the absurd during the second-half in Volos after the referee sent off Panathinaikos’s Nikos Panousakis. As dismissals went it was almost wholly irrelevant to the game and the title and yet Panousakis was incensed with the decision. He launched into a verbal tirade against the referee and, surreally, refused to leave the field. Quickly surrounded by team-mates, club officials and the team manager, it was spelled out forcefully to Panousakis the consequences of his belligerence – as if he didn’t already know. If the game was abandoned and AEK won as expected, the teams would now finish level on points and a play-off would be needed to decide the title. Despite the begging, cajoling and threatening, Panousakis had lost his head completely and continued to refuse to leave the pitch in his fury at the decision.

With the referee’s patience rapidly wearing thin, a group of Pana’s players and officials resorted to the last available option – they grabbed Panousakis and physically manhandled him off the pitch despite his stoutest resistance. The game was able to continue, just, and the ten men of Panathinaikos secured a 2-2 draw. Just to add another twist to this crazy climax, a hat trick by Giorgos Sideris rescued a 3-3 draw in Athens for Olympiakos against AEK. It meant that even if the Pana game had been abandoned, the club would have still secured the title by a point – despite the very best efforts of Nikos Panousakis to squander a season’s work.

Just another day in the mad world of Greek football.