Eight teams full of great players at their peaks and some great coaches with giant careers on their backs. The truth is that glamour of these events is created by participants, and this is the fact everywhere. It is not only the name of the event that radiates that Shine, but also teams that make it up are the ones that give an extra spark to it. Pointless to say, in every sense of the word, all teams in the event were more than worthy participants.
However, it is something that does not change and this was very well understood by everyone this year, within the European Federation, but also by even more people in our circle who came from Greece and Abroad to watch games. What is that that does not change? The important absence is that of Olympiacos. Many people in Belgrade, organizers, officials of LEN, coaches, athletes, and former athletes told us how much Olympiacos is missing from the event.
You see, the brand name that the team of Piraeus carries is enormous. If it had made it to the Final 8, it would have been the only team that could fill the Vlaho Orlic swimming pool twice on its own. As it is known, Olympiacos and its fans have an excellent relationship with the Crevna Zvezda, so Serbs and Greeks would have fully booked the stands. The truth is that in the absence of the Greek team there were times when during games were too many empty seats, something that certainly does not fit in the top European tournament.
The hot fan atmosphere was a bit lacking despite the ambitious efforts of the Hungarian and Spanish friends of Ferencvaros and Barcelona. So that was one of the main reasons that the absence of Olympiacos was shocking, of course, and for the huge quality that the team has, but if we said that it would be like degrading one of the other participants.
The information reached our ears from the first moment we entered APRIL 11, as we officially became the Greeks, as they characterized us and from the first moment we realized that we represent Greece and domestic water polo. Nikola’s Radjen interview with #AQF24 and Orestis Kanellopoulos mentioned it, as well as many other greats of the sport, such as Veselin Djuho, former coach of Olympiakos with which we watched the final in adjacent positions.
