The Super League has gone through a re-shaping process and this season will see a new and completely different way of doing things in what is – in our humble opinion – the finest division of youth development football, largely satisfying many years of requests. The new process, if nothing else, keeps the interest alive until the last matchday, while the fact is that it also gives room for more games, and clearly, greater competitiveness.

Therefore, a minimum of 24 matches will take place, more teams are given room to claim qualification to the final phase and «break» the narrow geographical criteria, without this however meaning that the teams are burdened with a lot of travel.

Under-17s profile

Therefore, PAOK, who are the current champions in the age category, will take part in the championship with a new team, those players born in 2006 and who made up the Under-16 side in the 2021-22 season – and with exactly the same technical staff. Some of these youngsters also participated in last year’s Under-17s (so they were crowned champions), while they already belong to the Under-19 squad, too. Accordingly – the PAOK Academy has always worked diligently on the project of the youngest footballers taking part in older age categories – this year’s Under-17s also includes children born in 2007 (those who belonged to last year’s Under-15s).

Regarding the schedule of matches, after the match in Agrinio, PAOK welcomes Aris, then PAS Giannina, followed by a trip to Ioannina and finally a home match against Panetolikos and then an away match against Aris, thus completing the first phase of the championship.

The 2022-23 Under-17s include the following players:

Goalkeepers: Anastasios Sevastidis, Vasilios Tsintsolis, Evangelos Katsaros, Efstathios Beleris

Defenders: Georgios Koupenos, Tryfon Kalioglou, Georgios Telos, Georgios Kosidis, Konstantinos Vyrsokinos, Konstantinos Polykratis, Efstathios Panikidis, Panagiotis Tsitskas, Pavlos Tsiotas, Alkibiadis Avrampos, Konstantinos Arvanitis

Midfielders: Maksymilian Sznaucner, Konstantinos Hatzigavriel, Marios Kalaitsidis, Loizos Papadimitriou, Georgios Karaperis, Vasilios Papageorgiou, Georgios Sapanis, Konstantinos Karaioannou, Antonio Zoubis

Forwards: Stefanos Tzimas, Iordanis Kesidis, Grigorios Politakis, Dimitrios Hatsidis, Marios Mylonas, Georgios Bakas, Emmanuel Tsobanis, Athanasios Ziogas, Konstantinos Vryzas.

The coaching and technical team:

Team manager: Stavros Sarafis

Coach: Petros Tsiapakidis

Assistant Coach: Ebenezer Hagan

Fitness coach: Mert Isbilir

Goalkeeper coach: Dimitrios Kryonas

Video analysis: Alexandros Theodoridis

Doctor: Iraklis Giannaros

Physiotherapist: George Gagalis, George Giannikos

Minder: Ioannis Klagas

Format of the new championship

The first phase of the championship begins on September 10 and ends in November with the participation of 16 teams, which were divided into four groups. So six games, three at home, three away. The groups are as follows:

Group A: OFI, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Apollon Smyrnis

Group B: Asteras Tripolis, Atromitos, Ionikos, Panionios

Group C: Volos, Lamia, Levadeiakos, AEK

Group D: PAOK, Aris, PAS Giannina, Panetolikos

The first phase will conclude with knockout games between the top four teams in each group. Two-legged semi-finals will be held and the final will decide the team that will secure its participation in the Final Four tournament.

AEL will be added to the second phase of the championship, in which case two groups will be created and 18 matches will be played. The northern group will include: PAOK, Aris, PAS Giannina, Panetolikos, Volos, Lamia, Aand EL who will compete in three rounds of six matches.

The southern group will include: AEK, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Atromitos, Asteras Tripolis, Ionikos, Apollon Smyrnis, OFI, Levadeiakos, and Panionios, who will compete in two rounds of nine games.

What’s next? The top two teams advance directly to the Final Four. The third team of the final phase is the team which wins the first phase. So one more team is needed. This ticket will be claimed in knockout matches by the following ties:

• 2nd of the southern group – 4th of the southern group
• 2nd of the northern group – 3rd of the southern group

The specific one-legged knockout ties will take place at the groud of the «stronger» side, i.e. the second placed team from each group.

All this means, of course, that the team that will have secured participation in the Final Four from the first phase, essentially participates in the second phase out of competition and gives space to one more team to claim its participation in the final phase. That is, if the same team secures qualification from the first phase and is first in the second phase in its group, then the team that is second place in the standings will get the direct qualification to the Final Four, while the third place team will participate in the play offs.