Greek football is heavily hit by an economic crisis, with attendance figures falling steadily raising worries over the sport's outlook in the country.

Rising unemployment, violence in stadiums (keeping spectators away), poor quality and a drastic reduction of investors and sponsors, are the main reasons for the current misery prevailing in Greek football.

Most football enterprises are at the brink of despair over their finances, with their outlook painted with even more bleak colours. Average attendance figures for the first 17 schedules of the Super League are disappointing with only five teams reporting higher attendance: Olympiakos (up by 4,881 compared with the same period in the previous season), Larisa (1,449), Asteras Tripoli (634), Xanthi (307) and Atromitos (58). On the other hand, Aris Thessaloniki recorded a decline of 3,905, followed by Panathinaikos (1,061), Ergotelis (880), Heracles (717), Kavala (689), Panionios (651), PAOK (598) and AEK (459).

OPAP, the state lottery organisation, is offering great help to Greek football with several sponsorships, while television rights are expected to be unchanged by 2012.

Soccer teams, participating in lower leagues are facing even bigger problems with several matches cancelled as teams cannot afford transportation expenses.

Panos Bitsaxis, secretary-general of sports, has repeatedly said that football teams should not rely on state help to survive and the ministry mulls a restructuring of many teams.