or simply Panionios, is a Greek football club based in Nea Smyrni, a suburban town in the Athens agglomeration, Greece.

[citation needed] Within this, Panionios rose quite often to high levels, with top league achievement of 2nd place in 1971, losing the title to AEK Athens.

[6] 8 years later on 9 June 1979, Panionios took revenge on AEK Athens in the final of the Greek Cup and won the title for the first time in its history after winning 3–1.

[7][8] Panionios produced all three major Greek strikers of the 1980s, namely Nikos Anastopoulos[9] (later of Olympiacos), Thomas Mavros[10] (later of AEK Athens), and Dimitris Saravakos[11] (later of Panathinaikos).

Other notable players coming out of the club in the 1990s included Nikos Tsiantakis (later of Olympiacos) and Takis Fyssas, later of Panathinaikos, Benfica and member of Greece national football team.

Within the 2000s another five Greece national football team players came out from the club, namely Alexandros Tziolis, Evangelos Mantzios, Nikos Spiropoulos, Grigoris Makos and Giannis Maniatis.

In 2006, Tsakiris acquired 85% of Neos Panionios FC stock and started restructuring the team from scratch.

[16] He changed the name of the club back to the original Panionios GSS FC[17] and hired German coach Ewald Lienen[18] who, during his first year created a team that made it to the top 5 of the Greek Super League and on to the UEFA Cup.

Tsakiris has also unveiled an ambitious plan to have the aging football ground and athletics track demolished, and build a modern multi-sport arena in its place.

Apart from a 12,000 capacity football stadium, the proposed complex would include facilities for basketball, volleyball, aquatic sports, track & field, boxing, gymnastics, wrestling and more.

[19] On the summer transfer window of 2008, the club signed Uruguay national team members Álvaro Recoba[20] and Fabián Estoyanoff,[21] but shortly after Lienen resigned by mutual consent on 11 November 2008,[22] reason being disagreement with the Panionios' board.

Board of Directors led by President D. Karabatis and the Municipality of Nea Smyrni agreed to relocate the club in Nea Smyrni, the Athens suburb that was mainly inhabited by Greek World War I refugees coming from İzmir, the club's historical home.

In the summer of 1940 the first football matches take place, with the club donating the money to support the repair of Greek Warship "Elli" which was hit by Italian forces on World War II.

After the installation of seats and the reduction of the stadium's capacity there have been numerous matches with full attendance mainly in European competitions.

They included AEK Athens for the first half of the 2003–04 football season and Olympiacos for one match in February 2003 against OFI.

In this the shield had striped blue-colored colors and at the top left the Greek flag of the land and on the right an Ionic-style capital on a red background, referring to the Hellenism of the union and its Ionian roots.

Lastly, the respect among fans of PAOK and Panionios, since 1999, makes this relationship a long-lasting and robust bridge of communication.

[47] Also, their lighthouse is Dimitros Dallas, the man who kept their beloved team alive from Smyrna and gave Panionios life again in Athens.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.