ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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Zeroism has been a regulation of the Greek Football Federation (EPO) for decades in championship events. It provided for a club the removal from the scoreboard of the degree of defeat (or participation) in a match with the 3–2–1 rating system (win–lose–defeat).

It was imposed for serious violations of the statutes, general regulations or league notices of the Federation and local Football Associations (EPCs), by players, administrators, members and/or fans. It constituted an additional disciplinary sentence to the club, after the award of this contest with a "technical" result of 2–0 goals in favor of the opponent and involved in a previous match, but it was sometimes extended (as was the "technical" defeat) to some number of those who would give the next time in the same league.

Background
Zeroism was established in 1938 at the same time as the 3–2–1 rating system that replaced the absolute equivalent of 2–1–0, essentially precisely to make the one extra rank available to defeat, which would be taken as punishment. He was the means of lobbying the country's football authorities towards the teams, so that they would limit the frequent withdrawal before or leaving during their struggle, as a strong protest over institutional decisions (criminals to players, field definition etc.) or dietary respectively. Until then, the regulations did not provide for any further impact beyond the "technical" defeat (originally without passive endings, then with 0-1 and later 0-2), so if the negative result was judged in the first place inevitable or evolved into a broad one, it was not rare to choose not to descend to the meeting or leave at any point. The same was usual when they considered the arbitration to treat their group unfairly or the opponent with excessive cruelty (but essentially difficult to win). All the above events displeased the fans, affected the image of the sport and in any case brought about a reduction in the short term (and cancellation of matches directly) of receipts from tickets, the main source of revenue EPO, EPS and clubs (with a large difference from the rest, at least until the introduction of the PRO-PO in 1959).

The regulation of zeroism was in force until 1973, i.e. for 35 years, 32 years and 28 Greek championship events. During 14 (since 1959) its application to the First National League, it was imposed 31 times on 12 unions, some of them among the most popular:
Panachaean for 13 games
EC in 4
Panathinaikos in 3
Panionios, Egaleo AO from 2
Atromitos Piraeus, Apollo Thessaloniki, PAOK, Pierikos from 1, as well as three of the Cyprus EPA Larnaca, Olympiacos and the Nicosia Omonia in the 7 periods (in dictatorship) where last year's champion Cyprus participated.
At the specific time of the First National, the remaining 27 clubs, am