Vouros: “A stadium of European standards in New Philadelphia for the handball department of AEK”

A commitment for the construction of an indoor court in Nea Philadeflia for the handball department of AEK was made by Yannis Vouros.

The city’s Mayor, who is running for re-election, spoke broadly about his plans for New Philadelphia sports.

The interview of Yannis Vouros on “greekhandball.com”:

From your childhood, sports never left you indifferent. Your participation in matches of the football team of the actors is recorded, however, the older ones remember you wearing the AEK jersey not only in football but also in athletics.

“My house was next to the AEK stadium, I was born a few meters from it and my contact with the idols of that time was daily. As I was fast and quite athletic, I found myself in the AEK athletics team with the big names of that time and coached by Giorgos Papavasileiou and Panos Papadakis. We were running in charcoal then and when I participated (at 800 and 1,500 meters) in my first, then spring, races and I stepped on tartan, I thought I was flying. One Friday afternoon at the old dirt field, behind the regular AEK field, I was kicking a ball to relax and the then coaches of the small teams Daispagos and Hatzimichael saw me and suggested that I go to the football department. So it happened. However, in a training session in New Philadelphia, I was seriously injured and was sidelined for a long time. My studies at the University and the Drama School of the National Theater intervened, in a School of Journalism, so my whole life took a different path. But from the moment you have worn the Bicephalon on your chest and have been nurtured with the value system of a team like AEK, it is impossible not to carry its imprint on your soul».

You always stay close to sports, we even remember you at the reception of the AEK handball team after winning the European trophy opposite the City Hall.



“My contact with all the departments of AEK is permanent and to the extent that it is my responsibility, the support positions of each department, and of course handball, are self-evident. It is important for the brand name of a city to be adorned by a European title such as that of handball, which lately, with administrative leader Stamatis Papastamatis with whom I have excellent cooperation as I have a deep respect for his person, is claiming and occupying more and more space in the world of sports. I am therefore given the opportunity through this discussion that we are having, to announce directly that in consultation with AEK and also with the management of the Ionian NF, I am ready if – as I believe – I am re-elected, to open a funding code for the sport of handball and to allocate sums characterized as premium, depending on the positions and the goals that each team will implement, such as championship, cup, European distinction. I think it is certain that the funding of handball will be achieved and even established in our city, because this is fair based on what handball has given us and what it is still going to give us».

Therefore, are you ready to do, in your re-election, what the Mayor of Pylaia did, who undertook the excellent initiative that relieves Pylaia and Panorama?

“I won’t hide from you that this decision of the Mayor of Pylaia, apart from the fact that I completely agree with the logic of local government officials taking such initiatives, was also my inspiration for my own plan to finance handball in our city».

What is your plan for sports in New Philadelphia?

“We are concerned with finding sites for the construction of new sports facilities, such as the air-supported dome as a training facility on Dodecanese Street, securing 7 acres in the area of ​​the island for athletics, where road events, jumping and shot put events will be hosted, as well as a weight training facility».

Will the handball section of AEK get its own house in its place?

“As Mayor, I am in advanced discussions, in close and cordial cooperation with the administration of the amateur AEK and in particular with the administrative leader of the handball department, Stamatis Papastamati, in order to build another indoor stadium of European standards in New Philadelphia, where with the implementation of the handball section of AEK and beyond will find its home. The area we are concerned with has an area of ​​14 acres and is located next to the National Road. In any case, I pledge that I will claim the construction of sports and cultural facilities, in any field within the boundaries of the Municipality, while extra efforts will be made especially for handball».

Do you consider your sports plans feasible?

“If we enjoy the trust of the citizens of our city again and they renew the maximum responsibility of the management and administration of the city, it will be among our priorities to complete and implement this plan for indoor handball, as I consider it absolutely realistic and not at all utopian. After all, I consider myself close to handball and I am ready to support it as it deserves. I certainly recognize that handball by design has clearly fewer options of indoor courts available, so the need to support and build field infrastructure for handball is clear. It is high in the hierarchy of responsibilities and obligations that we have, finding places that can host handball and by extension other indoor sports. New Philadelphia and New Chalcedon have always been sportswomen and it is a shame that in recent years we have lost our right to be at the forefront of sports activities. Handball is a living cell of sports in our city, an active sport and we will support it at nursery level as well as all other sports, so that there is continuity in the brilliant distinctions it has brought to our city, always taking into account and recognizing the particularities of the field and his needs».

More broadly, what is your vision for sports in New Philadelphia in the next five years?

“With a steam engine as the brand name of the AEK stadium, the surrounding atmosphere carries not only the needs of the city but also the interest, as always an obligation of the respective municipal authority. So this steam engine, we have to connect it with wagons, each of which will include sports sections and passengers the youth of New Philadelphia».

And a personal question. Your son Alexis, 25 years old today, has excelled in track and field as a sprinter and even represented Greece in the 2017 Deaf Olympiad in Samsouda, the city where many New Philadelphians hail from. What would you like to say to the children of New Philadelphia about their relationship with sports?



“The courses of education or education are considered compulsory. If, therefore, in their schedule of obligations, they include some hours that will involve training and engaging in a sport, alongside supporting and watching sports experts, the lost dream of the 2004 Olympiad, even with a delay of about one 20 years to start bearing fruit. It is not necessary for all to become champions, which will establish them in society as active cells of it, but surely the noble rivalry, the healthy body, the healthy mind will be supplies to distinguish all the children, each of them in his own sector, in an emphatic way».

In 1990 you wrote the book “with a flash in the mind”. What comes to your mind now?

“To be able to sail, always in collaboration with my worthy partners, between the shore of philanthropy and aesthetics. The result will certainly leave us in a sea of ​​responsibilities and obligations, but I hope that with the help and cooperation of the citizens, the wind that will sail and inflate our sails will be… strong».