Superleague Greece license is a license

License

The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...

 issued to Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 football clubs

Football team

A football team is the collective name given to a group of players selected together in the various team sports known as football.Such teams could be selected to play in an against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-star team or even selected as a...

 by the authorities

Authority

The word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...

 of Superleague Greece. It is mainly based on the club's financial

FINANCIAL

FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...

 health and infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

, and is a conditio sine qua non for competing in the country's top flight.

Procedure

At the end of the regular season and before the playoffs start, all clubs of Superleague (top division) and Football League (second division) apply for the license. In case they are disapproved, they have the right to appeal

Appeal

An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....

 the decision once. Eventually when all this procedure is completed:

• If a Superleague club fails to get the license, they are relegated. In case they had already been relegated because of their final position, it makes no change. But if they had finished in a safe position, their relegation offers one extra promotion slot to the Football League playoffs.
• If a Football League club fails to get the license, they are not eligible for promotion. Teams placed 1st or 2nd miss the direct promotion, teams placed 3rd to 6th miss the right to participate in the promotion playoffs; in both cases, their "ticket" passes to the hands of the next best-placed club that got the license.

The 2011 licensing thriller

Getting the license had been rather easy in the first years of Superleague (est. 2006), since the required standards used to be very loose.

The situation changed in the licensing for the 2011-12 season

2011–12 Superleague Greece

The 2011–12 Superleague Greece is the 53rd season of the highest football league of Greece and the sixth under the name Superleague. The season will begin in late August or early September 2011 and will end in May 2012 with the last matches of the European playoff round...

 (May 2011), when a new set of UEFA

UEFA

The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....

-like criteria was adopted. Iraklis, who had finished in a safe position during the 2010-11 Superleague, failed to meet the new standards and were to be relegated, thus "offering" Football League an extra promotion slot. Some weeks later, the Disciplinary Committee found Iraklis also guilty of forgery

Forgery

Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...

 and punished them by placing the club at the last position of the league table. Technically the result for Iraklis was the same (relegation), but this way Asteras Tripoli jumped above the relegation zone and no extra promotion slot was offered to Football League.

A similar thriller was played in the promotion playoffs of Football League. Two clubs who had finished within the playoffs zone of 2010-11 regular season (OFI

OFI Crete

OFI , the Sportfriends Association Heraklion, is a Greek association football club based in Heraklion, on the island of Crete. Outside Greece, the club is generally known as OFI Crete F.C., however, the name Crete is not actually part of the club's official title.OFI is the club with most...

 and Trikala

Trikala F.C.

Trikala F.C., or Athlitikos Omilos Trikalon , are a professional football club based in the city of Trikala, in central Greece.-History:The club was formed in 1963 from the merger of two rival Trikala football clubs, Achilleas of Trikala and Α.Ε.Τ...

) as well as one of their replacements (Diagoras

Diagoras F.C.

Diagoras FC is a football club based in Rhodes, Greece. It was founded in 1905. Diagoras is named after the island's famous hero Diagoras. The team first played under Ottoman Rule until the short lived independence of the Dodecanese in 1912...

) weren't granted the license because of pending debts. That resulted to their replacement in the playoffs by two clubs who had finished in the mid-table.