AEK (sports Club) - Crest and Colours

Crest and Colours

Since the club's foundation, AEK have had three main crests, though all underwent minor variations. In 1924, AEK adopted as their first crest the image of a double-headed eagle (Δικέφαλος Αετός – Dikefalos Aetos), which remained for the next half-century, on a golden yellow background. When AEK was created by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the years following the Greco-Turkish War and subsequent population exchange, the emblem and colours were chosen as a reminder of lost homelands; they represent the club's historical ties to Constantinople. Its usage also survived as a decorative element in the Greek Orthodox Church, which was the inheritor of the Byzantine legacy during the Ottoman Empire, while it remained a popular symbol among Greeks. In modern Greece various variations of the two-headed eagles are used in Church flags (based on Byzantine flag patterns and heraldic emblems) and, officially, by the Greek Army; the bird found its way into the Greek coat of arms for a brief period in 1925–1926.