Superleague Greece license is a license issued to Greek football clubs by the authorities of Superleague Greece. It is mainly based on the club's financial health and infrastructure, and is a conditio sine qua non for competing in the country's top flight.
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 the decision once. Eventually when all this procedure is completed:
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 (May 2011), when a new set of UEFA-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 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 and Trikala) as well as one of their replacements (Diagoras) 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.