Football association slammed after police refuse to work at friendly match

Police spokesman Christos Andreou on Thursday went on the attack against the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) after the police had refused to work at a friendly match which took place between First Division teams Omonia 29M and Anorthosis on Wednesday.

The match was initially scheduled to take place at the Glafcos Clerides Stadium in Peristerona, and was initially cancelled altogether, but eventually went ahead behind closed doors at Anorthosis’ Antonis Karas training centre in Larnaca.

Asked about the situation, Andreou said, “the CFA should have thought about that before sending a letter to the clubs”, referring to the CFA’s decision to allow away fans to return to football matches after being banned from January until the end of last season.

“The stadium [in Peristerona] has no licence. We wrote a letter to the CFA on Wednesday explaining that the stadium is not licenced and that we could not police that match,” he said.

Doxa Katokokopias, the Second Division club which owns the Glafcos Clerides Stadium, had insisted that their stadium is in fact licenced but that there had rather been delays in the issuing of a safety certificate, which they said had “also been the case with other stadiums”.

However, Andreou disputed this on Thursday.

“The only stadiums which do not have safety certificates are in Peristerona and the Tsirio [in Limassol], which is now no longer the home ground of any club in the First Division. There was no chance of us violating the law,” he said.

Asked if the police also work at behind-closed-doors games, he said, “of course, who can tell us that people would not go anyway? There are fans of one specific team who have not acquired fan cards, and they go to games and stand outside the grounds.”

Andreou’s comments come a week after the police sent a letter to the CFA outlining stadiums’ responsibilities regarding the safety of fans, players, coaches, and other attendees during football matches.

In the letter, the police had called on football stadiums to fulfil their obligations to hire an adequate number of stewards and take other measures to guarantee “the smooth and safe conduct of matches”.

Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said last Friday that his ministry had sent a letter of its own to the CFA, which referred to the 2008 law on the prevention and suppression of violence at sports venues.

That law, among other things, stipulates that stadiums themselves take measures to prevent the public from entering the pitch, and to protect players and referees.

In addition, it was revealed last week that the police spent €2.7 million in 2023 on overtime payments to police officers for the policing of football matches and other sporting events.