September 18 – AEL Limassol have requested a meeting with the president of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides following the violence before the derby match with Apollon on Sunday, which saw the game abandoned and three polic officers hospitalised.
A day after the riots, Christodoulides called on the local football federation to take responsibility for what happened. In a statement, the Cyprus FA condemned the violence and said appropriate punishments would be meted out. But it defended its decision to allow AEL fans in the stands because the trouble was strictly supporters clashing with police and not the direct consequence of rival fans fighting.
“We don’t believe it’s right that every instance where undesired actions happen should be used as a reason to ban away fans,” the FA wrote.
Two days after the incident and taking into account all points of view, the management of AEL Limassol published a long statement in which they called for a meeting with the President of Cyprus, the Football Association of Cyprus, the leaders of the political parties in Cyprus, the Minister of Justice and the Cyprus Sports Organization.
“Hereby, the Board of Directors of AEL at the end of the meeting which took place in order to process the data and to resolve the actions in relation to what happened in Sunday’s away match against Apollon, wishes to report the following:
The information gathering, data processing and review of material brought before us has dramatically strengthened our concerns about the causation and burden of data that led to the strange no-match order/decision!” says the statement.
“The attitude and actions of those in charge were evaluated and led to some important first conclusions. The seriousness that we must show as an administration towards such a matter and the respect for the sport and the world that supports it, unfortunately does not allow us at this stage to position ourselves publicly, simply and only to participate in the well-deserved effort to create impressions!
“Therefore, it has been decided to intensify our efforts to uncover, if possible, all the strange aspects of the whole story, with the sole aim of shedding ample light on the dark parameters that continue to trouble us and that undoubtedly irreparably damage the sport we love!” the statement continued.
“At the same time, using and taking advantage of what we have so far managed to process and possess, we have decided how to put them before all those involved, with the requirement that everyone be competently placed and work with sincerity, honesty and objectivity to find solutions that will have the well-intentioned interest as the only guiding principle of the sport and not the selfish interests of some, occasionally and as they like!
“Consequently and in an attempt to de-escalate the meaningless public declarations of impressions, it was decided to continue the non-public positioning and exchange of announcements that lack seriousness and documentation and the requirement of meetings with involved bodies in order to put the data so far on the carpet, being determined to put the finger on the heels, expecting everyone to do the same!
We therefore inform you that we have decided and that meetings will be requested at the level of Presidents and Boards with:
COP
COA
Parliamentary parties
Minister of Justice
President of the Republic
“We look forward to everyone’s response, so that we can seriously discuss the whole issue as we saw it develop and the sports fan world lived, away from small things and expediencies, but with the sole purpose of putting everyone in front of us!!! We will come back with the latest that should be made public, accordingly.”
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1734936018labto1734936018ofdlr1734936018owedi1734936018sni@o1734936018fni1734936018