NICOSIA - Cypriot football was hurled into further disarray on Tuesday after the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) ordered yet another cancellation of a local game after suspicious betting patterns were observed before kick-off.
The controversy surrounds the second leg, Last 16 Cyprus Coca-Cola Cup tie between Aris Limassol and Ethnikos Achnas which was due to kickoff at 6pm. Ethnikos lead the tie 2-0 on aggregate.
It is the second time this season that the CFA made the unprecedented decision to call of a football match due to suspicious betting patterns pre-game. That game, between Enosis Neon Paralimni and Ermis Aradippou, was coincidentally rescheduled to take place today, Tuesday.
An announcement on the CFA website read, “The Executive Committee of the CFA has decided to move the game between Aris and Ethnikos Achnas due to the suspiciously high betting volume that has been observed ahead of the encounter…A new date for the game will be announced at a later date.”
The decision infuriated club officials at Aris who said that they may take legal action against the CFA.
“I am angry and disappointed because this decision has distorted our season”, hit out Aris chairman Kyriacos Hadjikyriacou. “We will be discussing this issue with our legal advisors to see if there are any channels to seek financial compensation.”
Match-fixing is said by the CFA, the police and even parliament to be a big problem in Cyprus despite the fact that there have been no prosecutions.
Other problems to plague the beautiful game in Cyprus include hooliganism, accusations of bias refereeing and a disproportionately high number of overseas players in the domestic leagues.