A parliamentary committee on Wednesday heard that a Cyprus Football Association-UEFA ring could possibly be behind an alleged cover-up of fixed matches in Cyprus, Philenews reports.
The House Institutions Committee also heard former member of the Ethics and Sports Protection Commission Harris Savvides revealing that UEFA might have mistakenly sent an email to the Commission about fixed games.
These games had taken place over a period of 18 months and involved highly suspicious betting activity, he explained.
Specifically, Savvides referred to 16 matches – 11 of Karmiotissa football club and five of Ermis Aradippou club. It appears that both these teams had to be removed from the registers of the Cyprus Football Association, according to its regulations.
In fact, Savvides said that when the case in question began to be investigated an UEFA official who was in communication with the CFA called him and indirectly reprimanded him on the phone. He was desperately trying to stop him from continuing the ongoing investigations.
The revelations were made during a debate on the hot issue of recent allegations made by former head of the ethics commission Andreas Papacharalambous against ex President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades.
Papacharalambous has alleged that Anastasiades had interfered at the time with the work of the Commission and urged him not to have the Karmiotissa-Apollon match investigated. The investigation had been called by opposition Akel party.
However, this particular heavy allegation and the Anastasiades-Papacharalambous toxic exchange of statements that has followed took a back seat following Savvides’ shocking revelations.
