Omonia coach quits ‘after row with star player’

By George Psyllides

DUTCH coach Henk Houwaart has quit Omonia Nicosia after a protracted dispute with star players.

The club said family reasons had forced Houwaart’s departure, but reports said the real reason was his disagreement with star players including German striker Rainer Raufman.

Tension between the two was a common secret in Cyprus’ football circles but it all came out into the open last Saturday after Omonia lost at home 2-1 to Limassol’s AEL.

While club officials tried to blame the defeat on the referee, it emerged that Houwaart had given an interview to a Belgian newspaper in which he reportedly criticised the state of the island’s football and accused several Omonia players of being involved in soccer gambling to the extent that the team’s performance was being affected.

The Dutch coach denied the reports, saying he had been speaking in general about betting and that he was urging the local federation to take measures.

Raufman however, who used to own a betting shop, called a live TV sports show and said Houwaart was to blame for the team’s overall poor performance in the championship.

It was clear that someone had to leave in order to restore calm.

At a three-hour meeting on Tuesday, Omonia’s board decided to fine Raufman £1,500 for his behaviour and to bench him for two games.

The board also said it had accepted Houwaart’s resignation, although it is thought that he was forced out.

Houwaart, 55, was instrumental in turning Omonia’s fortunes around last season when they managed to win the championship for the first time in eight years.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.