CYPRUS football teams are in danger of being excluded from top European competitions next year, according to one football official.

CYPRUS football teams are in danger of being excluded from top European competitions next year, according to one football official.

Nicos Nicolaou said yesterday the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) would complete its assessment of the football clubs by April 9, after which the association will decide which teams get a licence to compete in European competitions next year.
The assessment is made every year and will be based on the satisfaction of a number of criteria set out by European football’s governing body, UEFA.

The criteria are divided into five areas: sport, finance, legal, infrastructure and administration. According to Nicolaou, most clubs have big problems meeting the financial demands of the UEFA list.

The new list of criteria, among other things, requires clubs to pay off all debts to employees and other clubs.

Nicolaou said those clubs that fail to meet the requirements will be excluded from a place in next season’s European competitions, the Champion’s Cup and UEFA Cup.
If clubs continue to come up short, the CFA will penalise clubs by removing points from them in the Football League table and eventually imposing a relegation penalty.
CFA President Kostas Koutsokoumnis called on clubs, players, and fans to help save the sport by meeting the UEFA criteria. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Koutsokoumnis highlighted that League winners, runners up and Cup winners would not compete in European competitions if they failed to meet the criteria.

The CFA decided for the gradual implementation of sanctions against non-compliant clubs. Clubs that fail to meet the criteria in 2004 will start next season three points behind, or six points behind the season after and nine the season after that.

Koutsokoumnis said the association had decided to impose sanctions over a period of time because if they began relegating clubs immediately, only three to five clubs would remain in the first division.

He stressed that the summer of 2004 will decide how many and which teams will represent Cyprus in European competitions.

According to UEFA criteria, Cyprus is in one of the worst positions in Europe regarding its fulfilment of the criteria, said the president.