TC football team not ready to make protest move to CFA move

HOPES of a Turkish Cypriot football team returning to football pitches in the south were quashed dashed yesterday after its the club’s chairman said that there would be no such move just yet.

Last Monday, Turkish Cypriot newspaper Hurriyet ran a story claiming that Akincilar were planning to apply to the CFA because they had differences with the Turkish Cypriot football federation.

The Louroudjina-based club withdrew from the CFA in October 1955 along with all the other Turkish Cypriot teams and created a breakaway league which still continues to this day in the occupied north.
Had Akincilar moved to be re-registered with the CFA, it would have been the first time a Turkish Cypriot team had played in a CFA league in almost 40 years.

The chairman of Turkish Cypriot football club Akincilar, Emin Ozyalcin, yesterday stated said that his team only applied to the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) as a sign of protest towards their own federation.

Football’s governing body FIFA only recognises the CFA as the ruling football body of Cyprus, despite efforts from the Turkish Cypriot football federation to get gain recognition.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday after a news conference in occupied Nicosia north, the club chairman said that a possible application has been put on hold after entering into talks with the Turkish Cypriot federation.

“At this particular moment in time, we have no intention of making an application to the Greek Cypriot association”,” said Ozyalcin.

”We have some problems with our federation particularly because our players are being unfairly poached. Therefore we stated that we would be making an application to the Greek Cypriot association as a way to express our grievances. However we are currently in talks with our federation in attempt to resolve our problems.”

CFA Chairman of the CFA, Costakis Koutsokoumnis had previously told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday that “there had been no official application from a Turkish Cypriot team yet but that his association would act accordingly if there ever was one.”

Additional reporting by Simon Bahceli

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.