Omonia and player prosecuted for hiding true earnings in false contract

POLICE have opened a criminal case against a popular football club, its chairman and a former player in connection with drafting a double contract to hide earnings, it emerged yesterday.

Reports said Attorney-general Petros Clerides has ordered police to prosecute 2011 cup winners Omonia, its chairman Miltiades Neophytou and former club striker Yiannakis Okkas, for drafting a double contract to hide the player’s real revenues.

It all started in 2009, after Okkas, who now plays for Anorthosis, had his contract terminated for misconduct.

Okkas appealed to a court, claiming double the money – around a million euros – than what was provided for in the contract filed with the Cyprus Football Federation.

Okkas had signed a four-year contract with Omonia in July 2008.

This raised red flags and although the case had been investigated last year, authorities apparently waited until now to file charges prompting Neophytou to wonder about the timing.

Neophytou denied any wrongdoing and suggested it was an effort to hurt the team at a time when it is going through a rough patch.

“Omonia did not do anything different from what other Cypriot clubs do,” Neophytou told a club general assembly. “It proves that some circles are trying to create problems.”

Neophytou said the club’s legal advisers said nothing improper had been done and urged supporters to rally in support of the team.

Omonia has been going through a turbulent period of late, with supporters blaming the club’s management for a series of wrong decisions that, among others, saw the Nicosia club relinquish the championship title to Nicosia archrivals APOEL.

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.