TROUBLE IS brewing ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA Champion’s league match between APOEL and Poland’s Wisla Krakov, when hundreds of Polish fans are due to fly to Cyprus via Tymbou/Ercan airport in the north.
An article on the APOEL fan site, apoel .net , was yesterday calling on the club to check boarding passes and passports of visiting fans and barring entry if they had entered Cyprus via the north.
Despite their requests, however, the club yesterday sought to reassure visitors that the club was neither able, allowed or willing to bar entry.
In the meantime, the foreign ministry is taking steps – via the Cypriot Ambassador in Poland and to the Polish Ambassador in Cyprus – to try and ensure Polish fans enter the island through legal routes.
Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “We are taking all appropriate diplomatic actions to ensure that (the Polish football fans) come through legal entry points.”
APOEL vice president and legal advisor Andis Polydorou said yesterday: “The club is not involved in political issues. If the fans come through the north of Cyprus, then this is a police matter or a matter for the state.”
Asked about entry to the club Polydorou said: “If a fan holds a valid ticket and they are not breaking any rules, for example by being drunk, carrying weapons or acting violently, then of course we will let them in. We cannot replace immigration – we have no procedure and we are not allowed.”
In this respect, the club was following the rules set down by UEFA, and which remain apolitical.
“I am sure that many people in Cyprus see this as a political issue, but as a club we are obliged to follow UEFA rules.” Polydorou said, adding: “We could not enforce this anyway. There are many Polish fans living in Cyprus who do not have boarding passes and we could not turn them away.”
Nevertheless the matter already seems to have become politicised, with the government’s Cyprob team reportedly being alerted to the matter yesterday.
According to the fan site article, Cyprus’ Ambassador to Poland appealed to Polish authorities to block travel via the north, and the site called upon the ambassador to apply greater pressure to prevent the fans.
“The politicisation of football is something the government of this country know very well, and learned to use the sport at every opportunity that’s given” the article said, adding: “Any actions and results of this effort of the Polish tour cancellation is a landmark for the future… any passive attitude will allow EU citizens to use the airport held without sanctions.”
Kickoff is at 7.45 pm at Nicosia’s GSP stadium.
The Cyprus Mail was unable to reach the Polish representation in Cyprus for a comment yesterday
