NICOSIA rival football teams AC Omonia and APOEL have been penalised by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) for violent clashes between thier respective fans last month.
Omonia’s punishment is to play two matches behind closed doors and APOEL’s one, plus undisclosed fines.
The charges included, among others, violence, transportation of dangerous objects to the stadium and offensive chanting.
“The CSA’s judicial committee imposed the penalty of two games behind closed doors for Omonia, for complaints made involving a game with APOEL on March 23,” the association announced.
It added that the decision was due to serious violent incidents caused by the team’s fans who had brought, and set alight flares, shouted slogans of a political content – in violation of the law – and led to the game being interrupted halfway through for around two minutes. Similar reasons were given for APOEL’s punishment.
The showdown between the two teams ended in violence, when two Omonia fans were attacked in their car at GSP Stadium’s roundabout in Nicosia and almost set alight by two APOEL fans on motorbikes. The pair threw a flare in through the car window. This was after it had been smashed with crowbars and bats.
APOEL currently holds third place in the play-off stages of the Championship, one point behind Omonia and four behind league leaders AEL Limassol.
In another ruling, APOEL’s youth team – U-21 – footballer Diogenis Sergides was banned from one match and fined for creating trouble during his team’s game against Omonia’s youth team.
Following that game, 15 fans were arrested and five policemen hospitalised in clashes that started when Omonia fans threw stones onto the pitch, then attacked two fans from the opposing team as they departed from the GSP stadium’s practice areas.
As police attempted to intervene, the fans attacked them with bats and stones. Five policemen suffering from fractures, cuts and bruises were treated at Nicosia General Hospital.
In another ruling, the CFA punished AEL Limassol coach, Pambos Christodoulou with two bans from the touchline for reportedly making an improper hand gesture after his team’s Coca-Cola Cup clash with Anorthosis Famagusta on March 21.
The club’s director of football, Rui Paulo Silva Junior, received a fine as well as one ban from the touchline.
The Chairmen of Apollon Limassol and Alki Larnaca were both penalised for improper and provocative statements, while the association imposed a series of other fines on cases it examined on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the linesman who observed APOEL and Omonia’s game was recently the victim of a bomb attack.
