Minister reassures referees full investigations going on

By Evie Andreou

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou on Tuesday reassured referees the government is determined to fully investigate all recent attacks against them without any delay.

Nicolaou met members of the Cyprus Referee Association (CRA) including its chairman Michalis Argyrou and deputy Christos Nicolaides and police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou to discuss the issue, after the CRA expressed concerns the police were not doing their with incidents against referees.

“The necessary evidence is being collected and I hope that we will soon reach conclusions because some people hiding behind the difficulty in finding information, remain unpunished…,” Nicolaou said after the meeting.

The meeting discussed actions against referees observed since 2010, such as verbal and physical attacks, arsons or bombings of their properties.

“Cooperation between the two sides is imperative; referees must provide the police with the necessary information and the police needs to investigate all information it receives,” Nicolaou said.

He added that cases concerning bomb explosions are very difficult as they leave no evidence and police also need in such cases to secure reports from witnesses to proceed.

He added that it was not acceptable that perpetrators remain unpunished and that punishments given so far by courts to those involved have been extremely lenient.

“Punishment needs to be preventive for any prospective attacker aiming to turn against a referee,” he said.

Nicolaou also called the Cyprus Football Association to give more effective penalties in cases of inflammatory statements from individuals and instead of heavily fining the football club they belong to, should also consider imposing match bans.

“The sole concern of the CRA is the safety of the referees and of the their families; there have been reassurances from the minister and the police that they will take the necessary measures so that referees feel safer, not only within the football fields but outside as well,” Nicolaides said.

A car used by top referee Leontios Trattos was set alight this month, the second incident involving him after his car was destroyed in a bombing attempt last year. In February, a car belonging to the wife of another referee was torched.