Ready for the next step in new Limassol stadium plan

Discussions on a new Limassol football stadium are now ready to move on to the funding stage, it was announced on Friday after a meeting President Nicos Anastasiades had with the Cyprus Sports Organisation (KOA).

“We are very pleased with today’s meeting and I believe all outstanding issues have been resolved that were discussed last year. Right here and now we are ready to find funding,” KOA Chairwoman Klea Papaellina said.

During the meeting, which included the interior and finance ministers Socrates Hasikos and Harris Georgiades respectively, as well as Limassol MPs, Anastasiades stressed that the government was determined to implement the project.

The three Limassol football teams – AEL, Apollon and ARIS – have set up a private company collaborating on feasibility studies for the stadium. According to Papaellina, they have already been approved and their plans are completed.

Asked whether the project would be financed from CyTA’s pension fund, Papaellina was very vague saying: “At the moment we are happy that the outstanding discussions are over and right now we are all ready to move in the right direction to find funding.” She added that KOA would be helped by the ministries of finance, education and interior.

KOA’s own role is to see how the project can be implemented as fast as possible, she added.

Last year, a study found that the eastern stands of Limassol’s Tsirion stadium, built in 1975, had serious structural issues which had potential risks to the health and safety of crowds. The stands were for a short time restricted from use.

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.