Four in ten footballers say match fixing exists

More than four in ten footballers in Cyprus said match-fixing exists in Cyprus, almost one in five reported being approached to illegally influence the outcome of a match, and half of all professional footballers in Cyprus sign double contracts, the Cyprus footballers’ association announced on Tuesday, citing the findings of a survey by the International Association of Professional Footballers (FIFPro).

According to association chairman Spyros Neofytides, 19 per cent of respondents said they had been approached to participate in a corrupt match, while 40.5 per cent said matches get fixed.

With regard to these indices, Cyprus ranked fifth, behind Georgia, Congo, Kazakhstan, and Zimbabwe, and second, behind Congo, respectively.

By comparison, the percentage of players who reported being approached in 2012 had been 4 per cent, pointing to a dramatic escalation of instances of corruption in Cyprus football.

At 49 per cent, the survey found, Cyprus tops the list of countries where players sign double contracts for tax-evasion purposes, with the global average being only 9 per cent.

Footballers who said they were not given a copy of their contract were 17 per cent, while 65 per cent of all players questioned said they faced delays in salary payments.

Of players participating in the survey in Cyprus, 3.2 per cent said they were paid less than $300 per month, 14 per cent between 300 and €1,000, with the largest single category – 22.7 per cent – earning between $2,000 and $4,000 per month.

More than one in five respondents said they enrolled in a university programme on the side.

Cyprus also topped the list of countries with most non-national footballers, with 50 per cent of players employed in Cyprus being non-Cypriots.

The survey sample comprised 13,867 professional footballers from 87 national leagues across the world.

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.