The president of top-flight club Omonia Nicosia blasted what he called “rot and corruption” in Cypriot soccer, claiming that he has been approached with offers to “buy off” a match, referees and even players.
Stavros Papastavrou said that some offers even specified the “going rate” or the price tag for a championship or a cup.
He refrained from identifying who approached him, but he said that “they have names and we know where they’re from.”
Their identities would be revealed to authorities after “convincing” assurances for the whistleblower’s safety, he added.
Papastavrou said that his club would send a report on what ails Cypriot soccer and its hierarchy to UEFA, and would provide a truncated copy to Cypriot police and the national soccer federation, because his club did not feel that they could be “trusted” to keep the contents confidential.
He also offered a reward of 5,000 to 25,000 euros (US$5,510 to US$27,552) to anyone willing to step forward this season with evidence of corruption and match-fixing.
His 18-month tenure as Omonia chief executive has dispelled his earlier perception that suggestions of widespread corruption in the sport were “exaggerated and overblown,” Papastavrou said, adding that he has since learned about match-fixing, paying off players to under-perform and of the country’s underworld that is “particularly active” in the sport.
Omonia has decided to set up a Web site to reveal referee mistakes, as well as all that is “wrong, rotten and illegal” in Cypriot soccer, Papastavrou said.
“Our goal isn’t to insult Cypriot soccer, but to stop the people that insult it,” he told a news conference.
Omonia would set up a whistleblower’s e-mail account, to be managed by a lawyer who would be tasked with sifting through the information and forwarding claims deemed credible to authorities, he added.
Cypriot Minister of Justice George Savvides said he spoke to Papastavrou and urged him to go to the police with any relevant information.
“There’s no chance that this government will cover up any allegation,” Savvides said.
The Cyprus soccer federation said in a statement that it expects Papastavrou to provide evidence to authorities to back up his claims.
Papastavrou’s remarks came as a delegation from UEFA is meeting in Cyprus with law enforcement officials who are probing match-fixing allegations. Police are looking at four second-division matches and two cup matches on which UEFA found suspicious betting activity.
Cypriot soccer has also been roiled in recent weeks by two separate bomb attacks on the cars of a referee and the vice president of second-division leaders Aris Limassol.
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