Cyprus Mail
CyprusFeatured

Match fixing evidence delays hampered probe, says ethics committee

A day after he presented evidence of match fixing to the sports ethics committee, former member Haris Savvides slammed the Cyprus Football Association (Kop) for allegedly lying about not receiving any red notice from European football body Uefa regarding suspicious betting activity in some matches.

Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC on Wednesday, Savvides, who had spoken about 16 red notices received from Uefa and evidence amounting to over 400 pages about these to the committee, said “the matter could potentially extend to the political realm.”
During last week’s separate House ethics committee meeting, Savvides had also contradicted Kop president Giorgos Koumas, who claimed that Uefa only sent two red notices for games involving Karmiotissa and Ermis Aradippou.

Savvides said that based on Kop’s regulations, Karmiotissa should have been struck off the league for featuring in 11 flagged games.

On Wednesday he added he had had no intention to delay the submission of the evidence, adding that he provided satisfactory explanations for the delay before the start of the sports ethics committee.

His comments came on the back of the committee’s chairman Andreas Kapparides’ statements to CyBC who had said the delay in the submission of evidence had made the work of the committee more difficult.

“It would have been desirable if we had received the evidence a year and a half ago when we assumed responsibilities of the sports and ethics committee,” he said.

Kapparides disagreed with Savvides saying his explanation for the delayed submission of files and evidence “was not satisfactory”.

“Nevertheless, we received relevant and important pieces of evidence thanks to the submitted files, and investigators tasked with shedding light on the entire matter, should deliver the report within two months.”

The four investigators appointed by the sports ethics committee on Tuesday, namely Charilaos Chrysanthou, Anna Sotiriou, Nicolas Koursaris and Elias Lampides, will also investigate four top-flight matches, which were played in the last fortnight following claims of suspicious betting activity.

The flagged games, played in the last fortnight, were Olympiakos v Doxa, Olympiakos v Akritas Chlorakas, Paralimni v Ael and Omonia v Aek.

Follow the Cyprus Mail on Google News

Related Posts

Social worker service to be expanded

Rony J. El Daccache

Hundreds of birds dead in cage fire

Tom Cleaver

President urges swift progress on tax reform

Kyriacos Nicolaou

Verdict on Nicolaou’s death expected on May 10

Jonathan Shkurko

One in ten women of reproductive age in Cyprus have endometriosis

Iole Damaskinos

Anti-racism campaigner banned from north sparking criticism

Tom Cleaver