Congratulations to Pafos FC who were crowned league champions for the first time in their history on Sunday, when they defeated their closest rival, Aris, 4-0. The title was won with two matches to spare, Pafos having occupied the top spot in the table from early in the season and staying there.

The league championship has never before been won by a Paphos club, all of which were involved in relegation struggles rather than challenging for the first division title. This was why two clubs merged in 2014 to establish Pafos FC as a second division club.

The turning point for the club came in 2017 when it was taken over by Total Sports Investments, owned by a Russian and managed by a British businessman. In 2024, Pafos FC won the Cyprus Cup, its first major honour, and this secured participation in European competitions for the first time in the club’s history. Despite being involved in the Europa Conference League, in which it reached the last 16, Pafos did not allow this to interfere with its main goal – the league title. It is an astonishing achievement for a club that was relegated to the second division as recently as 2016.

None of this could have been achieved without the foreign investment which allowed the club to significantly upgrade its recruitment of players and coaching staff. Paphos is the smallest town in Cyprus and the capacity of the club’s stadium is 9,000, but match crowds are about half this number. Without investment from Total Sports it would never have been able to generate the revenue needed to fund its ambitious recruitment of foreign players. Pafos have followed in the footsteps of another small club – Aris, Limassol – who also benefited from foreign investment, and won the league title for the first time in their history two years ago. This season Aris are likely to finish in second place, underlining the recent dominance of the small, unfashionable clubs.

Investment in football clubs by wealthy individuals or state funds has been the trend all over world for the last 20 years. It is commendable that in Cyprus the investors/buyers chose to financially back underdog clubs that had never won anything. Ironically, the big clubs like Apoel, Apollonas, Anorthosis are heavily in debt, fighting for their financial survival. They owe big amounts in taxes to the state and have consistently been unable to meet the repayment conditions set by the government. Pafos are also a tax debtor but have reportedly offered to settle their dues.

What matters now is that Pafos FC have written football history – a club that came into existence 11 years ago and was playing in the second division eight years ago are the league champions of the 2024-25 season. Congratulations.