President Nikos Christodoulides announced on Wednesday night the establishment of a national sports council tasked with drafting a proposal for a deputy sports ministry, along with a doubling of state sponsorship for Cypriot athletes preparing for the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

Speaking at an event at the presidential palace marking 40 years of sports cooperation between Greece and Cyprus, Christodoulides said the cabinet had approved the new body on Wednesday.

“It’s not a promise that we will do it, we did it today,” he said, describing the council as “a leading scientific body” aimed at bringing specialised expertise into sports policy.

Among its first priorities, he said, will be preparing a comprehensive proposal for a deputy sports ministry.

“It is something that is missing from our country, we are here to strengthen sports and, this will be achieved through the establishment of a deputy ministry,” he said.

On funding for the Los Angeles games, Christodoulides said sponsorship for athlete preparation will rise to €700,000, up from €350,000 provided ahead of the Paris Games in 2024.

The programme will be run by the sports organisation from January next year.

“It is not a just promise, the amount is already budgeted, today at cabinet we approved the first draft of the budget,” he said.

Christodoulides said sports remained “a top priority” for his government and that related decisions were treated “as an investment in our country and its future” rather than a financial expense.

He referred to a professional rehabilitation plan introduced after the Paris Games, under which all Cypriot athletes who compete at the Olympic or Paralympic games are guaranteed employment once their athletic careers end.

He also cited plans to upgrade sports venues, equalise benefits between able bodied and disabled athletes, and introduce measures to tackle violence in sport.

Turning to the anniversary marking the event, Christodoulides described the signing of the first sports protocol between Greece and Cyprus in 1986 as “an act of the utmost national and social importance”, recalling that it came while Cyprus “was still recovering from the Turkish invasion”.

He said Greece had “opened wide its stadiums, its infrastructure, its warm embrace” to Cypriot athletes at the time.

He confirmed that the bilateral agreement will now be upgraded into a “sports cooperation protocol”, which he said would provide “a strong framework” for continued cooperation between the two countries.

Christodoulides addressed athletes from both countries directly, describing them as “role models for our society” who keep alive “the flame of the universal values of Olympism that ancient Greece gave birth to”.