President of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) and president of the Turkish Cypriot Football Federation (KTFF) Costakis Koutsokoumnis and Hasan Sertoglu respectively expressed today their intention to unify football in Cyprus.
Delegations of CFA and the Turkish Cypriot Federation met today at the CFA premises in Nicosia.
“We had a very pleasant and very interesting first official meeting between officials of the Cyprus Turkish football federation and the CFA” Koutsokoumnis said after the meeting, noting that the fact that the meeting attracted so much interest from the Press indicates that the football community of Cyprus wants a solution to this football problem.
“We need to move quickly, we think the ground is right to find a solution for the unification of football on the island and I am certain that both sides are determined to solve this problem that exists since 1955” he pointed out.
Koutsokoumnis said that the two sides agreed to meet again on the 17th of January at the offices of the Turkish Cypriot Federation in the island’s northern Turkish occupied areas.
He also indicated that this should not be a long-lasting discussion. “Hopefully we may have an initial result within the next two months. But we will not elaborate” he added.
Hasan Sertoglu indicated that both sides agreed that the island has suffered from politicians, noting that as “the subject here is not politics but football”, both sides with good intentions are trying to solve this issue.
“Everyone expects a solution from us. I have a strong belief that we will not disappoint anyone,” he added.
The Cyprus Football Association (CFA) was established in 1934 by 6 Greek Cypriot football clubs and 2 Turkish Cypriot football clubs. Greek and Turkish Cypriot clubs played together in an all-Island league until 1955. In 1948, the Cyprus Football Association became a member of FIFA and in 1962 a member of UEFA.
In 1955 during the anti-colonial struggle that saw tension between the two communities in the island to increase and following a decision of CFA to temporarily suspend the participation of Turkish Cypriot clubs in its competitions in order to avoid clashes in the stadiums, the Turkish Cypriot clubs decided to form their own football federation and to organize separate competitions.
Since then Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot clubs have not played together.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. UN-led efforts to reunite the country have so far failed to yield results