The football coaches of three lower league youth clubs have been with hit with bans and their teams sanctioned after being charged by the local football body for committing identity fraud.
According to the rulings that were published by the Cyprus Football Association’s (CFA) Tribunal Committee, three men were charged with knowingly fielding players that did not feature in the official match sheets and were in fact posing as other footballers.
The first charge came against the coach of the newly-formed Alki Oroklini Under-13 side that competes in the Larnaca-Famagusta championship. According to CFA, “a person with the name Vladimir Borislav played in the game with the number 9 and with the CFA registration number 207836 – the number of another player in a game on November 29, 2014 against Olympos Xylotympou.”
The coach Michalis Michael was handed a six-match ban while Alki were deducted four points. The second case concerned the under-17 side of Elpida Astromeritis who it was revealed had frequently fielded a player called Stefanos Vanezis when it was in fact another unknown individual.
The mystery player had played in three leagues games in October and November. Coach Marios Charalambous was hit with an 18-match ban while Elpida were docked 12 points. The final case concerned the Adonis Idaliou under-15s in which another phantom player took part in five league games under the name of Charalambos Petrou. Adonis were docked 20 points while the choach Giorgos Skoulias was handed a 30-match ban.
Cyprus weekly