The newly appointed President of the Cyprus Sports Organisation (CSO) Kleanthis Georgiades has said that the new Limassol stadium and the issuance of identity cards for fans are the two main priorities of the Organisation. He expects both to start being implemented by the end of this year.
In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency, Gerogiades also referred to CSO plans for vocational rehabilitation of high standard athletes and for providing incentives to young athletes through student grants. He talked about financial problems of sports federations, the maintenance of stadiums and other sports facilities, the campaign to inform the public about the sports’ ideals and Olympic ideals.
Asked about his priorities and the problems that need immediate attention, Georgiades said there are two main issues that are pending and need immediate action, the first is the new Stadium of Limassol and the second is the identity card for football fans.
As he pointed out, regarding the Stadium of Limassol, the biggest obstacle concerns state financial aid, in that the government is not allowed, by EU regulations, to allocate funds directly to the Sports Clubs.
“State aid is not something bad, we just have to explain that it is for the benefit of the city, society, the clubs and sports in general” he said, noting this is an issue that should be resolved before going public with tenders, a procedure scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2017.
Replying to a question, Georgiades said that within two years, if everything goes well, the new Limassol Stadium is expected to be completed.
As regards the fan identity card, Georgiades recalled that the process to issue IDs for fans was cancelled by the Tenders’ Review Authority and now it is back to the Evaluation Committee of the Cyprus Sports Organisation. He explained that the Committee is expected to conclude its assessment this week and no later than next week it is expected to have a new contract. The process of issuing fan identity cards is expected to begin gradually by the beginning of the next year.
Asked about the presence of Cyprus at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Georgiades said that it was excellent. This, he stressed, was no accident, but the result of hard work by the athletes, their coaches, their federations, their clubs, the Cyprus Olympic Committee and the Cyprus Sports Organisation.
As regards vocational rehabilitation of athletes, Georgiades said the Organisation is working on two plans. The first concerns the improvement of an existing vocational rehabilitation plan that has expired and because of that some athletes who were included in this plan just stay at home and get paid, something that it is not fair, as he pointed out.
The second plan the Organisation is addressing, following a Cabinet decision, is a combination of vocational training and financial aid at the beginning of their professional career. Under this plan, the state would help an athlete study and then finance him or her for a specific period of time.
Asked about the time frame that these two projects would get into force, Georgiades said the Organisation is ready within the next two months to present them to the Cabinet, in order to have a decision by the end of the year.
Replying to another question regarding motivating young athletes, he referred to the plans for cooperation with Universities in Cyprus in order to provide sports scholarships to talents and promising athletes.
Speaking about the finances of the Sports Federations, members of the Organisation, he said that their budget depends 100% on state grants, allocated to them through the Organisation. The CSO budget has been reduced by 30% in the past 5 years, something that has chain and negative reaction on the finances of the Federations. For that reason, there are no infrastructure projects, no proper maintenance of the sports facilities and athletes cannot be supported properly, he added.
Georgiades explained that in order to avoid cuts to the funding of athletes, the Organisation has decided to reduce the money for the maintenance of the sports fields. Noting that the Organisation is paying around 4 million Euro annually for that maintenance, he pointed out that their objective is to grant the management of sports fields to the federations, the municipalities and the Clubs.