Referee Marios Panagi launched a scathing attack against high ranking officials of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) and in particular the ruling body’s First Deputy Chairman George Koumas. Apart from Koumas, the 34-year-old also accused CFA boss Costakis Koutsokoumnis and soon-to-depart Referee Coordinator Hans Reijgwart of being in cahoots with Koumas in essentially fixing the outcome of games in Cyprus.
Panagi said that he had evidence to back his claims and, according to some media reports on Wednesday, was already invited to the office of Deputy Attorney General Rikkos Erotokritou. “A good friend of mine told me that I should not let things go so far. He told me that I have eleven years of refereeing in front of me; a good career that is financially beneficial and that I should not let it go to waste. But I knew what I was doing. I told myself that I love refereeing and I want to continue but not with people that want to hurt me because I will not do them favours.”
Koumas would not respond to the allegations when approached by several websites while Koutsokoumnis said he could not comment as he was away on business and was not aware of the allegations. Panagi, who up until recently was an international referee, spoke of corruption starting from the top of the CFA tree and from some football clubs and that he was targeted because he would not comply with orders to favour certain teams in games that he was appointed to officiate.
Despite not going into detail because he claimed that he would be handing over his evidence to the police in due course, he did say that the fixing of games in Cyprus does take place and that the orders come from the Cyprus FA chain of command. “In his first few months, Reijgwart tried to resist but in the end gave way to the system and its leader. Reijgwart’s predecessor [Alan Snoddy] will also do the same. If the umbilical chord connecting refereeing with George Koumas is not severed, then there is no hope. Mr. Koumas has for years, and many years to come most likely, been the main man when it comes to refereeing matters. He deserves to be congratulated because nobody seems to have the power to remove him from his position of authority. I believe that the clubs themselves are suffering from their own undoing [keeping him in power].”
He also accused of Reijgwart of turning against him because of one particular game he refereed at the start of the season in which he refereed AEK’s shock 5-2 win away to Apollon. According to Panagi, Reijgwart had made much of a somewhat insignificant issue concerning the checking of radio communication systems (worn by the referees) just make trouble for him.
“He didn’t seem to concerned with the awful refereeing in the other games on that matchday”, added Panagi. He also accused Koutsokoumnis of turning a blind eye to what was going whilst knowing full well of the behind-the-scenes operations. “The biggest problems in football here stem from financial and political motivations. Even recently, a meeting took place at the CFA headquarters involving Disy chairman Averof Neophytou, Diko chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos and Akel chairman Andros Kyprianou.”
Panagi lost his status as an international referee this season and was even demoted to the second division following the matter that followed the Apollon-AEK game on the opening day of the season.
Even more alarming was his accusation against a current referee, reported by Protathlima.com to be Christos Nikolaides, who had been previously been convicted back in 1999 for hooligan-related crimes in court of law. “How can I not be on the list of international referees but others can? Others like one referee who has been out of action for big length of time due to health issues or another well-known referee who was convicted of smuggling dangerous items into a stadium back in 1999?”.
Cyprus Weekly