Criminal cases filed in Koumas saga

The legal service on Friday announced that attorney-general George Savvides has filed criminal cases against one person and two legal entities at the Nicosia district court in relation to “possible irregularities related to an official from the Cyprus Football Association”.

It is believed that the cases are related to an investigation being conducted into the conduct of former CFA chairman Giorgos Koumas, with the legal service having confirmed earlier in the week that it was “in the final stage” of assessing the findings of that investigation.

That investigation was led by Alexandra Lykourgou and came off the back of a report written by the sports ethics committee, which accused him of having “competing interests”, having investigated suspected manipulation of sports events, including other offences.

Savvides said on Tuesday that the legal service’s evaluation of her findings was ongoing due to its “seriousness and complexity” after Lykourgou had said her investigation had reached its end.

Koumas had been accused, among other things, of having created an “unfair advantage” for some clubs by way of manipulating the money paid to them as part of television rights deals, and resigned in June last year after Lykourgou began her investigation.

Journalist Fanis Makrides had reported in 2023 that some teams “received money in violation of agreements … in such a way as to create an unfair advantage in favour of some clubs”.

This includes an accusation that money paid to the CFA by CytaVision for television rights to domestic Cypriot football matches “was distributed by the CFA, in time and quantity, according to the will of Giorgos Koumas”.

“It is also noted that he received CytaVision’s millions from the television agreements and sponsorship on behalf of the teams and distributed them as he wanted,” the accusations state. “There were occasions where CytaVision money was given on the instructions of [Koumas] in violation of the agreements made with the clubs,” Makrides’ report said.

In addition, Koumas was accused of having granted a bonus of €200,000 to one club “without reasonable cause”, and that this bonus was granted while the club in question was participating in games surrounded by “suspicious betting activity”.

Upon his resignation, he said he wanted to protect the sport.

“The sport must stop being attacked because of me. And above all, football should be left out of personal attacks and conflicts,” he said, adding that “I did my utmost for the good of football and the good of my country.”