The state must combat phenomena that harm sport decisively

AKEL meeting with the Cyprus Sports Organisation (KOA)

11 February 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The issue of the implementation of the Code of Good Governance of Sports Federations was the central issue discussed at the meeting held today between an AKEL delegation and the President of the Board of Cyprus Sports Organisation (KOA) Andreas Michaelides. The AKEL delegation was headed by AKEL Parliamentary Representative Giorgos Loukaides, and included AKEL MP’s Christos Christofides and Christos Christofias, as well as the member of the Sports Affairs Bureau of the Central Committee of AKEL Dora Kyriakou. In addition, the meeting was attended by the member of the Board of KOA, Christos Neophytou, the Director General of KOA Mary Papacharalambous and KOA Financial Director Vasos Koutsiountas.

In his statements after the meeting, Giorgos Loukaides stated:

“First of all, I would like to welcome Mr. Andreas Michaelides and the delegation from KOA, who visited the offices of the Central Committee of AKEL today and handed us the Code of Good Governance that has been prepared by KOA.

The timing of this initiative taken by KOA is, I must say, a source of satisfaction for us. Just last week, as AKEL, we highlighted in the Plenary of the House of Representatives the serious problems that exist regarding the operation of Sports Federations. For the first time we have proceeded with the freezing of the fund in KOA’s budget regarding the operational costs of the Federations. With the aim, precisely, of promoting what the Code of Good Governance also seeks: that is, to tackle phenomena that harm sport. These phenomena, unfortunately, are long-lasting and we as a state have to combat them decisively in an effort to ensure transparency, accountability and confront phenomena of nepotism and established orders that, regrettably, have been created in Federations, as well as other phenomena that have to do with conflicts of interest, etc.

We also had the opportunity to put to the administration of KOA our longstanding and well-known position for the creation of a Unified Sports Legislation. We were pleased to hear that KOA has moved forward on this issue too and will soon announce a competition to prepare this unified legislation.

Finally, on the occasion of the discussion surrounding the Code of Good Governance, we raised before the KOA leadership the issue of extending democratisation and good governance to include gymnastics clubs. This is an important issue, since we are dealing with ‘closed’ clubs, where phenomena are observed that have no place whatsoever in the field of sport.”