Nicos Anastasiades said on Saturday accusations against him about match-fixing were “old myths” in an ongoing spat between the former president and the ex-chairman of the sports ethics committee Andreas Papacharalambous.
The spat started on Thursday, when Papacharalambous told the podcast Legal Matter that while he was in office, Anastasiades personally called him and asked him not to look into allegations of match fixing regarding a friendly football match between Apollon and Karmiotissa. These claims were immediately rubbished by Anastasiades.
However, in a continuance of the spat, Papacharalambous had on Friday re-published his resignation letter, stating the reasons for leaving, which said there were serious gaps in the legislation dealing with cases of match-fixing.
On Saturday, Anastasiades rebutted these claims republishing further written correspondence following Papacharalambous’ resignation.
The former president published the full letter of Harris Savvides, a member and investigative officer of the commission, dated November 4, 2020, in which, among other things, states that the harmony and legal integrity of the roles and aims of the commission “unfortunately, in my opinion, have been negated, insulted, and ultimately made difficult by the actions of the president of the commission, Mr Andreas Papacharalambous.”
“To my great disappointment, since I have known Mr Papacharalambous for a long time and I respect him completely as a fellow lawyer, he has taken actions that, in my opinion, do not at all support the legal role and action of the commission, and in particular of its president, leaving the committee legally and factually exposed. In fact, due to these actions, most of which have already seen the light of day, a distrust of his person has been caused, justifiably in my opinion, causing, as far as I know, the strong dissatisfaction and the resignations of fellow members of the commission,” Savvides wrote.
In his letter, Papacharalmbous had written: “Shortly after I was appointed (as the president of the sports ethics committee), we identified serious weaknesses in the legislation due to a lack of proper regulations.
“We informed the president, the justice ministry and the leaders of political parties Disy, Akel, Diko and Edek. We explained the situation to them very thoroughly. To date, nothing has been done.”
He also said the committee attempted to find solutions to match-fixing allegations for a year, without, however, being aware of who would be able to address the situation.