The former president of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), George Koumas, is set to appear in court to face 25 charges related to long-standing allegations of conflict of interest and financial gain.
Koumas, once the most powerful figure in Cypriot football, is accused of profiting from his official position through his private business interests. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on 26 February to answer 23 counts of conflict of interest and two counts of money laundering involving €6,562,447.
The case centres on Koumas’s dual roles as a top football official—first as deputy president and later as president of the CFA—while simultaneously acting as a shareholder in two television production companies, Triple AAA Productions Limited and Triple AAA Village Studios Ltd.
According to the indictment, Koumas used these companies to provide sports broadcast and livestreaming services to several major entities, including Cyta, Go PLC (formerly MTN TV), the Cyprus Turf Club, Cablenet, and the Cyprus Basketball Federation. This arrangement allegedly violated laws prohibiting sports officials from deriving financial benefit from the industry they oversee.
The charges cover contracts signed between 2014 and 2025. However, investigators noted that charges only apply to contracts active after 2017, when conflict of interest in sports was officially criminalised in Cyprus. The money laundering charges specifically relate to the profits generated by his two companies during this period, totalling approximately €6.5 million.
Notably, four other companies linked to Koumas in the Seychelles and the British Virgin Islands were excluded from the indictment. Legal experts found that the 2017 legislation was insufficient to cover these offshore entities, as the law only criminalises the sale of sports rights within Cyprus.
In a separate development, four other individuals—including CFA official Anthoulis Mylonas—faced their first court hearing yesterday in connection with a probe into television rights. These individuals are accused of refusing to cooperate with investigators from the Ethics and Protection of Sports Committee in 2023. Under current law, refusing to provide information to the committee is a criminal offence punishable by up to six months in prison or a €10,000 fine.
A total of 33 witnesses are expected to testify in the case against Koumas.