Ethics committee to investigate four top-flight flagged matches

The sports ethics committee will on Tuesday appoint investigators to look into four top-flight matches, which were played in the last fortnight following claims of suspicious betting activity.

Vice president of the committee Akis Efthymiou told CyBC radio that four red notices, for increased betting activity had been sent by European football’s governing body Uefa.

The flagged games, played in the last fortnight, were Olympiakos v Doxa, Olympiakos v Akritas Chlorakas, Paralimni v Ael and Omonia v Aek, Efthymiou said.

The claim came as former member of the sport ethics committee Haris Savvides, who had spoken about 16 red notices received from Uefa during a discussion of the matter at the legislature, was set to present evidence about these to the current committee on Tuesday evening, Efthymiou said.

Savvides, a lawyer, had told the House ethics committee last week that red notices had been sent by Uefa, concerning 11 football matches involving first division team Karmiotissa and five involving second division this Ermis Aradippou.

None of these notices were investigated either by the committee or by the Cyprus Football Federation, Kop. One involved the Karmiotissa match which former president Nicos Anastasiades had allegedly urged the president of the sports ethics committee at the time not to investigate. Anastasiades denied ever making such a call.

The sports ethics committee on Tuesday is also expected to give the go-ahead for an investigation of the 16 red notices referred to by Savvides at the House.

The sports ethics committee is scheduled to meet again on Friday.

During last week’s House ethics committee meeting, Savvides also contradicted Kop president Giorgos Koumas, who claimed that Uefa only sent two red notices for games involving Karmiotissa and Ermis Aradippou.

“What I ask is for everyone to work together in the same direction,” he said. “Firstly, we need to avoid incidents in the stadiums, and secondly, no more legal cases and red notices from Uefa. This honours no-one.”