FC Barcelona has postponed a training camp planned by its academy in Cyprus’s occupied north, following diplomatic interventions in recent days. According to diplomatic sources, the decision came as a result of the timely and discreet raising of concerns over the camp.
Among those interventions was a formal protest from the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), which said it acted immediately, in consultation with UEFA, as soon as it became aware of the announcement that FC Barcelona Academy planned to hold the camp in the occupied north. CFA president Charis Loizidis wrote to the president of the Spanish Football Federation, asking him to intervene to prevent the camp from going ahead in the occupied north, since such an event would breach the legal and regulatory framework in force.
The letter asked FC Barcelona to reconsider the camp and either move it to a suitable, legally compliant location in the government-controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus, or not hold it in Cyprus at all. It was sent yesterday morning and copied to UEFA and FC Barcelona. The CFA said it was following the matter closely and would take further action if necessary.
Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman addressed the controversy in a social media post, saying the participation of young people, athletes or clubs from other countries in any event held in the “self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”) did not mean those countries recognised it. As a lawyer, he said, he did not consider that such participation implied recognition, drawing a comparison: the participation of Greek Cypriot youths in events in Turkey “does not mean that Turkey recognises” the Republic of Cyprus.
Erhurman said that, personally, he did not want any Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot young person to be denied opportunities available to young people elsewhere in the world because of the Cyprus problem, adding that a Greek Cypriot young person’s disappointment should not be a source of joy for a Turkish Cypriot, nor the reverse.
He said he did not believe such events should be drawn into a political context, but noted that UN, European Union and Council of Europe statements issued after 2004 had called for the isolation of Turkish Cypriots to be lifted. Building trust on the island, he said, required first cultivating trust between young people, which he said was why he had proposed from the first day of talks that young people and children be brought together through joint sporting events. From a human perspective, he added, efforts to cancel a festival or prevent children from playing football represented a defeat for everyone, and for humanity as a whole.
The previous day, before the postponement was announced, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay had posted on X celebrating FC Barcelona’s decision to hold the sports camp in the occupied north.
