Criminal investigator Alexandra Lykourgou, referring to findings that “paint Cypriot football as plunged into darkness,” notes: “The bleak picture the reports describe is reinforced by journalist Fanis Makrides’s articles and by public allegations from sporting figures.”
It may be the first time an investigating official has publicly praised a journalist and their work. But Fanis started revealing these matters back in 2018—issues that criminal investigators’ inquiries later confirmed.
All those preceding years, nobody cared. Nobody decided that what he was bringing to light warranted investigation. Not prosecutors, not ministers, not police. And not even fellow journalists.
Because within our own profession, we witnessed something utterly disgraceful. Perhaps the biggest disgrace our trade has ever seen.
When in 2024 a twelve-member committee from the Cyprus Sports Writers’ Union decided to honour Fanis Makrides’s investigation into the potential conflict of interest of Cyprus Football Association (CFA) president Giorgos Koumas (who on the one hand made decisions about football clubs as a CFA official, whilst on the other sold television rights for those same clubs as a businessman), the Union’s board decided to override its own “independent committee.”
It suddenly announced it was “suspending” Fanis’s award because the CFA (meaning Koumas) had sent them a letter expressing “surprise and displeasure” and noting that it rejected the journalist’s investigation.
The CFA rejected it, and the journalists of the Union accepted the rejection! Because they wanted to stay in Koumas’s good books—Koumas who, as was revealed at the time, also interfered in the work television platforms gave to sports writers.
I’m reminding you of all this because after what criminal investigator Alexandra Lykourgou has revealed about her inquiry’s findings (conducted alongside four police officers), within the spectrum of impunity plaguing this place, it’s not only the Attorneys who are exposed—those who’ve sat on the report for months without deciding whether to bring charges.
The sports journalists are exposed too. Especially because they, first and foremost, know what’s happening in football. And they stay silent. In the bigger picture, everyone knows.
Let me remind you that in 2009, then-Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous declared that the underworld had penetrated football.
Let me remind you that in 2011, the then-president of the Cyprus Sports Organisation, Nikos Kartakoulis, declared himself ready to clash with the organised crime rings to bring order to Cypriot football.
Let me remind you that in 2020, President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades declared that “the time has come to clean out the Augean stables of Cypriot football,” and that criminal elements and corrupt actors exist.
Let me remind you that in 2021, the chairman of the Ethics and Sports Protection Committee, Andreas Papacharalambous, declared that “the underworld is present in Cypriot football—the suited-up football men and the underworld are communicating vessels.”
Who was moved by any of this? What changed? They’ve been saying it publicly for entire decades! Imagine what they say behind closed doors.
Which is why yesterday’s statement from Attorney General Giorgos Savvides is utterly unacceptable at best—he issued a diktat that “any public discussion on matters relating to the content of criminal investigations ought to be avoided.”
But for how many years should public discussion be avoided? The pot’s boiled over. There wouldn’t be public discussion if we saw results.
When we’re talking about a single case for which published documents have existed since 2018, for which there are two reports from investigators of the Ethics and Sports Protection Committee and one report from the independent criminal investigator appointed by the Attorney General himself—a report identifying criminal offences (with addresses and names)—and we watch months pass without decisions, then public discussion becomes imperative. Perhaps it’ll shake up those who bear responsibility.
P.S. Businessman Theodoros Aristodemou was called to the police and gave a statement regarding his allegations against Phedon Phedonos for committing a serious offence. He made these allegations publicly ten years ago as well. But nobody was mobilised. That’s how impunity prevails. Because to mobilise them requires public outcry.
