Filenews 22 July 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
More likely than ever, it seems that the "Stelios Kyriakides" stadium of Paphos will be assigned by the State to the Russian investors of Paphos FC, in order to create in its place a state-of-the-art stadium for the needs of the Paphos football team. The proposal already submitted by Mr. Lomakin and Mr. Dubov provides for the use of the stadium for 90 years and is accompanied by plans of the new facilities, which in case of their implementation will create the second most modern and impressive stadium in Cyprus.
As "F" reveals today, this prospect now seems to be more than likely, after a meeting that took place on Wednesday away from the spotlight at "Stelios Kyriakides", between the president of the CSO, Andreas Michaelides and the vice-president of the Education and Sports Committee of the Parliament, Chrysanthos Savvidis. At the heart of the meeting was the issue of the reconstruction of the tracks at Paphos stadium, an issue that provokes reactions at local level due to the consequent inability of the two teams of the province in the First Division, namely Paphos FC and Akritas Chlorakas, to use it in this year's championship.
According to our revealing information, Andreas Michaelides promised to return within 10 days with specific decisions regarding "Stelios Kyriakides". Until then, in particular, he will be able to announce either the start of the works for the installation of a new track in the stadium, or its assignment to Russian investors as is the proposal that the CMO has before it.
In this second case, the Organization will proceed with "plan B" that provides for the installation of tracks in one of the other stadiums of the wider Paphos area, in order to serve the athletics departments of the district. In this case, as it is revealed today, other problems arise since the historic G.S.Korivos in the centre of Paphos cannot be used, since it has only six corridors instead of the necessary eight, while the stadium of Pegeia has dimensions smaller than those required for the road races. On the contrary, the stadium of Geroskipou, which meets the specific criteria, was found only recently and on the occasion of the preparation of Greek athletes there, that due to a construction error it was made with a length of 418 meters, instead of 400!
In the event that the final decision of the CSO is negative to the request for the assignment of "Stelios Kyriakides" to the investors of the Paphos football team, then the works for the placement of the new track in it will begin and now the issue that will arise will have to do with where the football teams will be housed for the new championship season.
The same information of "F" states that after Wednesday's meeting a climate of anticipation has been created for the decisions of the State that are considered to radically change the economic and football data of Pafos. For this purpose, Mr. Savvidis is said to have asked the president of the CSO for the convening, after the decisions that will be announced within 10 days, of an omnivorous meeting with the participation of the municipalities and unions of the Pafos district, so that everyone can be informed in detail about the developments.
