Cyprus Mail 20 March 2025 - by Tom Cleaver
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| CFA objects to plan for CCTV at small stadiums |
The Cyprus Football Association (CFA) on Wednesday expressed its opposition to the government’s plans to require all sports venues with a capacity of 500 spectators or more to install CCTV camera surveillance systems.
In a note written to the House legal affairs committee, the CFA said that instead, CCTV should continue to only be required at venues with capacities of 2,000 spectators or more, adding that it disagrees with the government’s proposal, “even if a period of suspension of the provision’s implementation would be granted”.
The CFA’s reasoning is that the cost of implementing the CCTV systems as set out by the government’s bill would be “enormous” for small venues, while tender procedures would be “time-consuming”. It added that most such venues are state-owned.
“The sports which use these venues, such as women’s football, futsal, basketball, volleyball and others, are doomed to close or suspend their operations due to this obligation,” the CFA said.
“There is no financial possibility to install CCTV at the venues these sports use,” it added, saying that the cost of the plans will not only extend to the installation of the systems, but also for their maintenance and for their use.
The government’s bill requires the CCTV systems to be “modern” and compatible with “specific software”. The CFA also stressed that it believes the “final decision” over whether a football match should go ahead or not must rest with the association.
“The association will certainly listen to any concerns or information the police have, but the final decision must be made by the competent body, the association,” it said.
“The assignment of this right either to the police chief, or to cabinet, or anywhere else is considered by us to be an intervention in football’s self-governance, and we do not know at this time what consequences this may have on the participation of our teams in Europe, and also on our national team.”
Football’s world governing body Fifa explicitly prohibits government involvement in national football affairs, with the CFA’s statement hinting that the government’s plans may transgress this rule. The Nigerian national team was suspended from all international football in 2014 after Fifa found they had broken this rule.
Meanwhile, at Wednesday’s committee meeting, data protection commissioner Irene Loiziou Nikolaidou said her concerns over the “stigmatisation of persons who may be subject to alcohol and drug testing” have been “satisfied”, after it was clarified that drug and alcohol tests will be carried out outside sports venues.
However, a state laboratory representative present at the meeting said the institution may not have the requisite personnel or infrastructure to process a new wave of alcohol and drug test samples taken outside sports venues.
Cyprus police association chairman Lefteris Kyriakou also expressed his satisfaction with the bill, saying he is “ready to support this effort”.
“Police officers should no longer go to football matches or other sports events and not know whether they will return home safe and sound,” he said.
House legal committee chairman and Disy MP Nicos Tornaritis said violence at sports venues “undermines” the sports themselves.
“Instead of being a place of entertainment and healthy competition, sports venues often turn into places of tension, with very negative consequences for the teams, for the fans, for sport itself, and also for society at large,” he said.
He added that for this reason, stricter implementation of the relevant laws and “above all, a change in mentality” is needed to solve the problem.
The bill was approved by cabinet last month, and, among other things, will if passed allow the police to breathalyse and drug test people at football matches, with football fans to be subject to the same alcohol limit as motorists.
Tests will be carried out on the gates of stadiums and inside the grounds, with those who test positive for drugs to be arrested. It is believed that those who blow over the alcohol limit will not be arrested.
Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said last month that the “specific software” related to the CCTV systems will be connected to the software related to the Cyprus Sports Organisation’s new generation fan card, with the aim of being able to easier identify people who commit crimes at sports events.
As well as this bill, he said, plans are afoot to require football matchday stewards to be qualified professional security guards, with a consultation regarding the plans ongoing.
Football violence has been an ongoing theme in Cyprus, with the problem having become more profound in recent months.
The violence had caused tensions to rise between the CFA and the police over the summer after the former unilaterally decided last month to allow away fans to attend games again during the coming season.
Away fans had been banned from all competitive football matches from January last year until the beginning of this season in the summer after a firecracker launched from a stand hit a player in the head during a Coca Cola Cup tie between Nea Salamina and Apoel.
Hartsiotis had reportedly been in favour of the ban being extended into this season, but the CFA’s board of directors was unanimous in its decision.
The justice ministry also sent the CFA a letter, referring to the 2008 law on the prevention and suppression of violence at sports venues.
That law, among other things, stipulates that stadiums themselves take measures to prevent the public from entering the pitch, and to protect players and referees.
The violence has continued into this season, with fights spreading into towns and cities away from the stadiums.
