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Former President Nikos Anastasiades strongly rejected the “malicious allegations” over interference in match-fixing investigations, made against him by the former chairman of the sports ethics committee Andreas Papacharalambous.
In a lengthy statement released on Wednesday, the former president denounced the claims ahead of a House ethics committee meeting which is set to discuss the matter later in the day. Previous meetings on the issue have become heated.
Anastasiades turned the spotlight onto Papacharalambous and argued that it was instead the former chairman who acted improperly, also blasting the allegations as having been made with a hidden agenda.
Papacharalambous maintains that, while he was in office, Anastasiades called him and asked him not to look into allegations of match fixing regarding a friendly football match between Apollon and Karmiotissa. These claims were immediately rubbished by Anastasiades.
In his statement, Anastasiades set out a timeline as the former president argued that he called for meetings to resolve the matters raised but found Papacharalambous to be unwilling to work together.
Anastasiades further blamed Papacharalambous for the sinking of the “very important” sports ethics committee, arguing that his actions led to three of the five members resigning, therefore rendering the committee useless.
Papacharalambous later resigned in February 2021.
Earlier this month, Papacharalambous re-published his resignation letter in which he stated the reasons for leaving, which said there were serious gaps in the legislation dealing with cases of match-fixing.
In his letter, Papacharalmbous had written: “Shortly after I was appointed (as the president of the sports ethics committee), we identified serious weaknesses in the legislation due to a lack of proper regulations.
“We informed the president, the justice ministry and the leaders of political parties Disy, Akel, Diko and Edek. We explained the situation to them very thoroughly. To date, nothing has been done.”
He also said the committee attempted to find solutions to match-fixing allegations for a year, without, however, being aware of who would be able to address the situation.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Mail
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Mail
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