It was not discussed at yesterday's meeting of the Limassol Municipal Council, the issue of the Memorandum of Understanding that puts the future of the Limassol International Marathon on a new footing, following the decision of the GCO not to renew the cooperation with the company that has been in charge of its organization for the last 11 years.
We want to continue our cooperation with the company, Mayor Nikos Nicolaides said, while the director of DMC - SAS Event Ltd, Spyros Spyrou, told the Cyprus News Agency, calls the Mayor for dialogue, since he considers the demands of the memorandum to be unreasonable,[/B] while he does not rule out the possibility of organising a marathon in cooperation with other local authorities.
"Unfortunately, we had other more urgent issues to deal with, we will see it the next time the city council meets," the Limassol mayor said in a statement, when asked why the memorandum was not put before the city council.
You don't change a successful recipe, he said. Nicolaides, noting that "this successful recipe is about a beautiful city that supports the marathon, about a municipality with the political will to stand by and behind the marathon, about a historic club, such as the GSO, about the city's supporting bodies, EVEL and ETAL, about an organizing company that with a lot of professionalism raised the marathon to the levels it has raised it to and of course about the athletes who participate."
"These components must be maintained in order to keep the Limassol marathon on this trajectory of development that it has been in recent years, that is, to be an international marathon," he added.
Nikos Nicolaides stressed that "our effort is to bridge any differences that exist between the stakeholders in order to end up maintaining the successful recipe."
Noting that the company has already made it clear, through a letter, that it cannot meet the financial requirements and conditions included in the memorandum agreed upon in consultation between the Municipality and the GAO, EVEL and ETAL, the Mayor called on everyone to tone it down.
"I call on everyone to tone it down and put the interest of the city above any other considerations or aspirations" he said and added that "ultimately, the common interest serves the interests of the entities involved".
With goodwill and especially with a clear mind and love for the city, the problems will be overcome, he stressed, noting that it would be unreasonable for anyone, from the agencies or stakeholders, to help influence "this very successful institution that has lifted our city very high."
"I am very optimistic that the framework that the four bodies have agreed upon contains all the necessary elements to go first to the company that has so far organized the marathon very successfully and come to a proper agreement," Nicolaides concluded his statement.
Asked by the Cyprus News Agency to comment on the developments, the director of the company, Spyros Spyrou, questioned why the Limassol Mayor ignores, as he claimed, the company that has so far successfully organised the marathon and only serves the GSE, "giving him the power to be unreasonable in his demands".
"We are Limassolians, we love our city and all these years we have been doing this marathon for our city and we will leave only if the mayor decides so," said Spyrou, who did not rule out the possibility of the marathon being held in cooperation with another local authority.
We have, he continued, the experience, we have the runners, we have the sponsors, we have the appetite and desire to continue with more successful events and "if the Limassol Municipality, by not answering us, makes it impossible for us to do the marathon in Limassol, we will do it in another venue that we will announce soon," he indicated.
Asked about this, the director of the company explained that it takes about 12 months of preparation for each event and already, for the 2023 marathon, more than 500 runners have registered, noting that "this, possibly people who have not been involved may not realize it, but it is the reality".
According to Spirou, the company cannot accept the terms of the memorandum, which, he said, gives the power to terminate the partnership, without notice "and they are asking for excessive money, with nothing to offer, nothing at all, except the historical name of the club, which I respect."
Asked whether he believes the developments were initiated after a candidate with a better financial offer emerged, he said, "let them evaluate what he can offer Limassol and if they think he can offer more, let them choose him. It is another matter if they are not interested in the success of the event but how much money they will put in their coffers."
"We hope that the Municipality will recognize those who built the event for Limassol and possibly, once it can do so, will mediate to overcome the differences on the basis of logic and finally talk to us," he concluded.
Meanwhile, both the company and the TSO have sought and obtained legal opinions in relation to the right to use the marathon name, while the company, which manages the marathon website, has removed the acronym TSO from the name of the previously OPAP Limassol Marathon TSO.
Source: CNA
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