Cyprus Football Federation postpones games after referees stay off fields
Xinhua, January 21, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Cyprus Football Federation ( CFA) postponed soccer fixtures for a week after referees announced they would state off soccer fields protesting against violence targeting them.
CFA said on Wednesday that all soccer meetings for both League Championship and Cup matches scheduled between January 20 and January 26 will be played a week later following the referees boycott.
The referees made the decision to stay off soccer fields in protest at a bomb attack at the Limassol house of the mother of a referee who had been criticized after a soccer match involving a local team.
The referee's mother was not hurt in the bomb attack on Monday.
The referee himself is being protected by police after a grenade was thrown at his house. It did not explode.
In October the office of the referees association in the capital Nicosia was damaged by a makeshift explosive device.
Referees are currently at the center of a police investigation following public allegations by a former referee that football club officials and members of the committee involved in appointing referees have been involved in fixing matches, mostly between low position teams.
FIFA, the world's football governing body, had in the past submitted to the Cyprus Football Federation 17 files involving allegedly suspect soccer results. Endite