The Cyprus Football Association (CFA) have put forward a series of sweeping reforms for the league championship format with the biggest measure being the reduction of the top division from 14 to 12 teams.
The matter will be voted upon by the clubs in the four Cypriot divisions at the upcoming General Constitutional Assembly in September.
If approved, the radical changes will come properly into force in the 2014-2015 campaign although this season will see four teams relegated from the top flight instead of the usual three while only the top two teams will be promoted from the second division. The CFA announced the proposed measures late on Wednesday night following a board meeting.
The Cypriot first division currently sees 14 teams competing something that has received criticism from both officials of the CFA as well as the media. Many of the games in the top division do not attract large crowds while the CFA hopes that the reduction of the teams will see the league become more competitive.
An announcement by the CFA read, “According to the new measures, following the completion of Matchday 26, the two bottom teams in the normal season will be relegated to the B1 group of the second division. The 12 top teams will then be split into groups of six with the sides finishing bottom of the second group being demoted to B1 Group of the second division.”
The announcement continued, “Also, it has been decided that following the completion of the 2013-2014 season, only two teams from B1 will be promoted to the top division.”
CFA boss Costakis Koutsokoumnis will meet club representatives from the second, third and fourth division to inform them of the proposals.
The current league format currently sees a normal season of 26 matchdays before the 12 top teams enter the end-of-season playoffs. The 12 teams are split into three groups of four where the top four contest the league title and the Europa League places while the team to finish last in the bottom group is relegated along with the two bottom sides in the normal season.
The middle group – which determines the teams to finish between fifth and eighth in the league – sees dead rubber games take place and attracts barely any spectators.
Apart from the need to make the Cypriot top division more competitive and economically viable, the CFA is also battling to eradicate the problem of match-fixing and hooliganism.
The past few seasons has seen allegations of match-fixing continue to plague the beautiful game something that has been publicly confirmed by both Koutsokoumnis and the police. The biggest problem appears to be the police’s inability to crack match-fixing cases with not a single arrest having been made.
Crowd violence is another problem to keep resurfacing with the latest incident coming only last weekend when fans of Apollon and Anorthosis clashed resulting in nine arrests and a man critically injured after being set on fire.
Cyprus Weekly