Andreas Papacharalambous, the former chairman of a committee tasked to investigate ethics and corruption in sports, said that when he was South Cyprus President, Anastasiades told him not to start an investigation into a friendly game between Limassol teams Karmiotissa and Apollon, which was flagged as fixed.
Papacharalambous, a lawyer, appeared as a guest in the “LegalMatters” podcast, on Thursday, May 3.
He told host Christophoros Christophi that the President called him to urge him to cover up the incident. “He called me to stop the case Karmiotissa-Apollon. Not to investigate it,” he said.
Papacharalambous explained that unusual betting activity was observed around the games between Karmiotissa and Apollon, which normally would trigger an investigation.
However, Anastasiades “was pressured” to conceal the case and asked Papacharalambous to cover it up, the former sports watchdog chair said.
“Leave it, do something else. We have so many things to do. These are only friendly games,” Pacharalambous claimed Anastasiades told him on the phone.
Papacharalambous resigned as chairman of the sports watchdog body in 2021, accusing the government and political parties of not having the will to tackle corruption in football.
