CFA’s Koumas to appear in court on Friday

Former Cyprus Football Association president Giorgos Koumas will make his first court appearance on Friday after being formally served with an indictment in a criminal case concerning possible conflict of interest, police confirmed on Tuesday.

The indictment includes two separate offences, the first relating to the manipulation of sports events and the second the alleged laundering of proceeds from illegal activities.

Koumas was served with the indictment over the weekend.

His lawyers, Christos Triantafyllides and Marios Orphanides, said they would state their position once they had fully studied the file, declining to comment further at this stage.

“We will respond through the proper legal process,” Triantafyllides said.

The case concerns allegations that Koumas held interests or exercised activities incompatible with his role as head of the football association (CFA), a position he held for more than a decade before resigning in June 2025.

The investigation focuses primarily on football television rights, the management and distribution of related revenues, and whether those arrangements created conflicts of interest that also triggered criminal liability.

At the heart of the matter are claims that Koumas, while serving as a senior football official, was involved in the sale of broadcasting rights through companies abroad and that these dealings overlapped with his institutional responsibilities.

Investigators examined transactions involving football matches broadcast in Cyprus, contractual terms with broadcasters, and links between production companies, commentators and federation officials.

The criminal investigation was launched following findings by the ethics and protection of sports committee, which in October 2023 forwarded a detailed report to the attorney general raising concerns about what it described as “multiple conflicts of interest”.

Those findings prompted the appointment of an independent criminal investigator to assist police with a full inquiry.

The investigator, former senior district judge, Alexandra Lykourgou, was appointed in November 2023 and worked with a team of financial crime investigators.

Lykourgou submitted an interim report in December 2024 and delivered her final report, accompanied by extensive supporting material, in May 2025.

The investigative phase was formally completed in July 2025.

“There is reliable and sufficient evidence which justifies bringing persons before the court,” she said in an interview, adding that any different legal assessment now lay with prosecutors.

The allegations against Koumas trace back more than a decade.

Between 2014 and 2018, Koumas was involved in the sale of foreign football league rights to a Cypriot broadcaster, as well as rights connected to the Cyprus national team and domestic clubs, during a period when he held senior positions within the football association.

Two earlier investigations, including a police probe completed in 2020, did not result in prosecutions.

Throughout the process, Koumas has denied any wrongdoing.

Upon resigning as football association president in June 2025, he said the move was taken to “shield the sport from further controversy” and insisted that his actions had always been lawful.