The team’s press officer, Fanourios Konstantinou, spoke to “SPOR FM 95.0” about everything related to Apollon.
He commented on the victory against Nea Salamina, Goldson’s return, and the “Red-and-Whites’” complaints about the refereeing.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
He also spoke about the club presidents’ meeting with the Referees’ Committee and the Disciplinary Committee and analyzed the team’s performance ahead of the match against Karmiotissa.
Here are his comments in detail:
On the victory over Nea Salamina: “It was a deserved victory. We scored four times; we could have scored even more. We gave our opponent opportunities to score and come back during some of our lapses, something that must not happen at home. In the end, though, we added three points and we’re moving forward. We’ve had a tough schedule. With Ypsona on the rise away from home, and Nea Salamina, which is a very good team—perhaps the best among the teams ranked 7th and below. We have the best offense with 14 goals. We need to improve our defensive play to make our job easier in every game. We could have had two more points. Overall, our results are satisfactory. We’ll find our consistency through consecutive wins. We have complete confidence in Mr. Losada and the players. They’ve shown us what they’re capable of since last December. Rest assured that Apollon will eventually return to last year’s level of performance.”
On Goldson: “A truly great player with a huge heart—he battled for three months. It seemed unimaginable to us that he would return in that timeframe. The fans’ reception of Goldson was impressive; recognizing the effort and mental fortitude he demonstrated was a life lesson for us.”
Regarding the upcoming match against Karmiotissa: “There are no easy games. All the teams are bunched together from 7th to 8th place, and the rest of the teams are close behind as well. We’ll travel to Paphos with a serious mindset to get the result we want. Asunsao is out, and we’ll see how training goes this week. We hope to have all our players available. And Gary Rodrigues will be with us. We’ll see about Danilo. Andreou still needs more time.”
Regarding Nea Salamina’s complaints: “First of all, it is every team’s inalienable right to express its complaints. We believe there were no mistakes. There is certainly a disagreement, and we’ll stand by our position. This has nothing to do with the Famagusta club. They’re an excellent team; they play attacking soccer, demonstrating that they’re in a league of their own. We call on the Referees’ Committee to explain the incidents to us. We stand by our position on having foreign VAR officials for all matches. They should bring in four to cover all seven games. We were the first team to call for foreign VAR officials and referees so we could win championships. We had serious complaints last year regarding the same Referees’ Committee; we had complaints during the cup final. Apollon has been the most wronged team of the past 15 years.”
Regarding the meeting of club presidents with the Referees’ Committee: “Our position is firm. We don’t change our stance on a case-by-case basis, whether we win the league or the cup. It goes without saying that Mr. Kirzis expresses clear opinions, while others were content to go along with the Cypriots.”
Regarding Leuvenberg: “He’s following a special program abroad; he’ll soon be available to our coach.”
Regarding Losada’s statement that Nea Salamina was well-prepared: “Mr. Losada meant to say that Nea Salamina was extremely well-prepared for Saturday’s match. They knew everything about us—our defensive and offensive strategies, and our set pieces. There’s no way there was a bug or a spy in the locker room who stayed with the team for more than 5 hours.”
On reinforcements in January: “We’ll stand behind our players, and by December, we’ll have a reliable picture of where we stand. With 7–8 more matches to go, I can’t comment on any specific performance metrics. I’ve told you that Apollon needs patience—which it has—and time to reach the level of performance it’s capable of. We need time to find our rhythm and cohesion. We saw Brandon score, Ozbolt scored, Gary had a lucky break, and Weisbeck will find his footing too. We’re confident.”
