Paphos General Manager Haris Theocharous gave an interview to “SPOR FM 95.0.”
He discussed the loss to AEL, the schedule during the break, and team news. He also addressed the issue of refereeing, the completion of the team’s transfer plans, and commented on Nikolaos Ioannou’s omission from the national team.
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Here is what he said in detail:
On the match and the loss to AEL: “I think it’s too early to talk about inconsistency among teams, because we’ve seen that quite a few points have been lost. In the last game, we were outplayed, and AEL deserved to win. It’s something we can’t really explain; we’re not used to putting in poor performances. We expect to have opportunities; we didn’t capitalize on them this time, but that’s part of soccer, and I hope this was just a one-off performance.”
On the rest of the season: “We’ve said it before: we were hoping to go into the break so the players could catch their breath and some players could return from injury. We wanted to go into the break with a win, but that didn’t happen. We want everyone to clear their heads; we’ve had a lot of matches, and I believe we’ll be better when the league resumes. This team has shown how well it plays soccer, which is why Friday’s performance was concerning to us. But we’ll work hard and figure out what’s going on so we can correct our mistakes. I think the league has shown us just how difficult it’s going to be.”
On player returns: “The players have been given time off, and we expect most of them to be back when play resumes, except for Gorter, Kyriakidis, and Zaza, who have long-term injuries. Koreia is dealing with a minor issue, and we expect him to return.”
On whether the team will make any moves: “I believe we have a very good roster; beyond that, we need to focus on our players. It’s the decision of the management that our team is very good, and we won’t be adding any more players who aren’t currently under contract; our roster is set.”
Regarding Nikolas Ioannou, who was not called up: “We don’t want to say anything; it’s the national team coach’s decision. Nikolas is a very good player. The national team is doing a great job; the coach is doing a great job; we have very talented players, but I don’t think there’s anyone better than Nikolas in his position.”
On whether they’ll play a friendly match: “The most important thing is for our players to get some rest; we won’t be playing a friendly.”
On refereeing: “I don’t want to be too harsh. Over the past two years, we’ve been one of the very few teams discussing the use of foreign referees. I believe that the current situation—where 10 out of 14 teams are discussing refereeing regardless of the result—certainly doesn’t help. We at Paphos have maintained a certain standard because the situation has gotten out of hand. But everyone is only talking about their own issues and not about all the mistakes. AEK was talking about a penalty, but not about ours. We all share responsibility for what’s happening in soccer. When you give the fans something to feed on, it creates major problems, and I hope some people will realize that. With everything that’s going on, is there anyone who still wants to become a referee in Cyprus? We spoke with the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) at dinner and suggested that foreign VAR officials come to some matches so we can see how we’ll proceed from here.”
