Cypriot Football - advice needed

[Ray de Galles]

We've booked a relatively last minute holiday to Cyprus from August 14-24, staying near Latchi in the Polis municipality in the north-west corner of the island.

Doing some digging around on Soccerway and footballgroundmap.com it looks like my best option for a game is the First Division fixture between Pafos FC and Apollon in Pathos around 40km away on the evening of Friday 18th.

Anyone have any particular knowledge or recommendations on this or any other game nearby in the period. Any other sporting events that I might want to check out? All information gratefully received.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Are you driving? The bus network in Cyprus wasn't fantastic IIRC though some of the intercity buses seem to stop at Pafos' stadium on the way out of town. The stadium is some way out from the beach front, and some way from the main bus station. I'm basing this on one week we had there last year, I'm not an expert. It was international weekend when we were there so we ended up at a second, possibly third, division game in a neighbouring village to Paphos, which was an experience in itself.

[Ray de Galles]

I was thinking that I would probably need to drive/arrange a car. Also been told about a D3/4 side called Finikas Ayias Marinas Chrysochous who play less than 20k away but I sense fixture info may be harder to come by.

[ursus arctos]

You will need a car (or boat plus cabs).

Finding out info on amateur Cypriot sides in advance of arrival will be challenging.

[Third rate Leszno]

There's a team called ENAD Polis Chrysochous who should be playing in the 3rd division this year. Unfortunately that's about all I've been able to work out as their website is down.

Further along the coast (towards the border) there's another 3rd division team called Finikas Ayias Marinas Chrysochous, who seem to have even less info about them online. If you can navigate through the language barrier you may be able to find fixtures online somewhere, although I suspect asking a local in Polis may be just as easy (for the Polis team, at any rate).

Latchi is really nice by the way, we drove up there for a day when we were staying near Pissouri last month.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Apparently the team we went to see (Akritas Chloraka) were in the third division at the time (2015-16), got promoted to the second at the end of that season, and look to have come straight back down. Unfortunately Soccerway is being something of an arse on my PC so can't tell if they are playing at home in that week.

[Ray de Galles]

You will need a car (or boat plus cabs).

Boat?! Cripes, what have I missed to not factor that possibility in?

Thanks for all the advice, think I'll focus on the D1 game and then check on more local lower league stuff at the hotel when I get there.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

You'll be at the wrong end of the island but the story of Paralimni Famagusta is a fascinating one.

[Ray de Galles]

Gah, it looks like Pahpos's fixture against Apollon this weekend has been postponed due to the visitors being in Europa League action tomorrow night, though that's hard to 100% confirm.

May have to ask around about the lower league clubs mentioned upthread.

[Ray de Galles]

Double gah! Looks like the lower leagues don't kick off until mid-September!

Anyone got any ideas about other sports to watch here?

[ursus arctos]

It's August on Cyprus, Ray.

Not very conducive to competitive sport.

Maybe you can find some outdoor water polo?

[Ray de Galles]

As ever, you speak a lot of sense. Wish I'd checked and found out about Apollon's Europa League game earlier - I think the distance (and the fact it's sold out) rules it out though.

[imp]

Forget public transport - seems to be almost non-existent. Visited friends there in January, and they were living the colonial life with drivers - wouldn't risk the roads themselves (though the standard of driving didn't seem any better or worse to me than anywhere else in Europe). So our friend, who's Lebanese American and has no interest in football, told me to talk to the (British) driver who picked us up from the airport because he's a "huge soccer fan". So I did. He's lived there for 20 years and never been to a single game. Manchester United fan. From Birmingham. "All the games here are fixed," he informed me. He did tell you could watch the Premier League in pretty much any pub or bar.

I went out running in the suburbs of Nicosia and passed a neat little lower league stadium, but I wouldn't be able to re-locate it on a map if I tried, nor could I tell you what the team's called. So, very helpful post, this. I can't think of any reason why I'd ever want to go back.

[Bored Of Education]

In trying to find out info for Ray, I noticed the club ETHNIKOS ACHNAS who, as the name suggests appear to play in Achnas 'which is is an abandoned village just north of the Buffer Zone and it is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus. After the 1974 Turkish invasion, its displaced inhabitants built a new village nearby. The inhabitants of Achna built a provisional tent village in the Achna forest (Dasaki tis Achnas), some hundred meters away from their old village, and later started to build a new village, Dasaki Achnas, near the old location, within the confines of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area.'

Bizarre.

[Ray de Galles]

Yes, I looked them up as they are hosting one of the remaining opening fixtures scheduled for this weekend after a rash of postponements. Too far away though and Apollon appear to play their European games in Larnaca, which finally puts the tin lid on any hopes of making that too.

Maybe AEL Limassol on Saturday night, will have to see.

[Antepli Ejderha]

The league in the north doesn't start until mid September. Unsurprisingly there's very little about it. Enjoy your holiday.

[Ray de Galles]

£250 round trip taxi ride the only way to get to the AEL V Aris Limassol Derby tonight. I did ponder it for a while but fuck that.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Bump.

[Sits]

I'd have opted for the history and the beach. In that order.