Cetinkaya vows to return to Cyprus Football Association on its 92nd anniversary

Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot football club Cetinkaya vowed on Wednesday to return to the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) as it marked the association’s 92nd anniversary. The statement followed a summer of intercommunal tension over football.

Club recalls its founding role

Cetinkaya said it was among the CFA’s founding members in 1934 and that its history was part of the association’s foundations. It said the anniversary brought pride in that history alongside sorrow over its exclusion from CFA competition.

The club said that, in 1955, the Cypriot Orthodox church forbade Turkish Cypriots from playing football on grounds it owned, effectively excluding them from CFA competition. An image attached to Cetinkaya’s statement bore the words “we will be back where we belong” and listed honours won before 1955, including the 1951 first division title and the Cyprus Cups of 1952 and 1954.

Summer dispute over football camp

Football has also been a source of tension between the island’s two sides this summer. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman criticised the Greek Cypriot side over political and diplomatic initiatives aimed at cancelling a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona. He said that effort and similar initiatives “undermine trust” between the two communities.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis responded: “We are doing exactly what an internationally recognised state should do.”