The REAL Story Of Pafos FC

We’ve seen a lot of articles come out explaining who and what are Pafos FC since their qualification to the Champions League League Stage and their surprise results they have had so far. Quite a few of them have spoken about Pafos FC’s history and background and got a few things wrong. Not to make reference to anyone in particular, but in one egregious example the author wrote “The club’s crest features a man believed to represent the mythological figure of Paphos”.

So let’s put to bed the facts, the “facts” and the figures of the club for people so they really get to know Pafos FC.

The town of Paphos, where the club is based, is the smallest of the major cities in Cyprus in the free part of the island (as opposed to the occupied area). With a population of just over 37,000, the inhabitants of the whole city could fit in most top 5 League stadiums and sometimes twice over with seats to spare.

Historically, the city and the district of Paphos were quite isolated from the rest of the island, with the Troodos foothills blocking the path to a simple straight route to the nearest major city of Limassol, and the capital of the island Nicosia being even further away due to the island’s main mountain range making travel difficult inland as well. To further compound the isolation from the rest of the island, and the rest of the world, the international airport was not open for anything other than military flights until 1982. In the past, it was not unheard of, for Cypriots to make their way to Paphos for holidays and multiple day excursions, what with the major archaeological and religious monuments around, as well as the beaches the area is famous for today.

APOP/Evagoras

And it is in this isolation that the story of Pafos FC starts, in 1953, and in particular to the creation of the sports association APOP (Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Paphou; or AFC Paphos). The club being founded in 1953, did not actually reach the first division in Cyprus until the 1966/67 season. APOP were a yoyo club between the top two divisions in Cyprus until their eventual demise in 2000. They spent 19 of their seasons in the First Division.

Following the 1955-59 War of Independence in Cyprus, a second Paphos team arose, in 1961. The new team, named Athlitikos Syllogos Evagoras Paphou (AC Evagoras Paphos) was created in memory of Evagoras Palikaridis. And this is where the face from Pafos FC’s emblem comes from.

So who was Evagoras Palikaridis?

In short, Evagoras was involved in the freedom fighter movement EOKA, during the occupation by the British in Cyprus, and took part in revolts and missions for the group until his arrest and subsequent trial. In total he was arrested 3 times. The first arrest was during protests for the British celebrations of the crowning of Elizabeth II, where in March and April 1953, Union Jacks were installed all over the town. The 15 year old Evagoras climbed the flag pole which was parading a Union Jack at his school, and tore it down, which led to protests and riots that spread across the town. He was released after the Governor wanted to avoid any blood shed prior to the coronation. His second arrest happened when he was 17, where he organised a riot which was supposed to be a distraction for an EOKA attack which in the end was abandoned. Evagoras was arrested and accused of organising civil unrest, which he denied.

His third and final arrest was after a stop and search by the British forces found weapons and ammunition on him and two cohorts. His friends got away, but Evagoras was taken in and despite being 17 at the time, was tried and convicted as an adult to being hung. The decision made by the judicial authorities to do this turned the tide in the UK as to the popularity of the continued fighting on the island and was one of the reasons the UK government finally agreed to leave the island. Now, I’m going to leave the politics and that whole process and the fallout from it since then for someone else.

Polarising political discussions? In this economy?!?!

Evagoras Palikaridis is a symbol of Cyprus in general, and there is of course, a great amount of pride in Pafos for the local hero. Palikaridis wasn’t only a freedom fighter, but he was also poet. His poetry was written at a time of great upheaval and with the island’s preoccupation with freedom from English rule and ‘Enosis’ and this is reflected in his verses. The most famous of his poems, in a note he left for his classmates prior to his execution has a stanza which, in the native Greek, gives goosebumps:

Θα πάρω μιαν ανηφοριά θα πάρω μονοπάτια

να βρω τα σκαλοπάτια που παν στη Λευτεριά.

Θ΄ αφήσω αδέλφια συγγενείς, τη μάνα, τον πατέρα

μεσ΄ τα λαγκάδια πέρα και στις βουνοπλαγιές.

Ψάχνοντας για τη Λευτεριά θα ΄χω παρέα μόνη

κατάλευκο το χιόνι, βουνά και ρεματιές.

Τώρα κι αν είναι χειμωνιά, θα ΄ρθει το καλοκαίρι

Τη Λευτεριά να φέρει σε πόλεις και χωριά.

Θα πάρω μιαν ανηφοριά θα πάρω μονοπάτια

να βρω τα σκαλοπάτια που παν στη Λευτεριά.

Τα σκαλοπάτια θ΄ ανεβώ, θα μπω σ΄ ενα παλάτι,

το ξέρω θαν απάτη, δεν θαν αληθινό.

Μεσ΄ το παλάτι θα γυρνώ ώσπου να βρω τον θρόνο,

βασίλισσα μια μόνο να κάθεται σ΄ αυτό.

Κόρη πανώρια θα της πω, άνοιξε τα φτερά σου

και πάρε με κοντά σου, μονάχα αυτό ζητώ.

I will take a climb, I will take paths

to find the steps that lead to Freedom.

I will leave brothers and relatives, mother, father

in the ravines beyond and on the mountain slopes.

Searching for Freedom, I will have only

the company of the white snow, mountains and ravines.

Even if it is winter now, summer will come

to bring Freedom to cities and villages.

I will take a climb, I will take paths

to find the steps that lead to Freedom.

I will climb the stairs, I will enter a palace,

I know it will be a fraud, it will not be real.

I will turn around in the palace until I find the throne,

a queen alone sitting on it.

I will tell her, young girl, spread your wings

and take me to you, that is all I ask.

He then signed off this note as follows:

Hello, old classmates. I write the last words for you today. And whoever wants to find a lost brother, an old friend, let him take an uphill climb, let him take paths to find the stairs that lead to Freedom. With freedom along with it, he can find me too. If I live, he will find me there.

So anyone who knows the story of Evagoras knows why he is so important to the culture and history of Pafos. And why he has been chosen as an emblem for a team that represents the city.

Both Pafos teams up until the year 2000 were also-rans in the top division and in fact yoyo’ed between the top two divisions. The clubs were financial dire straights due to years of financial mismanagement, although that’s not necessarily something rare in Cyprus.

Τα ριάλια, ριάλια, ριάλια

Τα σελίνια μονά και διπλά…

AEP / AEK Kouklia

Case in point, the merger team AEP (Athlitiki Enosis Pafou; Athletic Union of Pafos) was formed, and the team took the place of APOP in the First Division. The new club carried over Evagoras’ image, but used the colours of APOP. The new team did well enough at least to start off with, staying in the First Division for the first 4 seasons,. However in the 2004/05 season, the club occupied the last relegation place, going down with 1 point less that the teams in 10th and 11th. The club then yoyo’d between the top 2 divisions until the 2013/14 season. More on them later.

Kouklia is a large village within the Pafos District, and in 1968, the community leaders decided to create a sports team for the community to help keep the young people on the straight and narrow and not do the reefers and the acids and whatever else they were doing in the late 60s. Therefore AEK Kouklia came to life. Athlitiki Enosis Kouklia.

The Cypriot community leaders are very creative. Even the emblem. They took AEK Athens’ emblem, inverted the colours and put Kouklia on it instead.

For the first 3 years of it’s life, the club would play friendlies with other village teams as there was no non-league organisation in the district of Pafos. the Pafos Rural Associations Football Federation (POASP) was founded. AEK played in the Federation from 1973 until 2006. In the 2005/2006 season, the club made it out of non-league and entered the Fourth Division of the Cyprus FA’s organisation. In their first season, the club was promoted into the Third Division, where it remained for a few seasons finishing mid-table. In the 2011/12 season, the club was promoted to the Second Division. The following season, the team did even better and got themselves promoted to the First Division. On the climb up the leagues, AEK and APEP never played each other, as the season AEK were promoted, AEP were relegated to the Second Division.

The club finished last that season.

AEP were having the same financial problems that their predecessors had, and in fact, the financial problems came together and created a hurricane of bad accounting. Over the course of the 2012/13 season, AEP were deducted a total of 30 points, finishing their season with -8. Basically, every month there were financial irregularities, the club was deducted 3 points, as well as additional point deductions for not passing the UEFA Criteria.

With the financial issues, AEP would have to cease operations, but that would leave the city of Pafos without a team. It was thus proposed that a merger of sorts would take place. In essence, the board of AEP would let the team fold, so that the debts would not be passed on to the new merger team, with all the assets (i.e. the leases of the Pafiako and the training ground, as well as playing and background staff) being handed over to the new entity, which would take AEK Kouklia’s place in the league.

Pafos FC

Thus Pafos FC was created. A new club meant a new emblem. Evagoras’ face was used (from Evagoras Pafou) with the blue and white colours of APOP Pafou and a yellow stripe to denote AEK Kouklia.

Pafos FC finished Second in their first season in the Second Division in 2014/15. The team had players such as current Protathlima players such as Stefanos Miller, Thomas Ioannou (both Akritas) and Panagiotis Zachariou (Achna) as well as Cypriot head coach and This Is Mappa favourite Watermelon Alex and English centre forward and Charlton Athletic favourite Chris Dickson.

Their season in the First Division was an unmitigated disaster, which led to their relegation back to the Second Division. Results in the first phase led to them finishing 10th, but poor results in the second phase (9 points from 10 games) sent them down. This was a team that included current AEL and former Aris Director of Football Joel Damahou and former Real Madrid and Getafe goalkeeper Jordi Codina.

The 2016/17 season ended once again with promotion to the First Division thanks mostly to Romanian Adrian Padulea scoring 26 goals in 26 games for them. For people who do not know, Padulea is famous in Lincoln City circles, as when he went on trial with the club, he showed up early to training and did laps of the training pitch with his girlfriend naked on his back. You don’t have to believe me, the Lincoln City head coach at the time Peter Jackson revealed the story to the BBC Sport website.

No, not THAT Peter Jackson.

And it is in 2017 where Roman Dubov and Sergey Lomakin of Total Sports Investments took control of the club.

And the rest is history and everyone else has talked about it.

We should mention some of the more famous players that have been through Pafos FC’s door. Adam Nemec, Joel Mall, Jason Puncheon, Danny Williams, Bakary Sakho, Onni Valakari, Sam Hutchinson, Willy Seemed, Jefte Betancur and countless others. And of course, they have David Luiz.

Prior to Juan Carlos Carcedo taking over as head coach, the club had previously gone through 10 different coaches in the 7 seasons prior, which included Steven Presley, Cameron Toshack, Stephen Constantine, Henning Berg and Michel Salgado.

Carcedo is forever etched in not only Pafos FC’s history but also the city of Palos, for bringing the first Championship title to the town. He brought the second cup as APOP Kiniras Pegias had won it 15 years (or something like that) prior.

However, with Juan Carlos Carcedo gone, can Pafos FC keep up with the success of the last 2 seasons? The club is well placed to, with massive investment in their training centre, a planned upgrade to their stadium and a youthful and international fan base. It may be that they upset the Cypriot football apple cart further. What will be interesting to see is whether the decision makers at Pafos jump back into knee-jerk reactions or not. Time will tell. Their Sporting Director is a serious person, with Cristian Giaretta and his previous experience at clubs such as Udinese, Watford and CSKA Sofia and Carcedo was his hire. The club has also drifted away from trying to bring in the explosive signings with previous rumours such as Paul Pogba and Mario Balotelli being a thing of the past. I say this, however they did get David Luiz. Let’s see.

There is also something to be said about Roman Dubov and Sergey Lomakin, who have pumped millions, not only into the club, but the town of Pafos itself. There are plenty of rumours of money laundering and other illicit behaviour. For instance, Lomakin was one of the recipients of a “Golden Passport” due to his investments, which has since been revoked for “suspicious behaviour”. The accusations for the time being are “kouventes too kafene” (cafe chatter), until evidence of wrongdoing is found.