Editorial: Londoners don’t like bullies – unfortunately for Cypriot government
The Cypriot government’s attempt to sabotage the ConIFA Football World Cup was always going to fail.
Non-league clubs were never going to renege on a deal to host football games because Solon Savva, the Deputy High Commissioner from the Cyprus London High Commission, pointed out the illegalities and injustice of the Turkish invasion of 1974.
[See: Sabotage – Cypriot Government launches bizarre attack on ConIFA and tries to deprive it of venues]
There are two reasons for this.
Firstly, there is no logical reason why the illegality of the Turkish occupation of half his island in 1974 should lead to a team called Northern Cyprus permanently being refused permission to play football. Even if it did, the whole purpose of the ConIFA Cup is to allow a sporting platform for those denied a political one.
By claiming that ‘Northern Cyprus” is not a legal state, Mr Savva justified rather than negated the very reason for their participation in ConIFA. All he did was explain why they should not be allowed in FIFA and they are not. Not being allowed into FIFA is the very raison d’être for the ConIFA organisation. Mr Savva didn’t appear to know that.
Secondly. Londoners are a pretty steely bunch. I know. I lived among them.
They endured the bombardment of the Nazis with stoicism long before my arrival, and then absorbed the atrocities of the Provisional IRA without anger or rancour. When Islamic fundamentalists bombed the Underground on 7/7, they carried on with lives the next day. They have withstood the threats of brutal dictators and violent thugs alike over the years.
Had the Deputy Cypriot High Commissioner in London known Londoners a little better, he would easily have anticipated that a long meandering letter trying to emotionally blackmail non-league clubs into breaking their word, would be doomed to at least failure, and at worst ridicule. Londoners don’t like bullies.
If you’re going to send a missive with the letterhead of a government embassy to a non-league football club making demands, you are doomed to failure. Londoners don’t like bullies.
Turkey has illegally occupied Northern Cyprus since 1974
When I first heard about this attempt to persuade all the ConIFA host clubs to withdraw permission to host ConIFA games, I assumed it was a third world dictatorship sending them out; a government so disconnected with the concept of freedom and dissent that they knew no better. I was pretty horrified when it was revealed it had come from a European Union country and also a member of the British Commonwealth, two organisations that exist to promote freedom.
The idea that a nation that is a member of both should seek to prevent a sporting competition is abhorrent.
The official non-existence of a political entity does not mean they should have no sporting presence and it is here that I have some sympathy for the Northern Cypriots and all the nations entering ConIFA.
My own nation Scotland is not allowed to enter the Olympics. Our athletes have to compete as part of a GB team. I have no empathy with that entity, its colours or its anthem. As a result the Olympic Games leave me excluded and I do not watch them. It’s only by historical accent that Scotland was the birthplace of football that therefore Scotland is allowed a national team in FIFA,
[See: Editorial: An Olympics without nationalism. Not as fun as it sounds]
None of the above should suggest any support for the breakaway and illegal state of Northern Cyprus. Like the Russian occupation of the Crimea, it is an illegal occupation and an illegal entity, secured by violence. Turkey has been, and should continue to be, denied membership of the European Union until the issue is peacefully resolved and the island is reunited.
But Cyprus as a member of that EU has to demonstrate that the values we ask of Turkey are practised by existing members. In that respect Mr Savva has let his country and the wider EU down. The ConIFA tournament is not short of controversial states and no other government went as far as they did.
That is Cyprus’ shame and embarrassment and it is hoped that they begin to repair their image with an apology to ConIFA and the clubs they contacted.
And perhaps Mr Savva should leave the confines of Mayfair and go and meet some real Londoners.
