When an entrepreneur decides to invest, what he is looking for is profit. That is, its capital to have the maximum of its return. This was the plan in the mind of the American Cypriot Stavros Papastavros, when he invested in the bankrupt football team of Omonia Nicosia. Because he is selling it now, two things can happen: Either he found better returns on his capital elsewhere, as it is written about his involvement with a bank in America, or he now understands that the returns he expected on the capital he invested are not expected and leaves before they become negative, if they have not already happened. If this is the logic of Mr. Papastavros, then he was a really rare kind of businessman in Cypriot football.
The truth is that I was and still am skeptical when I see serious businessmen getting involved in football management. People with many responsibilities in their businesses, who give up to do their “duty” as followers and lead their team of heart to “glory”. In fact, such entrepreneurs, when buying the team, acquire another expensive “member” in the family, which they have to maintain. They create a “black hole” in their wallet, as it is almost a “shame” to ask the obvious: When will they get their money back? Somehow, in the process, they understand that the “vagrant” field of football is not for them, they make budget cuts, experiment with the team and end ignominiously with something that started with the best intentions. Cypriot tycoon John Christodoulou does well to keep this in mind, who is said to have expressed interest in Omonia.
Apart from the “daddy” businessmen, there have been those in football who came in to eat money or gain social and political influence that will help their other jobs. Red envelopes for rigged games, accusations of double contracts with footballers, agents who have been convicted of embezzling club money, are not foreign to the country's football. These, in combination with the reluctance and / or inability of the state to take measures to combat the phenomenon and in connection with the politicization of the sport, have exterminated unions, expelled people from the stadiums and have discredited our country internationally. What is worse, however, is that they create distortions, status quo and manors, which at the end of the day prevent people who see football as a business and only, to invest in it. Maybe Mr. Papastavrou also saw this and leaves as soon as he is given the opportunity. In fact, I do not expect that while looking for an investor he will “confess” everything that really “expels” him from Cypriot football, that is, something like “I am running, I am selling, you are blind, you are crying” as the wise people say.
It should be reminded, however, that in the few years that Mr. Papastavrou has been in Cyprus, he has spent several months fighting with agents of other groups, giving statements to the police about corruption and recently putting up with the owners of the stadiums. Perhaps the understanding that it is not just a matter of money to be able to invest in infrastructure and that Cypriot soccer is not played by the same rules as in America, has led the businessman to look for odds elsewhere. After all, neither a “sick” Omonia fan has stated that he is, nor his other businesses have anything to do with Cyprus. With his time, money and energy, he decides where to channel them and there are certainly much healthier ways to do it than Cypriot football. With this, however, the sport will not go far in the country, as it is only a matter of time before the other “Papastavrou” who are on the football field will regret that they got involved with the administration and will leave them. As for John Christodoulou, whose information wants him to scrutinize the union's books, I think what he is looking at now is whether he wants to get involved like everyone else in a system that aims to eat his money and makes the carefree days he now spends on the island miserable and complicated.
