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The President of the Cyprus Turkish Football Association (CTFA) Mr. Hasan Sertoğlu and its International Relations Adviser Mr. Jerome Champagne, who is at the same time the Candidate for FIFA President held a joint pres conference on May 14, 2014 in order to give information about the CTFA-CFA process. The press conference was organized au lieu of the Success Awards Ceremony which had to be postponed due to the tragic mine accident that happened in Turkey.
Sertoğlu: “We have to show the trust between us in front of the public eye”
President Sertoğlu who was the first one to speak at the press conference said: ‘’We did not stop working even for a single second since the beginning. We are constantly working on this. There are some issues that everyone can accept, some that they cannot. Making enough progress even on one single subject can take enough time sometimes. The most important thing is that both myself and the President of CFA have always been optimistic. If we are able to make progress today, this is the reason why. We have to show more in front of the public eye that that we trust each other. We have to do this especially in front of the young people. We have to participate more in the events organized by CFA, and vice versa. We have taken decision along that line.
“The youngsters should trust each other more”
Sertoğlu “Recently Dumlupınar Club took part in an organization in the southern part of the island. They came to visit me in a very happy and excited way. They told me about what they experienced there. Even the mere atmosphere of happiness and trust that these young kids experienced there is very important. We have to increase such examples. The young people must be more in contact with each, and must trust each other more.’’
“My belief for a solution has gone up to 70%. We will solve this!’’
My belief for a solution of the situation in football was around 50% three four months ago. But after getting together with the KOP President lately it went up to 70%.
‘’This is the direction that things are moving especially after the last meeting we held with Mr. Champagne. We believe that we can definitely solve this. On June 21 we have our General Assembly at CTFA. It will be held closed to the press, only with our member clubs, whereby we will be discussing all the details with them. We will share with them the issues where we are having difficultes with, what our positions are etc. We will ask for the verification of our members’ support there and move on rapidly towards the solution of the problems from there onwards. If anyone has any objections to raise, this is when they will be able to. I am sure that we are going to be able to finalize this deal by the end of 2014. We are also witnessing serious developments towards the solution of the Cyprus Problem. The two Leaders and their negotiators are constantly meeting. It is to be seen whether they will be able to solve the Cyprus Problem before or after we manage to finalize our deal with CFA. Of course we are not going to sit down and wait for the solution of the Cyprus Problem. Our harmonization with their bylaws in line with the FIFA-UEFA rules is going to take some time’’ said Sertoğlu.
Champagne: “The postponement of the Awards Ceremony has become an opportunity”
Jerome Champagne who took the floor after Mr. Sertoğlu started off by extending his condolences to the families of those workers who lost their lives in Turkey. ‘’I come from the North of France from my father’s side, a place where there are stil lots of coal mines, therefore I am in a position to empathize with what happened in Turkey. I came to Cyprus for the awards ceremony, I understand full well why it has been postponed. Hence it has given us the opportunity to be here at this pres conference today. It has also given us the opportunity to have an evaluation meeting with Presidents Sertoğlu and Koutsokoumnis’’ said Champagne.
“We are not sleeping, in fact we are sleepless”
Champagne said that he has been hearing from Mr. Sertoğlu about some criticisms that the CTFA has lately been sleeping and he stated ironically that in fact they have been quite sleepless. “It is not at all easy to bridge 58 years of separation’’ stated Champagne.
“This process can be defined as going back home”
“In November 2013, the provisional agreement was signed. As President Sertoğlu stated what we need to achieve is to establish the mutual trust and this is not something that can be achieved by signing a paper. This is why I can understand the criticisms and the skepticism. In fact what we are trying to do is to take the Turkish Cypriot football out of the embargoes that they have been under for all this time. This is also the struggle of the reunification of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot football that used to be together in the past. This is actually going back home. When CFA was established it was established by Turkish Cypriots too. Almost half of the national team was composed of Turkish Cypriots. This can be a bumpy road at times, but we are on our way’’ said Champagne.
“Cyprus will be a main agenda item in Brasil”
Jerome Champagne also stated: “One of the most important agenda items at the FIFA General Congress in June at Sao Paolo is Cyprus. The 3rd section of the 11th item on the Agenda has to do with the process of the reunification of Cypriot football. This is a very serious sign of progress. 209 football federation from the whole world will be informed about the process of reunification of Cypriot football. There will also be issues like Kosovo, Palestine and Israel on the agenda but I believe that the case of Cyprus will be the main agenda item in Brasil.’’