A small pipe bomb exploded outside the offices of Cyprus’s referees association, according to police who confirmed a second attack on members of the profession in a month. The small-density explosive caused slight damage outside the Nicosia offices of the association at about 3.30 am, a police spokesman said. A fire bomb was recently thrown at the home of an assistant referee in the coastal town of Limassol. There have been no arrests.
Cypriot football occasionally experiences outbursts of violence and referees are regularly targeted. The most serious attack arrived in February when the Cypriot federation banned all first division games for a week after a bomb damaged the car of one their top officials, Leontios Trattou (photo). Police said the low-yield explosive device placed at the clubhouse entrance in the pre-dawn hours Monday caused minor damage. In a letter to the president of the Cyprus FA, Blatter wrote: “I would like to express my condemnation of the cowardly bomb attack carried out on the headquarters of the Cyprus Referees Association”.
Source: The Guardian