Cypriot referee Trattou targeted again

A car used by Cypriot referee Leontios Trattos was set on fire, police said, the second time he has been targeted in just over a year. The incident is the latest in a string of threats and attacks against referees and their families which led to calls for the officials to boycott games. Police said the car, which was parked in the basement of Trattou's residence at an apartment block in a suburb of the capital Nicosia, was destroyed. Authorities suspect the vehicle, a company car belonging to Trattou's employers, was doused with inflammable fluid and set alight.

One of the Mediterranean island's most high-profile referees, Trattou (photo) was also targeted in February last year when a bomb destroyed a car parked outside his home. That incident, among a string of attacks against referees, led to a brief suspension of fixtures on the island. The attacks have continued, however, and in January a bomb went off outside the home of a referee's mother, and last month a car belonging to a referee's wife was damaged by a pipe bomb. There have been no injuries reported from any of the attacks.

Source: Reuters