Cyprus is one of the smallest countries of Europe and of course the smallest active member of the EMF. Luxembourg might be even smaller, but up to now it is not so active on international level. Cyprus is a beautiful island which is placed in the southeastern part of Europe, where about 1.000.000 people live. The Cypriots have many common elements with the Greeks, as they have the same language (with some small differences which create a separate dialect), the same religion and the same history. Actually, during the long history of this European area, Cyprus and Greece were just one country and the only difference was that in some periods of time they had different conquerors.
Anyway… that was just a small geopolitical introduction for a country which is really involved in football and of course in minifootball! In the big cities of the island, Nicosia, Limassol, Laranaca and Paphos, there are many minifootball facilities, (in more than 20 spots) and it shows that many local entrepreneurs invest money in the development of minifootball. Nescafe UNI-League connects the 2 biggest cities (Nicossia and Limassol) and in near future the Greek and Cypriot Minifootball Association plans the development of the network to Larnaca and Paphos too.
The National Team of Cyprus did not have the opportunity to win a game in the last 2 miniEUROs, however it gained great experience and the Fair Play prize in 2012! The organizing manager of the Association in Cyprus, Mr.Nicolas Nicolaou expressed the opinion that for the Cypriot players, the target is not to win European games and to reach at the top, as this is not easy to happen for a so small country, but to be a really active member of the EMF and advertise on European level the passion and love of these people for the most popular sport in the world. “Participation is just everything for us” as he said!