NICOSIA--The Cyprus Football Association said Tuesday that it was postponing all matches under its jurisdiction for one week after referees came out on strike following a bomb attack.
All league and cup games scheduled from Tuesday onwards from senior to junior level will be postponed until Monday January 26, the CFA said on its website.
On Monday night, the Cyprus Referees Association decided on a week-long strike in response to a midnight (2200 GMT) bomb attack at the home of a referee's mother.
The association said it had no option but to stop officiating matches because referees were angry following the third such bomb attack this season.
The CFA has condemned the attack -- on the mother of match official Thomas Mouskos -- as "exceedingly cowardly".
Police said a makeshift high-yield device went off outside the front door of the 60-year-old woman's home in the southern coastal resort of Limassol. She was unharmed.
It is the second time in just over a year that referees have resorted to strike action in the face of violence and intimidation against them.
Last season, referees across Cyprus went on strike in the first weekend of March 2014 after a bomb was planted under the car of top referee Leontios Trattos.
The latest incident comes at a time when police are probing allegations that some Cypriot referees are involved in match fixing.
AFP
