Cyprus Guide

Sports in Cyprus

 

Governing bodies of sports in Cyprus include the Cyprus Football Association, Cyprus Basketball Federation, Cyprus Volleyball Federation, Cyprus Automobile Association, Cyprus Badminton Federation, Cyprus Cricket Association and the Cyprus Rugby Federation.

Football is by far the most popular spectator sport. The Cyprus League is nowadays considered as quite competitive and includes notable teams such as AC Omonia, APOEL FC, AEL Lemesos, Apollon FC, Anorthosis Famagusta FC, Nea Salamis Famagusta FC and AEK Larnaca FC. Stadiums or sports venues in Cyprus include the GSP Stadium (the largest in Cyprus), Tsirion Stadium (second largest), Neo GSZ Stadium, Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Ammochostos Stadium and Makario Stadium. Cyprus, also has a football national team which in the last decade has evolved to a promising squad within the European rankings.
Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot professional tennis player

Apart from the main interest in football, Cyprus has exhibited certain accomplishments in other sports. Marcos Baghdatis is one of the most successful tennis players in international stage.[citation needed] He was a finalist at the Australian Open in 2006, and reached the Wimbledon semi-final in the same year. Also Kyriakos Ioannou a Cypriot high jumper achieved a jump of 2.35 m at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics held in Osaka, Japan, in 2007 winning the bronze medal.

Sports in North Cyprus:

Northern Cyprus’ sportsmen have gained medals in various sports like badminton, billiards, bike, bocce, football, tennis, golf, karting, taekwando and paragliding in the world.

  • Badminton Federation of North Cyprus is an observer member of World Badminton Federation and European Badminton Confederation.
  • Billiards Federation of North Cyprus (BFNC) is a member of the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) (and therefore a member of the World Pool Billiard Association). The national teams of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus played each other in an international sport tournament for the first time in the 2010 European billiards championships in Kielce, Poland.
  • Bocce Federation of North Cyprus is a member of the International Bocce Association.
  • Bodybuilding and Fitness: 2010: Yakup Çavuşgil became World Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (WBFF) champion in the championship in Canada.
  • EasyKart Federation of North Cyprus is a member of the International EasyKart Federation. 2008: Zeka Özteknik became International Easykart champion in 125cc.
  • FootballTennis Association of North Cyprus is a member of the Federation International FootballTennis Association. Northern Cyprus placed 6th in the 9th World Footballtennis Championship The 2011 European FootballTennis Championship will be hosted by North Cyprus.
  • Shooting: TRNC Shooting Federation participated in Airgun Championships 2011 in Bisley, UK and the team became 2nd.
  • Taekwon-do Federation of North Cyprus is a member of Global Taekwon-do Federation (GTF).
  • Wrestling: Northern Cyprus is a member of International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA).


The swimming record from Turkey to Northern Cyprus belongs to Alper Sunaçoğlu (26h15m).

On 18 May 2010, Northern Cyprus became a member of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF).

As well as there are country-wide sport leagues in Northern Cyprus, some Northern Cyprus sport clubs are in Turkey's sport leagues (Fast Break Sport Club in Turkey's Men Basketball Regional League; Beşparmak Sport Club in Turkey's Handball 1st League; Lefka European University is in Turkey's Tabletennis Super League).