Russian money in Cypriot football

Apollon’s supporters celebrated into the night at their headquarters in Limassol’s residential suburbs, chanting songs and firing off fireworks and flares into the gulch-dry rainwater channels decorated with graffiti. After a gap of16 years, Apollon Limassol were champions of Cyprus again for the fourth time.

For their German head coach, Alexander Zorniger, the victory was his first senior league title as a manager. For supporters of one of the country’s biggest clubs, the joy was also hard to contain and is likely to have been enjoyed by superagent Pini Zahavi, who has a close relationship with Apollon.

But not everyone in Limassol was celebrating.

Apollon is one of three clubs in the Cypriot First Division from Limassol, and the southern port city’s other sizeable tribes were far less enthusiastic about their triumph.

Attracted by an economic environment that controversially