Turkish Cypriot football officials on Monday vowed to "press ahead with attempts to reunite" with the Cyprus FA, triggering a "political storm on the ethnically-split island," according to Michele Kambas of REUTERS. In a "controversy running to the heart of the highly-charged division of Cyprus," the Cyprus Turkish FA told FIFA on Monday that it had "launched a process to eventually become a member of the Greek Cypriot CFA." A senior Turkish Cypriot official blasted the move "suicide" for the future of football in the "isolated Turkish Cypriot breakaway state and urged the association to reconsider." But CTFA President Hasan Sertoglu said in Nicosia, Cyprus's partitioned capital, that it was "forging ahead with their reforms." Sertoglu: "Today an era in Turkish Cypriot football is closing, and we are doing what we believe is right" (REUTERS, 3/30). The AP's Menelaos Hadjicostis reported six decades of football separation on ethnically divided Cyprus "may be at its end." The move is the culmination of "drawn-out negotiations that resulted in a breakthrough provisional agreement in Zurich a year and a half ago." The deal earned plaudits from both FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini, "who praised both sides" for demonstrating football's "bridge-building power." Cyprus FA President Costas Koutsokoumnis said it will take "plenty of time for a unified league to emerge as much negotiating still remains." Koutsokoumnis: "The process is going to be long, we've been separated for 60 years and there are still psychological barriers we have to overcome" (AP, 3/27).
