The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot association football trophy, contested in an annual match between the Cypriot First Division Champion and the Cypriot Cup winners. If a team wins The Double (both the Championship and the Cup), then the Double winner plays the Cypriot Cup finalist. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and for the last 20 years in Nicosia; also for the past few seasons, after the construction of the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, it has been played almost every year in that stadium. If the match is tied then the penalties shoot out follows.
The first match was played in 1950, under the name Pakkos Shield (Ασπίδα Πάκκου), and continued until 1967. Until then, no trophy was awarded, but according to the rule, the team that would have won the trophy most of the times, that it would have been awarded the trophy to that team. The first Shield was finally awarded to Çetinkaya, who were the first club to win the trophy three times. At that time if the winner was both Champion and Cup-winner, then it was automatically awarded as the Cypriot FA Shield winner.
The Cyprus Football Association (CFA) (Greek: Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου, ΚΟΠ) is the governing body of football in Cyprus and is based in Nicosia. It organizes the football championships, whose top league is Cypriot First Division. It also organizes the Cypriot Cup, the Cypriot Super Cup and the Cypriot national football team. Cyprus Football Association is also responsible for organizing all the futsal competitions, like the Cypriot Futsal league, the Cypriot Futsal Cup and the Cypriot Futsal Super Cup.
Football was introduced to Cyprus early in the 20th century by the British. Initially played in the island's schools, it proved hugely popular and a number of clubs were duly formed. As football became established, the clubs were united in agreeing that an official body was needed to regulate the sport. On 23 September 1934, the Cyprus Football Association was founded by the following eight clubs: AEL Limassol, Anorthosis Famagusta, APOEL, Aris Limassol, EPA Larnaca, Olympiakos Nicosia, Lefkoşa Türk Spor Kulübü and Trast AC. After Cyprus Football Association's establishment football began to be played on an official basis with the CFA organizing various championships for its member clubs. It became FIFA member in 1948 and UEFA member in 1962.
Cyprus (i/ˈsaɪprəs/; Greek: Κύπρος [ˈcipros]; Turkish: Kıbrıs [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, off the coasts of Syria and Turkey. Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel, north of Egypt and east of Greece.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC. As a strategic location in the Middle East, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians, from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians, was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878 (de jure until 1914).
Cyprus may refer to:
The Theme of Cyprus (Greek: θέμα Κύπρου, thema Kyprou) was a Byzantine military-civilian province, located in the island of Cyprus, established in the 960s after the reconquest of Cyprus by the Byzantine navy. Prior to this the island had been a Byzantine-Arab condominium for three centuries, except occasional short periods where it was occupied by either power. A rebellion by governor Theophilos Erotikos in 1042, and another in 1092 by Rhapsomates, failed as they were quickly subdued by imperial forces. At the end of the 12th century there were again separatist tendencies in Cyprus: Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus proclaimed himself as "basileus" (emperor) in 1185. Cyprus remained under his command until its conquest from Richard I of England in 1191.