Cypriot champion AEL Limassol hired former FC Porto defender Jorge Costa as its new coach Wednesday.
The 41-year-old Costa’s career success and ambitious outlook will be a boon for AEL, club spokesman Ploutis Avraam said.
Avraam said the “needed” coaching change bodes well for AEL since Costa is a known quantity to the team, in which most of the players are from Portugal and have played in the Portuguese league.
Costa takes over from Cypriot coach Pambos Charalambous, who last year guided AEL to the Cypriot championship after a 44-year dry spell.
Costa doesn’t have time to settle in on Wednesday, a day before AEL faces Turkish club Fenerbahce at home in Group C of the Europa League.
Fenerbahce and Marseille lead the group with four points each. AEL and Borussia Monchengladbach have one point each.
Meanwhile, police have stepped up security for the match to head off any trouble that may crop up as a result of the ethnically-split island’s tumultuous politics.
More than 400 police have been assigned to Nicosia’s GSP stadium in the country’s internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south as more than 1,100 Fenerbache fans are expected to cross over from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north to support their team.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
AEL President Andreas Sophocleous said that neither politics nor bigotry have a place in football and that the club and its fans won’t allow the situation to get out of hand.