On Wednesday 12 September, community foot- ball club Omonia Youth FC, sponsored by Diamond Corp. held their Annual General Meeting.
Those in attendance heard from outgoing chair- man Myri Demetriou who gave a review of last sea- son, celebrating the many successes of the season.
In his speech, Mr Demetriou underlined notable highlights, both on and off the pitch. Mr Demetriou thanked the Management Committee for their efforts during the season and said:
“As an Omonia fan since childhood, it was a great pleasure being chair of Omonia Youth FC and as everyone knows, I have done my utmost to help this club be the best grassroots youth football club it can be, and provide a safe and fun environment for our players to develop as both footballers and young people, as well as to help provide our coaches the tools to facilitate that. I am proud of what I have achieved, having previously held the roles of vice chair and club welfare officer, and I now wish the new co-chairs George and Sophia all the best.”
As per the club’s constitution, the 2022/23 com- mittee was asked to stand down in order for the process of the new Management Committee to be elected. Unopposed, and unanimously agreed, for the first time in the club’s 29-year history George Constantinou and Sophia Karanicholas will be the club’s co-chairs. Samuel Arthur was voted in as Club Secretary and Kyri Eleftheriou voted in as lead Treasurer. The make-up of the rest Management Committee will be communicated on due course.
On being appointed a joint statement from Sophia and George read:
“We are truly honoured and humbled to be elect- ed as co-chairs of this amazing football club. We are excited to support the club in its continued growth and in driving forward a structure to set it up for fur- ther future success. A special thanks to the commit- tee members stepping down and to Myri, for his com- mitment and dedication as chairman in recent sea- sons and for the support he has given us in taking on this role. Omonia Youth FC has an impressive future ahead of it and we look forward to driving the club forward.”
Sophia went on to say: “I joined Omonia Youth as an assistant coach of our first girl’s team. Since then, I took over the role of female football coordi- nator and had the privilege of seeing the girls side grow from one team to six in only a handful of sea- sons. We also successfully held the club’s first ever girls only tournament last summer and were proud- ly part of the “wild cats” and “squad girls initiatives” in collaboration with the FA. We have also support- ed our female players with their own development pathways. We have had two female players, play- ing competitively with our boys’ teams, two of our U16 players start their coaching journey with our U10 teams and also one of our U16 players passing her referee qualification. These experiences and suc- cesses are ones I hope to extend across the club moving forward.”
George Constantinou
Sophia Karanichola
Samuel Arthur
Kyri Eleftheriou
