The Cypriot Football Association has heaped doubt on its former official who alleges the 2012 European Championship was corruptly awarded to Poland and Ukraine, yet refused UEFA's offer to meet and discuss the case on Wednesday.
The Cyprus FA said Tuesday it knows nothing about accusations made by Spyros Marangos in a German newspaper that UEFA officials sold the tournament rights for €11 million ($15 million) in 2007. The eastern Europe neighbors defeated Italy in a UEFA vote.
UEFA has threatened Marangos with a defamation suit if he does not meet a Wednesday deadline to provide proof, which it said had been requested several times.
The European football authority said late Tuesday that he had ''not delivered one single element of evidence.''
Marangos, a former CFA board member, ''has through his lawyer also refused to meet an official delegation of UEFA (on Wednesday), comprising an independent disciplinary inspector,'' UEFA said in a statement.
''UEFA reiterates that in the interest of protecting the integrity of European football it is ready and willing to open a relevant disciplinary investigation ... but not on the basis of rumors or allegations that may also be defamatory.''
Cyprus's federation said it took ''great pleasure'' that UEFA would investigate the allegations, if Marangos possessed the evidence he claimed to have.
Officials from Poland and Ukraine have denied the allegations.
