From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” ASIL Lysi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mehdi Bounou was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match31 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted ASIL Lysi
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ASIL Lysi can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at ASIL Lysi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chahid el Allachi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 225% of everything ASIL Lysi earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad2 Nov 2026
ASIL Lysi are still strangers to each other
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
35 days out for Koullis Kyriakou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASIL Lysi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at ASIL Lysi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mehdi Bounou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASIL Lysi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mehdi Bounou, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at ASIL Lysi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Koullis Kyriakou out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASIL Lysi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Christos Sielis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at ASIL Lysi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chahid el Allachi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match17 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Digenis Morfou defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lefteris Chatzikonstanti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ASIL Lysi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 2026
51 days out for Koullis Kyriakou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASIL Lysi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Joel Lebrón gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joel Lebrón has just signed for ASIL Lysi, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at ASIL Lysi
Mehdi Bounou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at ASIL Lysi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chahid el Allachi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dylan Ragolle, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
He is 18, and nobody at ASIL Lysi signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Digenis Morfou in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Nikita Dubov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASIL Lysi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Fabinho scores twice — 8.31
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match3 Oct 2026
Agia Napa made ASIL Lysi work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mehdi Bounou falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
260% of the income goes out in wages at ASIL Lysi
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Arno Van Keilegom at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at ASIL Lysi.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2026
The small margins put ASIL Lysi out
Out, 0‑1 to Digenis Morfou, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for ASIL Lysi
0‑3 against MEAP Nisou, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad28 Sep 2026
66 days out for Koullis Kyriakou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASIL Lysi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to ASIL Lysi's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at ASIL Lysi has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Sep 2026
ASIL Lysi cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mehdi Bounou in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASIL Lysi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Chahid el Allachi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
73 days out for Koullis Kyriakou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASIL Lysi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mehdi Bounou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Chahid el Allachi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.36 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, ASIL Lysi had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fotis Antoniou was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the ASIL Lysi dressing room was either.
Match19 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Iraklis Gerolakkou defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Apollonas Vasileiou’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and ASIL Lysi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at ASIL Lysi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
80 days out for Koullis Kyriakou after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ASIL Lysi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trayal Kruševac have kept their man, and ASIL Lysi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mehdi Bounou falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at ASIL Lysi
Dylan Ragolle and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The formation has left Dylan Ragolle behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ASIL Lysi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.28, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ASIL Lysi can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at ASIL Lysi until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mehdi Bounou was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Chahid el Allachi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
ASIL Lysi are still strangers to each other
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at ASIL Lysi now.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Franco Almara knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ASIL Lysi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Koullis Kyriakou out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASIL Lysi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
ASIL Lysi say no — this time
The offer from Iraklis Gerolakkou for Diogo Neto was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Filip Ivelja gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filip Ivelja has just signed for ASIL Lysi, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at ASIL Lysi
Christos Sielis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Tasos Kontorouchas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to ASIL Lysi.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Koullis Kyriakou out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASIL Lysi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PAS Giannina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASIL Lysi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at ASIL Lysi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Bounou is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market24 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Luka Tasić is in the works
ASIL Lysi have made the call to Trayal Kruševac. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to PAS Giannina: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Koullis Kyriakou out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASIL Lysi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andreas Kapsis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at ASIL Lysi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Prudente is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. ASIL Lysi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to PAS Giannina: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market17 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexander Kavaleuskiy has his answer from ASIL Lysi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Koullis Kyriakou out for 118 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ASIL Lysi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Aris is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Andreas Kapsis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dimitris Artymatas has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentinos Merkis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Charalambos Konstantinou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Fabinho signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fabinho commits to ASIL Lysi for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at ASIL Lysi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Kapsis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ASIL Lysi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. ASIL Lysi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
ASIL Lysi have made the call to Aris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.