#footballremembers: Cyprus joins Christmas Truce centennial

Nicosia is playing its part in the worldwide commemoration of the Christmas Truce centennial, with the difference being that the Cyprus football game is probably the only one to be played in “no man’s land”, as was the case between the warring sides at the beginning of WWI.

The Cyprus Christmas Truce football game will be played behind the Home for Cooperation at the Ledra Palace Crossing at 2.30pm on Monday, December 22. A bi-communal team of Greek and Turkish Cypriots will play against an International XI, hosted by British High Commissioner Ric Todd, with strong support from the Mercian Regiment. Refreshments will be available at the Home for Cooperation.
“There is a strong political, media symbolism and guest list to match,” said a High Commission official.
The format will be familiar – and the international media has seized on the centenary this year. During December 2014, every level of British football – from schools to the English Premier League – are playing centenary matches to remember the football matches in No Man’s Land. The UK Government, British Council, Football Association, Football League and the Premier League have been working together to create mass participation activities marking the centenary of the First World War football truce which took place in Belgium at Christmas in 1914.
A British High Commission announcement said that “on Christmas Day 1914 there was a spontaneous ceasefire on the Western Front. When the guns fell silent, soldiers emerged from their trenches, they buried their dead, they sang carols in their own language and they exchanged gifts. Along the front line, men from both sides came together. Some of them even played football. In the midst of the chaos of war, the game united them.”