APOP Kinyras FC (, ''Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Pegeias Kinyras'', "Athletic Football Club Peyia Kinyras") was a Cypriot

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from the village of Peyia of

Paphos District The Paphos District, or simply Paphos (also Pafos), is one of the six districts of Cyprus and it is situated in the western part of Cyprus. Its main town and capital is Paphos. The entire district is controlled by the internationally recognis ...

. The club formed in 2003 following the merger of lower division outfits APOP Peyias FC and Kinyras Empas FC. The club's name APOP means Athlitikos Podosferikos Omilos Pegeias (Athletic Football Club Peyia) and Kinyras' name coming from the mythical king Kinyras who was the founder of

Paphos Paphos, also spelled as Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: #Old Paphos, Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and #New Paphos, New Paphos. It i ...

. In the summer of 2012, after a large bankruptcy the club was dissolved. In May 2009, APOP Kinyras caused a major stir by winning the Cypriot Cup final, upsetting overwhelming favourites AC Omonia, APOEL FC and AEL Limassol, becoming the first club from Paphos to win a major trophy. In July 2009, APOP Kinyras become the first team from the Paphos region to play in a UEFA competition, visiting Rapid Wien in the first leg of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

third qualifying round.

History

The club's started their history in the 3rd division on the 2003/04 season where they promoted to Second Division as Champions. The following season they won the second division championship and they were promoted as Second Division Champion

to the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

for the first time in their history. However, the team finished 12th in the 2005–06 season and they were

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

back to the second divisio

In 2007 the team won the Second Division championship and they were promoted to First Division for the second time. They finished 8th in the Cypriot First Division 2007-08, 2007–08 first division championship and in the 2008–09 season finished seventh. Few gave APOP Kinyras any chance of clinching silverware that season, although under coach Giorgos Polyviou, manage to create quite a stir when they upset overwhelming favourites and win the

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

final against

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL Limassol also maintains a AEL Limassol B.C., men's and AEL Limassol B.C. (women), women's basketball teams, a wom ...

. After the success, the team became the first club from Paphos to win a major trophy since the foundation of the Cyprus Football Association in 1934. After overcoming

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

in quarterfinals and

APOEL FC APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

in semifinals, the Paphos side withstood some intense AEL pressure before scoring two late goals through Angelos Efthymiou and Fangio Buyse to seal a remarkable triumph in Nicosia's GSP Stadium. In their first European game APOP Kinyras played in Vienna on July 30, 2009; losing against

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

2–1 in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. In the second leg, Rapid needed Trimmel's extra-time goal (2–2) to eliminate the Paphos side, which impressed at the match sending it to overtime, coming from 0–1 down to 2–1 lead with two goals from Edgar Marcelino and Sebastián González. In 2011, after 4 consecutive seasons in the first division, a record for the club, they were relegated back to the Cypriot Second Division. In 2012, in after a lot of scandals the club was relegated by CFA and UEFA from the Second to Fourth Division. The same year, after a large bankruptcy the club was dissolved.

Colours and badge

The club's colours were yellow and blue.

Stadium

The club's home was Peyia Municipal Stadium which has capacity of 3,828 spectators. In 2005/06, when the team participated in the First Division, they were not allowed to use Pegeia Stadium, for the reason that the stadium does not satisfy the criteria of First Division and the team used for home the Pafiako Stadium. In 2007 expansions have been made in Pegeia stadium and APOP/Kinyras was allowed to use the Peyia Municipal Stadium.

Notable former players

''For a complete list of APOP Kinyras Peyias players, see

APOP Kinyras FC players In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Today, POP version 3 (POP3) is the most commonly used version. Together with IMAP, it ...

Honours

** Winner (1): 2008–09 *

Cypriot Second Division The Cypriot Second Division () is the second highest association football, football division of the Cypriot football league system. Administered by the Cyprus Football Association, it is contested by 16 teams, with the top three teams being Prom ...

** Champions (2): 2004–05, 2006–07 * Cypriot Third Division: ** Champions (1): 2003–04

APOP Kinyras in European competitions

References

External links

Official Website

APOP/KINYRAS News on 24sports
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apop Kinyras Fc Football clubs in Cyprus Association football clubs established in 2003 2003 establishments in Cyprus Association football clubs disestablished in 2012 Defunct football clubs in Cyprus