A Cypriot nationalist party is demanding Real Madrid cancel a youth football camp scheduled for November 14 in the Turki...

A Cypriot nationalist party is demanding Real Madrid cancel a youth football camp scheduled for November 14 in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus, warning the event legitimizes the island's decades-long occupation. ELAM called on Real Madrid's central administration in Spain to scrap the camp, which is set to take place at the Acapulco hotel in Ayios Epiktitos, in the occupied north. Young players from a local academy are due to face a team from the Real Madrid Foundation's football programme in Turkey in a friendly match. Real Madrid confirmed its Turkish foundation programme runs in cooperation with Be Free Football and Regnum Hotels. The party described the camp as "unacceptable," arguing that events like this, whether intentional or not, serve to legitimize what it called "the fait accompli of the invasion and the continuing occupation." ELAM also called on the Republic of Cyprus to take formal action, adding there should be "no event in bloodstained occupied territories." The demand comes months after Barcelona cancelled a similar two-week children's camp that had been planned for the occupied north. That cancellation followed diplomatic pressure from the Cyprus Football Association, whose chairman Charis Loizides had written directly to his Spanish counterpart urging Barcelona to pull out. Barcelona's withdrawal was condemned by Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, who wrote to both the EU and the UN in protest. Erhurman later said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had described such developments as "discouraging." Cyprus government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis pushed back, saying the Republic was doing exactly what an internationally recognized state should do, using diplomacy to present the real state of affairs, not applying pressure. Real Madrid has not yet responded to ELAM's cancellation request. #Cyprus #OccupiedCyprus #RealMadrid