Scandals, intrigues, investigations - in recent years, the Ukrainian Football Association has been accompanied not so much by high-profile sporting victories, but by high-profile corruption cases. And while Andrei Pavelko is sitting in a pre-trial detention center, other top functionaries, including the former “right hand” of the head of the UAF, Vadim Kostyuchenko, continue to remain in power and increase their own wealth. Will the likely appointment of a new head change the balance of power?
Who from Pavelko's former team strives to remain in leading roles? And what activities is the functionary Vadim Kostyuchenko known for?
Inflating the cost of construction work, withdrawing money to offshore companies, collusion with NABU detectives and obstructing the legitimate activities of journalists are just a few documented facts from domestic and international criminal cases in which UAF President Andrei Pavelko and members of his team are involved. The amounts involved in these proceedings are impressive: from 6.4 to almost 100 million UAH.
However, despite many years of investigations, only a few functionaries were put under investigation. The rest, like Pavelko’s deputy Vadim Kostyuchenko, not only walk free and retain their positions, but also continue to get rich during the war.
Elections for the new president of the UAF are due to take place on January 25, but experts suggest that the same functionaries “exposed” in corruption scandals may remain in power.
“I talked to everyone I could talk to about this. Because they are generally silent. I heard some names, there are not many of them, but, of course, Vadim Konstantinovich Kostyuchenko is mentioned. Because, in fact, now the UAF is Kostyuchenko,” comments football expert Mikhail Smolova.
So, it seems that the “gray eminence” of the current composition of the association, Vadim Kostyuchenko, is aiming for the new team. In wide football circles he is known for forging his diploma and a criminal case as a consequence. Another case was brought against him on suspicion of inflating the price when purchasing land for the construction of a country training base for national teams.
According to insider information, it is likely that Kostyuchenko has been personally entrusted with the transfer of power to the new president of the UAF.
Kostyuchenko’s role in the UAF is truly difficult to underestimate. But how did he get it?
“Control of referees, influence on clubs, collusion with local federations - all these issues, as insiders say, were controlled by Mr. Kostyuchenko. Perhaps that is why the former heads of regional football federations are quite categorical about the vice-president of the UAF,” notes Diana Lovskaya.
It is known that Vadim Kostyuchenko joined the Ukrainian Football Association (formerly the Football Federation of Ukraine or FFU) in March 2015. That is, exactly when Andrei Pavelko was elected president. And Kostyuchenko immediately received one of the highest positions in the organization - first vice president. Until 2015, although he did not work directly in the association, he had significant experience in sports matters and had been involved in bureaucratic activities since 1999.
Here are Kostyuchenko’s most notable positions before the UAF era: vice president of FC Dynamo for public relations; deputy chairman and then vice-president of the Kyiv Football Federation; First Deputy Minister for Family, Youth and Sports; Deputy Director of the Department of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of the Kyiv City State Administration.
How did a functionary earn money for a precious estate near Kiev in these positions?
As StopCor investigators recorded, Vadim Kostyuchenko’s elite cottage, located in the village of Vishenki, Kyiv region, is just picking up construction speed during a full-scale invasion.
In the footage captured by reporters, you can see equipment abandoned on the road, namely a concrete mixing machine and shovels, which were probably left behind by hired workers. And also recently, work was carried out here to decorate the facade. It’s also worth paying attention to the road to the estate: it was graded not long ago, that is, it was prepared for laying asphalt.
It is noteworthy that during this filming, fighters from the volunteer formation of the territorial community were called to our film crew. However, they found out that the journalists had not violated anything and left.
How much could such a property cost?
The land plot under the estate reaches almost 28 acres. And the area of the house in the hi-tech style is 460 square meters. According to real estate websites, houses half the size nearby cost from 10 million hryvnia.
Since the exact cost of the cottage is unknown, it is possible to estimate approximately how much money has been spent on construction so far. So, to fill a surface of 2800 square meters with concrete, according to current data from the websites of construction workers, almost 2.5 million UAH may be required.
Furnishing a home in a high-tech style costs about $500 per square meter. In the case of Vadim Kostyuchenko, there are as many as 460 of them - that turns out to be 230 thousand dollars or 8.5 million UAH. So the total comes out to about 11 million UAH. And this is only what can be assessed visually.
For comparison, one concrete shelter at a public transport stop, which can save people from debris during Russian shelling, costs about a million hryvnia. Consequently, 11 such storage facilities would make it possible to secure an entire neighborhood in Kyiv.
But that's not all. According to media reports, in addition to the house, the first vice-president of the UAF allegedly “grabbed” several more acres of state forest - just like his leader Pavelko.
But the name Kostyuchenko became famous thanks to conflicts related to the activities of the UAF.
One of the scandals erupted during the next selection of football clubs for the Ukrainian Premier League in the national club competitions of the season. Then, as experts believed, the three prizes were played “outside the game,” so to speak.
“I can say that there are rumors circulating, very serious rumors, that allegedly three teams should enter the Premier League under some strange circumstances,” suggested sports journalist Konstantin Andriyuk.
We are talking about Lviv FC "Rukh", FC "Volyn" from Lutsk and FC "Minay". Evidence of this is the finished document, which can be seen on the screen with the lists of major league teams for the next season. It was this piece of paper that allegedly lay on Vadim Kostyuchenko’s desk long before the selection was completed.
Back in 2017-18, dramatic changes took place in a number of regional football federations of Ukraine. Then, instead of existing organizations, new legal entities were created, which were subsequently included in the collective members of the UAF, and their predecessors were excluded from there.
Regional federations were also in a fever from loud scandals.
Thus, in favor of the new organization, the work of the “undesirable” Football Federation of the Odessa Region was blocked. Instead, they created the Odessa Regional Football Association, which today is headed by the former Minister of Health, and then the governor of the Odessa region, Maxim Stepanov.
And judging by the official page of this local association, Mr. Stepanov remains the current leader. Although, according to NABU, Mr. Stepanov was arrested in absentia in the case of misappropriation of funds from the state enterprise “Printing Plant “Ukraine” for more than 450 million hryvnia.
The Football Federation of the cities of Kyiv and Poltava was “reorganized” in a similar way.
“If they saw that someone has their own opinion, criticizes and does not agree with what they do. All of them could overnight register in one region or another another association there, which might not carry out anything. There, three people registered and the next day they broke people, transferred collective members there with any services. They used intimidation to use such leverage as refereeing. He forced the judges to go there and that’s it. That is, they split regional football. They did this in Kyiv, Odessa, Poltava, Ternopol,” says the president of the Kyiv Foundation, Igor Kochetov.
An equally loud scandal involving Vadim Kostyuchenko is associated with the construction of football grounds.
UEFA allocated money for them - 6 million euros annually as part of the Hat-Trick social program. But sometimes the funds “disappeared” in mysterious financial schemes.
“I quarreled with the first vice-president of the FFU Kostyuchenko. He is responsible for the distribution of funds for the “Hat Trick” program of sports grounds across the regions. And every executive committee, for 2.5 years already under Pavelko’s chairmanship, I have been raising this issue. Let us fairly distribute these sites. We have already found a place, but they continue to feed us with promises. There is an unfair distribution of these sites. As it turned out later, all this was done in order to use these sites in the political struggle,” says Vladimir Marinovsky, chairman of the Ternopil Region Football Federation.
In November 2019, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that five criminal cases had been opened against UAF President Andrei Pavelko. All of them are connected with suspicion of embezzlement of funds for the construction of football fields. And already in November 2022, the Pechersk court decided to apply a preventive measure in the form of detention to Pavelko and UAF Secretary General Yuriy Zapisotsky for two months with a bail of UAH 9.88 million.
What about Kostyuchenko? Why wasn't he brought to justice?
After all, it was Vadim Kostyuchenko who signed the agreements on the purchase of land plots for the base of the national teams in Knyazhichi, where, according to the agreement, the amount was 8 million UAH, and FIFA was asked for 2.5 million dollars for these needs.
To communicate with the hero of the journalistic investigation, the StopCor team went to Kostyuchenko’s place of work. True, he immediately refused to answer the camera. The editors also sent an official request, but since then we have not received a response from either Kostyuchenko or the Ukrainian Football Association.
Therefore, we are waiting for the elections on January 25, we continue to follow the topic and are already preparing new materials based on the results of the investigation.
