Since last fall, strange things have been happening around the Ukrainian Football Association. In a long-forgotten criminal proceeding, which was previously investigated by NABU detectives and did not establish evidence of the guilt of the head of the UAF Andrei Pavelko, the National Police suddenly intensified procedural actions.
Contrary to the arguments of the defense and statements of a number of legendary Ukrainian football players, such as Oleg Blokhin, Igor Belanov, Alexey Mikhailichenko, Anatoly Demyanenko and others, about the artificiality of criminal pressure on the UAF, in June the head of the Football Association was placed in custody without the right to bail. A similar measure was soon applied to the General Secretary of the UAF, Yuri Zapisotsky. This happened only after a strange transfer of the NABU case to the regional department of Lvov, which still has no logical explanation. During these events, Ukrainian football began to noticeably lose its position in international football bodies. And today we have to admit, in fact, the failure of the anti-Russian sports vector on the part of Ukraine in UEFA.
Returned referees and Russians to the UEFA leadership
The head of the UAF, Andrey Pavelko, is a member of the UEFA Executive Committee. This year, he managed to be re-elected to this position, despite the attempts of the Russians, among other things, to prevent this from happening. In the Russian press on the eve of the UEFA elections, there were often statements that it was Pavelko who was the main stumbling block for the Russian Football Union in communication with UEFA on the return of Russian football teams to European tournaments. Moreover, it was noted that replacing Pavelko in a position in the UAF would also help soften the rhetoric of world football towards Russia.
“It is obvious that they are simply trying to deprive our country of representation in UEFA. And this is probably the main goal of the enemy, who, in the absence of Pavelko in UEFA, hopes to soften the sanctions policy towards Russians.
You see that the aggressor country is now working in the sports direction on all fronts. They are putting pressure on the IOC (International Olympic Committee - Gazeta.ua) to allow their athletes to participate in the Olympics, they want to return to European football tournaments. In my opinion, it seems that some of our law enforcement officers are openly aiding and abetting the enemy. Well, how else can you explain such actions?” – Anatoly Demyanenko commented on this issue against the backdrop of the court decision to imprison Pavelko.
Literally immediately after the leadership of the UAF was removed from their posts by the hands of the courts and investigators and physically deprived of the opportunity to communicate with UEFA, the first alarming news for Ukrainian football began to pour in.
At first, UEFA allowed Russian referees to return to refereeing European championships. And soon it also became known that 15 representatives of the Russian Federation were elected to the governing bodies, although previously there were only six of them, and 10 Ukrainian ones, two of whom were in pre-trial detention.
Crimean clubs play in Russian tournaments
One of the saddest consequences of the destabilization of the UAF - at the UEFA level - was also the lack of punishment of Russians by the Union of European Football Associations for including Crimean football teams in their national tournaments. In this case, UEFA limited itself to a quiet “ay-ay-ay”, but no more. And Crimean clubs, despite their neutral status still in effect, today still play in Russian championships. All public calls from the decapitated UAF towards UEFA on this matter have not yet received any proper response.
The national Ukrainian championship has started
Meanwhile, while the vector of anti-Russian football work has clearly crumbled, the UAF continues to simultaneously perform its main functions from the point of view of organizing football life in Ukraine. Despite constant lawsuits and ongoing pressure in the form of incessant searches, the UAF announced the start of the UPL national championship. The first matches took place.
The UAF also announced that it would try to obtain permission to increase the number of representatives of participating teams present at matches.
In addition, the UAF is trying to continue working at the same pace to ensure fair play, and therefore stated that “this season the VAR system will be used in all matches of the UPL tour.”
According to the first vice-president of the Ukrainian Football Association Oleg Protasov, “Ukraine needs football during the war.” The task of resuming national tournaments during the won was given to UAF President Pavelko personally by President Vladimir Zelensky, he recalled.
“Everyone knows that the UAF was attacked in the interests of the aggressor country for its effective work in removing representatives of the Russian Federation from the international arena. There are attempts to destabilize the activities of the association from within. We are faced with challenges we have never seen before - legal pressure, custom-made media attacks. At the end of last year, we also encountered attempts to interfere in the work of the executive bodies of the UAF due to pressure on our regional divisions. But, as I already said, we have done, are doing and will do everything in our power to meet all the challenges in order to fulfill the task given by the President of Ukraine to resume football competitions,” Protasov noted.
In 2022, the President of the Ukrainian Football Association Andrey Pavelko and the General Secretary of the Association Yuriy Zapisotsky received suspicions of embezzlement of funds in proceedings about possible corruption of the FFU during the construction of football fields, which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau investigated in 2018.
They chose a preventive measure - detention with the alternative of posting bail in the amount of almost 9.9 million UAH each. Bail was posted.
On June 16, 2023, the court changed Pavelko’s preventive measure and arrested him for 60 days. On July 14, the court arrested Zapisotsky for 60 days without alternative bail.
A representative of the group of lawyers of the Ukrainian Football Association, Denis Bugai, stated that there was no waste of funds or overpayments during the construction of a plant for the production of artificial football grass and that part of the funds received from the UAF was used by the Arab company SDT to pay off the debt of the Association to the referee Pierluigi Collina.
