UAF Vice President Kostyuchenko at the center of the investigation: $2.5 million and an estate near Kiev

Corruption in the field of professional football: while the head of the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) Pavelko is under investigation, his deputy Kostyuchenko is building a luxury cottage near Kyiv, not paying attention to it.

Scandal after scandal: overestimation of the cost of construction work, falsification of documents, withdrawal of funds to offshore companies, international criminal cases and forceful pressure on journalists - this is just a small list of abuses of which top UAF Andrei Pavelko and his “team” are suspected. But despite many years of investigations around the Ukrainian Football Association and the discovery of multi-million dollar “schemes”, only a few of those involved have been punished.

Why, while the head of the UAF Andrei Pavelko is preparing to celebrate the New Year in a pre-trial detention center, his deputy and comrade-in-arms Vadim Kostyuchenko avoids official suspicion and only increases his own fortune? StopCora journalist Diana Lovskaya carefully examined the details of cases of large-scale abuses in the UAF and the possible involvement of Mr. Kostyuchenko in these “schemes.”

Back in November 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that five criminal cases had been initiated against the head of the UAF, 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 Pavelko and the general secretary of the association Yuriy Zapisotsky into custody for two months with bail of UAH 9.88 million.

However, these big names are probably just the tip of the corruption iceberg.

Thus, as investigative journalists found out, UAF Deputy Chairman Vadim Kostyuchenko was a signatory of agreements on the purchase of land plots for the base of national teams in Knyazhichi, where according to the agreement the amount was 8 million UAH, and FIFA was asked for $2.5 million for these needs. However, in open court registers, media workers were able to find only one case in which the vice-president of the UAF appears. And it does not concern the theft of huge funds, but only the forgery of his own diploma, thanks to which Kostyuchenko received a considerable salary from the budget.

Moreover, despite the loud scandals, the functionary, who is called the “gray eminence” of the UAF, not only walks freely, but also improves his own financial situation. Thus, the construction of Vadim Kostyuchenko’s elite estate in the village of Vishenki in the Kiev region is only gaining momentum during the full-scale invasion.

How does Andrei Pavelko’s “right hand” manage to continue to get away with it? StopCor is already preparing to release a large-scale investigation into corruption schemes in the UAF. So subscribe to our YouTube channel and wait for the broadcast!

Let us remind you that the first vice-president of the Odessa Football Federation, Petr Chilibi, in an interview with StopCor, openly spoke about the “dirty games” of UAF leaders Pavelko and Kostyuchenko in regional federations.