FC Metalist sold by Yaroslavskiy for $300m

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Aleksander Yaroslavskiy is one of the Ukraine’s most influential businessman and was the main investor in the Euro 2013 contest. He is also the owner if the DCH Group and football club FC Metalist, and his announcement that he has sold the latter has sent shockwaves throughout Russian football. Neither the new investor nor the price paid was initially disclosed, but Forbes have estimated it as approximately $300m.

During the 7 years in which Yaroslavskiy was the president of FC Metalist, the club experienced the brightest stage of development in its entire 85-year history. The businessman has invested more than $ 570 million in the development of Kharkiv football and preparation of the city for Euro 2012.

Formerly 173th place in the UEFA club ranking, FC Metalist now consistently ranks among the top 30 clubs in Europe. Over the past six seasons the team won Ukrainian championship bronze medals six times. In 2007, after a 20-year break, Metalist returned to the European Cup arena: the UEFA Cup first, then Europa League, with victories over Bayer, Sochaux”, “Austria”, “Sporting”, Sampdoria, Debrecen, Besiktas, Galatasaray, and Olympiakos.

This season, the Kharkiv team also excelled with “the goal of the century” scored by Taison, and, as a result, UEFA has added Metalist`s striker to the symbolic European team. In addition, thanks to Yaroslavskiy, the Kharkiv club now has a training camp which, according to football experts, is comparable to the infrastructure of Barcelona and Bayern. And Kharkiv no longer needs to give its young football talents to other clubs – thousands of children are able to train in the academy of Metalist.

At home games the team enjoys the support of full stands, and, thanks to Euro 2012, Kharkiv fans were able to witness matches between the strongest teams in Europe, and with the brightest football stars, such as Michel Platini, or Cristiano Ronaldo, in their native city.

In his statement Yaroslavskiy named the reason for the sale of FC Metalist: “There is only one (and this is the main one) reason why I have to leave the club: The confusing claims of the city government on me as the investor and as a result, an unprecedented psychological pressure exerted on the team and staff. This unhealthy atmosphere threatens all that was created by hard work of many people.” So politically correctly the businessman referred to pressure to transfer the Metalist stadium – the home arena of the club, built for Euro 2012 under the direction of Yaroslavskiy in the format of public-private partnerships (30% of the investments from Yaroslavskiy, 50% from the state budget, and 20% from local budgets of Kharkiv city and Kharkiv region) – to municipal ownership.

Kharkiv journalists found out that the object was built for the money of the president of FC “Metalist”, which the state then gradually and with long delays was compensating. In turn, Gennadiy Kernes is also known for trying to cut popular Gorky Park under the pretext of preparing for Euro 2012, sparking violent protests of the “green”. And for the purchase of overpriced benches for Kharkiv subway and several other controversial decisions.

At the same time, in his farewell letter, Aleksander Yaroslavskiy wrote: “I do not leave Metalist to fend for themselves, I act in their interests. The change in the investor eliminates the personal factor while preserving the source of funding of the club.” In an interview to Forbes, he said: “This is not the first attack to me and to the club, these things had been happening for a long time.

The question is not just me. There is a team, there is the head coach, the administration. I can not always breathe courage and bravery in people. I am sure for myself, I am a self-sufficient person, and the players do not understand how this can happen. Many of them are foreigners. For them, things like that are just wild…. So I found a sponsor who will fund the club.”

The new owner of FC Metalist is the non-public young Kharkiv lawyer and businessman, 27-year-old Sergii Kurchenko. In his inaugural statement, he announced ambitious goals for the club, but his meeting with the head coach of Metalist, Myron Markevych, has not yet taken place.

 

Italian football game cut short after racism incident

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A football game that was held last Thursday in Busto Arsizio had to be stopped. The game involved the teams Milan and Pro Patria and it was cut off in less than 30 minutes because the crowd started harassing and chanting racist remarks against the player Kevin-Prince Boateng, who belongs to the Milan team. The player didn’t take it well and he reacted negatively by kicking the ball to the crowd.

A representative from the other team, Dario Alberto Polverini, pleaded with Boateng to stay but apparently Boateng didn’t heed him as he proceeded to walk off the pitch along with his team members. Among those who walked out was Massimo Ambrosini, who is the captain of the team. Boateng wasn’t the only one targeted as other players namely Urby Emanuelson, M’Baye Niang and Sulley Muntari were also verbally abused by the crowd.

Boateng sounded off in Twitter saying that he was disappointed that such a thing happened. Massimilano Allegri, who was the coach of Team Milan, told the paper, Gazetta dello Sport that he was also disappointed at what happened. However, he respected his black players and considered walking out of the game as the right thing to do.

He later apologised for his team’s actions but he said that this was the only way for them to send a clear message against racism but he did, however, promise that they would have another try at the game. Ambrosini mentioned to the paper that from the moment the game started, he was very disappointed and annoyed with the crowd.

His intention was to give a clear message that they just couldn’t proceed with such a negative atmosphere. There were many who lauded Boateng’s actions particularly the anti-racist organisations. One such prominent anti-racist organisation, FARE, through their executive director, Piara Powar, called for further action from the Italian Football Association regarding the incident.

 

 

Racism in Russian football a major cause for concern

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Accusations of racism in Russia’s football clubs are proving detrimental to the country’s image, especially as preparations are going forward for Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup. Though the authorities generally claim that charges of racism are only applicable to a small hard-core group of fans, recent news indicates a different story.

The championship team Zenit Saint Petersburg has been the focus of a lot of media attention, in part because they signed two black players in early September. Hulk, the Brazilian forward and Axel Witsel, the Belgian midfielder are the first blacks ever recruited to Zenit, and they have more than competition on the playing field to contend with.

Zenit’s biggest fan club is known as Landskrona; they are hard-core fans but they’re also hard-core in their views of racial purity. The group has loudly advocated a policy of signing only ‘pure’ white players, which in their opinion excludes blacks from anywhere, South Americans and gays of any colour. Landskrona and others in their racist camp have become an embarrassment to the Russian Football Union and to many of the Russian players.

Last summer at the European Championships the Russian soccer federation got hit with a $150,000 fine after a display of nationalistic flags and clashes with stewards, and there have been many other incidents of blatant hostility on the part of some Russian fan groups. For the most part, officials tend to deny that there’s really a serious problem, but most agree that the racist element could create a lot of tension and hostility during the World Cup matches.

A former Zenit coach, Raymond Verheijen, feels that the racial issue is a serious one and should be dealt with by action from the sports governing body. He said he was shocked that Zenit fans had gone so far as to demand an all-white team, and that the club and the Federation should take responsibility for preventing and/or punishing racist behavior in the football world.