Shakhtar and other Ukrainian teams still have to pay amounts due to teams outside the country, including for players who were allowed to suspend their contracts.
Palkin described an example of a situation where the team agreed to sign a player from an Italian team just before the Russian invasion. The player never set foot in Ukraine and was cleared to move elsewhere, leaving Shakthar on the hook for around $9 million. He asked his former team to call off the deal and sell him elsewhere, but those talks fell through. Shakhtar refused the payment, Palkin said, and the club, which he declined to name, is asking FIFA to punish Shakhtar.
Palkin said efforts to reach an agreement with FIFA have largely met with silence. Several Ukrainian teams have asked the governing body to suspend their obligations to other clubs until normal operations can be established. He also suggested that FIFA, which said it had won $7.5 billion from the World Cup in Qatar, could also create “a reparations fund” for Ukrainian teams.
Shakhtar, which is owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, has the highest wage bill among Ukrainian teams. But he also benefits from his participation in the Champions League, the biggest club competition in Europe. His home games are played across the border in Poland and have provided a lucrative – and much-needed – financial boost, as well as a platform for his talents bred in the country, who, unlike players foreigners, are not able to suspend their contracts.
This has allowed Palkin to try to negotiate player sales before the European mid-season player swap window opens next month. He recently attended meetings in London with English clubs interested in signing 21-year-old striker Mykhailo Mudryk, considered one of the biggest emerging talents in European football.
Palkin said he was aware of teams looking to take advantage of his team’s situation and he didn’t want to be forced to sell below market despite the ongoing difficulties. This means Mudryk could stay with Shakhtar until next summer’s off-season, a time when the biggest trades are usually made. “It’s quite a long negotiation process,” he said.
The Ukrainian league is currently on winter hiatus and is expected to resume in March. By then, there should be a resolution in the case of Shakhtar v FIFA.
“We want to sit down with all the stakeholders and come up with a plan,” Palkin said. “And we want fairness and justice.”
#Fresh #World #Cup #FIFA #faces #legal #challenge #Ukraine
