I believe that the ECA will help
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
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FC Shakhtar CEO Serhii Palkin took part in the SportsPro Live 2023 international conference in London
Serhii Palkin, as one of the key speakers of the forum, focused his speech on the war against Ukraine, difficulties of functioning of the clubs under such tough conditions, noted the need for consolidation of global sports community to help Ukraine and Ukrainians.
The FC Shakhtar CEO also commented on the initiative to create the Union of European Clubs (UEC) and revealed more details on the issue in the interview with European media.
– I'm based in Portugal and I see messages of support for Ukraine and Ukrainian flags everywhere across all major leagues, just like everyone who follows football. And it was incredible to see how the world of football was coming together to support you. Many supported you. Others did not. You mentioned the case of losing a lot of your players for free because FIFA introduced Annex 7 to the Regulations where they allowed players to cancel contracts because of the conflict. How did you deal with that? Because I imagine a lot of these players were worth a lot of money in the transfer market, in the summer transfer market. How did that affect the club?
– Before FIFA issued this Annex 7, we tried to contact FIFA many times and had no answer. We knocked on the door many times but nobody opened it. When you read and listen to speeches of FIFA president, he always says that we are one football family. But at that moment, Ukraine was not included in this football family. We were out of this process. How is it possible to make decision to issue Annex 7, not consulting, not contacting with major affected parties? They did not call Ukrainian direction. They didn't communicate with the Ukrainian Premier League or Ukrainian clubs. They just issued this article and we lost half of the team. At this moment, we have lost an investment of EUR 40 million. And as far as I understand now, FIFA wants to prolong this Annex 7 and we will lose additionally EUR 40 million. Therefore, we are losing confidence in what we are doing, resolution to continue investing into Ukrainian football because there is no protection. We are alone. We are alone trying to defend ourselves. Therefore, we have many questions and we need to change a lot in terms of what kind of reaction and attention FIFA should give to Ukrainian clubs, as well as other major and small clubs.
– I guess you could say “thank God for Todd Boehly and Chelsea” because they came in and made a huge offer for Mudryk and that allowed you to get some breathing space as far as funds coming into the club and revenue coming into the club. We’ll get into recruitment in a while because traditionally, for those who don't know, Shakhtar has depended a lot on scouting young South American players, mainly Brazilian players, bringing them over to Ukraine. They're successful, they win titles, they qualify for Champions League. And a lot of times you sell those players on for profit. And being a club that is constantly involved in European competition, whether that's Champions League or Europa League (like you were the season when you finished third in your group), and, obviously, being a part of the distinguished European Club Association (ECA), you would think that you would get support from the ECA in this legal battle against FIFA. Tell us where the battle is now. So, I know FIFA rejected your appeal in order to stop Annex 7 and get some kind of compensation back for the players who were lost for free. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, I believe, also rejected your appeal. So where does that stand? And then how can the European Club Association help you?
– First of all, I will start with Mudryk whom we sold to Chelsea. It helped us to continue running the club and to return our debts because FIFA released our players, but the clubs continued to ask to pay for these players. Can you imagine? Our creditors come to us and ask to pay back. But when I am arguing about how I can pay back if I cannot sell these players, they just disappeared and we have the ongoing war – nobody cares. Therefore, this money we received from selling Mudryk helped us to return back these debts. And finally, yes, we have submitted an application against FIFA to the CAS. And immediately I realized that it was not possible to win against FIFA in the CAS because 80% of the CAS income comes from FIFA. The CAS supervisory board, a representative from FIFA and the president of the panel in our court were appointed by CAS. And he was loyal. And from the first minute you understand that you lose this case. And after that, we decided to move to the European Commission. We've already sent all documents there. And when we receive the full package of our case from the CAS, we will go directly to Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. That’s why, I don't like when we have an organization like FIFA which is above all. We need to show the whole world that we need to be protected somehow. Yes, we are fighting at this moment alone, but one week ago we started sessions with the ECA. They became like mediation between FIFA and Ukrainian clubs. We had already two sessions. I believe that the ECA will help us to find some kind of solution. We are on the way. And one week ago, we invited the president of the ECA Nasser to come to Ukraine, to meet with Ukrainian clubs, to discuss our problems. Why are we in the association? Because we need to help each other. If you have problem, everybody should support you.
– Obviously, the ACA being so influential in the European football landscape, could support you in reply against FIFA. What do you hope they can they can do to help if you meet with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chairman?
– The thing is, I'm glad that we've already started this process because when somebody opens the door for you, you understand that somebody is willing to listen to you. I don't believe that they did a lot. But the most important thing is just to start this process, to see that you are not alone here, to understand that somebody can help you. FIFA is quite tough organization, and I don't believe that they will pay some kind of attention even to the ECA. But why are we communicating with the ECA? Because one week ago I saw a signed memorandum of understanding with FIFA. As I understand, it means that they should listen to each other and help each other.
– Yesterday in Brussels, we saw the launch of a new project, the Union of European Clubs, and they claim they will represent more mid-size and smaller clubs in Europe. How do you see the introduction of the UEC to the European football landscape?
– Actually, they also invited us, invited us to join this organization, invited us to join even a board of this association. Therefore, for me, it's very positive ways because if there is no result in respect of listening to medium and small clubs, if there is no decisions in relation to those clubs, then yes, this organization have a right to be opened and to be supported by the medium and small clubs. If they invite us, we will join them.
The FC Shakhtar CEO also commented on the initiative to create the Union of European Clubs (UEC) and revealed more details on the issue in the interview with European media.
– I'm based in Portugal and I see messages of support for Ukraine and Ukrainian flags everywhere across all major leagues, just like everyone who follows football. And it was incredible to see how the world of football was coming together to support you. Many supported you. Others did not. You mentioned the case of losing a lot of your players for free because FIFA introduced Annex 7 to the Regulations where they allowed players to cancel contracts because of the conflict. How did you deal with that? Because I imagine a lot of these players were worth a lot of money in the transfer market, in the summer transfer market. How did that affect the club?
– Before FIFA issued this Annex 7, we tried to contact FIFA many times and had no answer. We knocked on the door many times but nobody opened it. When you read and listen to speeches of FIFA president, he always says that we are one football family. But at that moment, Ukraine was not included in this football family. We were out of this process. How is it possible to make decision to issue Annex 7, not consulting, not contacting with major affected parties? They did not call Ukrainian direction. They didn't communicate with the Ukrainian Premier League or Ukrainian clubs. They just issued this article and we lost half of the team. At this moment, we have lost an investment of EUR 40 million. And as far as I understand now, FIFA wants to prolong this Annex 7 and we will lose additionally EUR 40 million. Therefore, we are losing confidence in what we are doing, resolution to continue investing into Ukrainian football because there is no protection. We are alone. We are alone trying to defend ourselves. Therefore, we have many questions and we need to change a lot in terms of what kind of reaction and attention FIFA should give to Ukrainian clubs, as well as other major and small clubs.
– I guess you could say “thank God for Todd Boehly and Chelsea” because they came in and made a huge offer for Mudryk and that allowed you to get some breathing space as far as funds coming into the club and revenue coming into the club. We’ll get into recruitment in a while because traditionally, for those who don't know, Shakhtar has depended a lot on scouting young South American players, mainly Brazilian players, bringing them over to Ukraine. They're successful, they win titles, they qualify for Champions League. And a lot of times you sell those players on for profit. And being a club that is constantly involved in European competition, whether that's Champions League or Europa League (like you were the season when you finished third in your group), and, obviously, being a part of the distinguished European Club Association (ECA), you would think that you would get support from the ECA in this legal battle against FIFA. Tell us where the battle is now. So, I know FIFA rejected your appeal in order to stop Annex 7 and get some kind of compensation back for the players who were lost for free. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, I believe, also rejected your appeal. So where does that stand? And then how can the European Club Association help you?
– First of all, I will start with Mudryk whom we sold to Chelsea. It helped us to continue running the club and to return our debts because FIFA released our players, but the clubs continued to ask to pay for these players. Can you imagine? Our creditors come to us and ask to pay back. But when I am arguing about how I can pay back if I cannot sell these players, they just disappeared and we have the ongoing war – nobody cares. Therefore, this money we received from selling Mudryk helped us to return back these debts. And finally, yes, we have submitted an application against FIFA to the CAS. And immediately I realized that it was not possible to win against FIFA in the CAS because 80% of the CAS income comes from FIFA. The CAS supervisory board, a representative from FIFA and the president of the panel in our court were appointed by CAS. And he was loyal. And from the first minute you understand that you lose this case. And after that, we decided to move to the European Commission. We've already sent all documents there. And when we receive the full package of our case from the CAS, we will go directly to Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. That’s why, I don't like when we have an organization like FIFA which is above all. We need to show the whole world that we need to be protected somehow. Yes, we are fighting at this moment alone, but one week ago we started sessions with the ECA. They became like mediation between FIFA and Ukrainian clubs. We had already two sessions. I believe that the ECA will help us to find some kind of solution. We are on the way. And one week ago, we invited the president of the ECA Nasser to come to Ukraine, to meet with Ukrainian clubs, to discuss our problems. Why are we in the association? Because we need to help each other. If you have problem, everybody should support you.
– Obviously, the ACA being so influential in the European football landscape, could support you in reply against FIFA. What do you hope they can they can do to help if you meet with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chairman?
– The thing is, I'm glad that we've already started this process because when somebody opens the door for you, you understand that somebody is willing to listen to you. I don't believe that they did a lot. But the most important thing is just to start this process, to see that you are not alone here, to understand that somebody can help you. FIFA is quite tough organization, and I don't believe that they will pay some kind of attention even to the ECA. But why are we communicating with the ECA? Because one week ago I saw a signed memorandum of understanding with FIFA. As I understand, it means that they should listen to each other and help each other.
– Yesterday in Brussels, we saw the launch of a new project, the Union of European Clubs, and they claim they will represent more mid-size and smaller clubs in Europe. How do you see the introduction of the UEC to the European football landscape?
– Actually, they also invited us, invited us to join this organization, invited us to join even a board of this association. Therefore, for me, it's very positive ways because if there is no result in respect of listening to medium and small clubs, if there is no decisions in relation to those clubs, then yes, this organization have a right to be opened and to be supported by the medium and small clubs. If they invite us, we will join them.