According to reports, Shakhtar Donetsk, a football club from Ukraine, is suing FIFA for €50 million for its temporary transfer policies.
This month, despite the conflict, foreign athletes and coaches at Ukrainian clubs were permitted to renegotiate their contracts and join other teams.
According to The Athletic, the Ukrainian club has now appealed FIFA decisions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) (subscription required).
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, professional football was banned in that nation.
Shakhtar, who was leading the league, hoped to recoup some of the money they lost due to the league’s suspension by selling some of their 14 foreign players. However, FIFA’s decision to introduce a special transfer window on June 21 allowed the players to leave the country for free until June 2023.
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In a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino that The Athletic was able to get, Shakhtar’s managing director Sergei Palkin stated that the club had lost the opportunity to transfer four foreign players for a total of roughly €50 million.
“We all think of ourselves as one big football family. This decision just deleted this catchphrase, “Palkin stated in an interview with the sports website.
“Because no one is interested in Ukrainian clubs, we do not form a single football family. This is truly unfortunate. FIFA doesn’t give a damn about us.”
As a reaction to Shakhtar’s grievance, Euronews has gotten in touch with FIFA.
FIFA’s temporary decision also had an impact on international players and coaches at Russian clubs.
The UEFA Champions League remains off-limits to Russian teams due to the invasion of Ukraine, according to CAS’s decision from last week.
The actions of UEFA and FIFA, according to CAS, were to blame for the sad “adverse effect” that they had on Russian football, but this was “compensated by the requirement for the secure and orderly organization of football tournaments for the rest of the globe.”
Shakhtar Donetsk, the team from the next-highest-ranked nation, keeps their spot in the Champions League group stage as a result of Russia’s disqualification.
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Since conflict broke out between Ukrainian government forces and separatists with Russian support in 2014, Shakhtar has not played any games in its home city in eastern Ukraine.
In a statement on Friday, Palkin claimed that “sport in Russia, and football, in particular, acts as a key tool of state propaganda, supporting Russia’s goals of death and devastation.”
“We appreciate the court for joining groups from many sectors around the world in excluding and isolating Russia from any “normal existence” until it puts an end to the war in Ukraine and gives up all of the occupied Ukrainian regions,” the statement reads.
The 13-time Ukrainian Premier League champions Shakhtar will play their European games in Poland next year at a neutral site.
