You're reading: Melnyk, confident billionaire with Ukrainian roots, takes on Putin

Eugene Melnyk, the billionaire owner of the Ottawa Senators NHL hockey team, wants to hit Russia, the 2018 World Cup host, and FIFA, the tournament’s administering organization, where it hurts: in their pocketbooks.

Last month, he launched United with Ukraine, a grassroots organization dedicated to stopping Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and its illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

A primary component of the campaign, according to the 55-year-old Toronto native with Ukrainian roots, is an international boycott of the prestigious tournament’s sponsors. On June 5, it expanded its list of targets from the beer sponsor, Anheuser-Busch InBev, to Visa, Kia and Sony.

Anheuser-Busch InBev spokesperson Karen Couck told the Kyiv Post that “we are aware of the campaign and have reached out to the organizers. Decisions as to the location of the FIFA World Cup are made by the FIFA Governing Body without any sponsor consultation. We would be happy to facilitate a contact with FIFA, because we believe direct dialogue can be most effective in addressing concerns.”

But Melnyk said that even though Western nations are mulling additional economic sanctions to further punish Russia, another opportunity is to have FIFA strip Russia of its 2018 World Cup hosting rights, whose budget for the tournament stands at $20 billion. “Russia has illegally invaded a sovereign nation, broken international laws and is orchestrating daily terrorist activities within Ukraine. I do not believe Anheuser-Busch InBev, Visa, Kia Motors and Sony are companies that want to align or associate their brands with Vladimir Putin and Russia. These global companies and their once loyal customers have an important principled choice to make.”

Moscow officials, including the Russian president, have called Crimea a historic part of Russia and deny any involvement in the separatist movements in eastern Ukraine.

Melnyk’s strategy, thus, is to shame the World Cup’s corporate partners into dropping their support. If sponsors start to exit, then FIFA will be compelled to strip Russia’s hosting rights and conduct another vote.

Sponsors, he added, have an “economic and a public relations interest” in “protecting their reputations,” Melnyk told the Kyiv Post in a telephone interview.

Melnyk, who made his fortune in the pharmaceuticals industry, said he chose the campaign because “I’m on the other side of the ocean. I’m not living there (in Ukraine), and I can’t pick up a gun and fight.”

But he doesn’t trust FIFA will do the right thing on its own. He challenged the soccer governing body to live up to its mantra of using the power of football as a “unifying force…for social and human development…” By letting Russia host the event, FIFA is being “hypocritical,” he said.

“If football is to be a force for peace in the world, there can be no place in football for warmongers and aggressors,” he wrote in a May 22 letter to Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito.

In April, FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke balked at the idea of dropping Russia. “We would like to emphasize that teams participate in the World Cup and other competitions under the auspices of FIFA solely on the basis of the principle of sports and nothing else,” Valcke said, cited by U.S. media sources.

Alleged FIFA corruption is another reason why Melnyk, whose grandparents come from Chernivtsi Oblast, doesn’t have faith in FIFA.

British media, including The Sunday Times, have published investigations that uncovered alleged bribery of FIFA executive committee members when they voted in 2010 to award Qatar hosting rights for 2022. Russia was awarded hosting rights the same year. A cache of e-mails revealed a $5 million slush fund that was allegedly used to bribe soccer officials.

FIFA didn’t respond to a media inquiry before the Kyiv Post went to print.

“I’ve never liked FIFA, I perceive the leadership of Sepp Blatter as being more corrupt than the worst third world country,” said Melnyk. “They run it like a fiefdom, they make hundreds of millions of dollars…there hasn’t been any transparency, and I think enough is enough.”

FIFA’s ethics investigator, New York lawyer Michael Garcia, has launched an investigation. He is expected to report to Blatter and his officials after July 12 when the World Cup ends this summer in Brazil.

Asked how United With Ukraine and the website boycottputinnow.com will gain traction and reach a global audience, Melnyk said: “by being relentless.”

The group’s website is available in 12 languages, including in Russian, Korean and Chinese, and could receive funding of up to “$50 million over the next two years if required,” added Melnyk. “This is not a one-off thing,” he said.

He said that Russia’s hosting rights must be withdrawn by 2016 to give another country time to prepare.

Melnyk said public opinion is on his side.

“This is a purely passionate venture that runs very deep because of my committed roots to Ukraine. It is like, would you jump in front of a car to save your children? Of course, you would. In this case, I could do this. Will I upset a few people in the corporate hierarchies of these companies? Yes, but guess what, Russia is killing people.”

At the very least, he said, the boycott campaign may temper Putin from undertaking further military campaigns.

Asked to assess his chances of success, Melnyk said the group can achieve “a certain diplomatic result, which is ultimately what is required” only if it is persistent, otherwise it’s “going to get ugly for the sponsors, and they will wish they never got involved in this thing only because their reputations are now going to get sullied over a World Cup and they’re wondering what the hell they got themselves into.”

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].