The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) has submitted a statement to law enforcement agencies of Ukraine seeking the start of an investigation into alleged involvement of former heads of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU), among who are its ex-president, MP from the Opposition Platform – For Life Party Hryhoriy Surkis and former secretary general Oleksandr Bandurko, in the embezzlement of UEFA funds on an especially large scale.
“The Ukrainian Association of Football appealed to the State Bureau of Investigations, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to register a statement of a criminal offense, enter the relevant information about the crime in the unified register of pretrial instigations, start a pretrial investigation and recognize the Ukrainian Association of Football as a victim and civil plaintiff in this 380 million euros in criminal proceedings,” the UAF said a statement on its Facebook page on Nov. 22.
The UAF drew attention to the investigation of the German edition of Der Spiegel in September, entitled “How UEFA Payments Ended Up in the British Virgin Islands,” which states that since 1999 UEFA transferred funds, totaling 380 million euros, intended for FFU and the development of the Ukrainian football, an offshore company Newport Management Limited in the British Virgin Islands, which, according to the publication, is controlled by Surkis.
The UAF conducted its own investigation.
“The new UAF leadership (then FFU) elected in March 2015 immediately requested the UEFA in writing to cease making payments via the offshore company. Only after changing the UEFA leadership it managed to transfer all payments from UEFA to FFU accounts in Ukraine directly,” the UAF said.
At the same time, the UAF said that according to the internal memo for the UEFA leadership, dated December 2016, President of Dynamo Kyiv Ihor Surkis, the younger brother of Hryhoriy Surkis, may be behind Newport Management Limited. An inspection of FC Dynamo Kyiv by UEFA mission in December 2016 on compliance with financial fair play rules established that Newport Management Limited plays an important role in the financial operations of this club; the investigation by Der Spiegel confirms that the transfers from UEFA were made to the account of Newport Management Limited, which was used to pay salaries to football players and to transfer players on behalf of FC Dynamo; Newport Management Limited did not transfer approximately 2.4 million euros to Dnipro FC for participation in the EUFA Europa League 2015-16.
“An internal investigation conducted by the Ukrainian Association of Football found that Newport Management Limited was obviously a secret fund of FC Dynamo Kyiv. Thus, according to the text of an additional agreement signed in July 2010, Dynamo Kyiv transferred control over the commercial use of all business areas, including television rights, marketing rights and transfers of players, to Newport but, according to the agreement, Newport is obliged to provide Dynamo with the necessary financing so that the team was competitive and was able to achieve high results in sports,” the UAF said in the statement.
