The Paphos FC was almost unknown in European football until a few weeks ago. Now he plays in the Champions League against FC Bayern – thanks to two men who raise many questions.
When asked what he knew about the Paphos FC, Jan-Christian Dreesen said: “That he is in Cyprus.” He was right with it, and that the CEO of FC Bayern no longer knew about the next opponent of Munich in the Champions League, hardly anyone will resent him.
The club from the coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus is a newcomer to the European elite league. He is an upstart that became a champion in the highest national league eleven years after its foundation. That sounds like a fairy tale, especially since the 2014 club was created from a fusion of AE Paphos with AEK Kouklia, two from a European perspective also very light -weight clubs.
Dreesen could have called up such information during the flight to Cyprus on pages such as Wikipedia. This also applies to the names of the two men who are behind the climb, who is not a fairy tale, like everyone who will have been aware of modern football: Sergej Lomakin and Roman Dubov are the two men. They are often referred to as the two Russian investors who have procured money and success for Paphos FC since 2017.
Lomakin and Dubov – The puzzling investors of Bayern opponents Paphos
In all caution, which is also required compared to the truth content of Wikipedia, entries would be helpful, if only to know the age of men and possibly receive useful links.
But both have no entry, and the search engines of the Internet usually only offer sources that seem to have written off each other. You can read several times about DuboV that he is a Russian born in 1974 in Hungary who has also had British citizenship for many years.
Paphos investor was already active in English football
A serious Source of the British government lists in a directory similar to the German corporate register that Dubov was and is involved in many companies, including “Total Sport Investments” (TSI). On the company side of the company, Dubov is as CEO designated. The Russian flag is missing under the photo of the boss, but the Hungarian and the Union Jack can be seen.
The portfolio includes some fitness apps, also the media company “Dugout”, which was bought up by the significant more well -known “Onefootball” platform in 2020.
The company’s realm and the activities of the Roman Dubov branches into many corners of football, including a start-up to the Italian first division team Como 1907, another upstart.
Another club that appears in connection with DuboV is that of FC Portsmouth. The former English champion got into considerable financial turbulence and under forced administration around 2010. The owner switched several times, but also duboV, but then moved out again because another person from the consortium was arrested for fraud and later sentenced to prison. Dubov, according to a report by the local newspaper in Portsmouth, had nothing to do with the crime.
Paphos investor Lomakin was once a Cypriot citizen
The other man who helped the Paphos FC to climb is called Sergei Lomakin. The Russian, born in 1973, was sometimes a Cypricese citizen. But citizenship was withdrawn again after an investigation commission had taken a closer look at who she had given the Cypric passport to bring investments on the island.
Three offenses in themselves or in combination could have led to the withdrawal of citizenship: presentation of false or misleading information, criminal records, non -compliance with the conditions. What came into play at Lomakin is not known.
“Forbes” estimates Lomakin’s assets to one billion euros
Lomakin, who, according to the renowned US magazine “Forbes”, is estimated to be around one billion euros, has become rich through a retail discounter that operates thousands of branches in Russia and surrounding countries.
Lomakin is also involved in FC Rodina from Moscow, a Russian second division club. Riga FC is also listed as a club in various sources, in which Lomakin at least holds shares.
A report by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung from May 2023 states: “Lomakin is not allowed to enter Latvia, he is on a black list.” The Latvian Ministry of the Interior demonstrably leads such a perona-non-grata list and publishes new additions on its homepage. The complete list is not public. It remains to be clarified whether Lomakin, as can be read in many sources, is actually a person in Latvia – like so many things about two men who have brought Paphos FC from Cyprus to the map of great European football.