Quartet affected by Solomon
The Ukrainian top club Shakhtar Donetsk is demanding 50 million euros in damages from the world association FIFA. The club is said to have filed a complaint with the Court of Justice for Sports CAS against a decision by FIFA, such as “The Athleticreported. FIFA had opened an extraordinary transfer window for foreign players and coaches in Russian and Ukrainian clubs due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
On June 21, the World Football Association decided to extend this special regulation by one year until June 30, 2023. The council ruled that contracts with Ukrainian clubs will be automatically suspended until after the end of next season and that players at Russian clubs can unilaterally suspend their contracts until then. Already on March 7th, FIFA decided on these measures, which are valid until June 30th. The suspension of a contract means “that players and coaches (…) are considered to be without a contract and are therefore free to sign a contract with another club without any consequences,” FIFA explained at the time.
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Shakhtar, who have only played their home games in other cities since 2014 due to the war in eastern Ukraine, had 14 foreign players under contract. According to the report, Shakhtar wanted to sell its foreign players in order to generate funds because the Russian invasion had already reduced revenues massively. Football has been suspended in Ukraine since the Russian attack on February 24.
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Lawsuit against FIFA: Shakhtar Donetsk sales collapsed in 48 hours
Accordingly, the club was actively talking about several sales, but these came to a standstill with the FIFA decision at the end of June. For example, a transfer of Manor Solomon (22) was negotiated with Premier League promoted FC Fulham for several weeks. According to Shakhtar’s chief executive Sergiy Palkin, the clubs had already agreed a transfer fee of €7.5m.
“Due to FIFA’s decision, FC Shakhtar has lost the opportunity to transfer four foreign players for a total of 50 million euros,” said Palkin’s letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, available to The Athletic. In it, Palkin announces that he will go to the CAS if no solution is found. The deals collapsed within 48 hours of the decision, Palkin said in an interview with The Athletic. It was impossible to sell all the players in just under a week anyway. FIFA should at least have given the Ukrainian clubs a larger window of opportunity.
“Everyone thinks we are a football family. This decision simply crossed out that slogan. We are not a football family because nobody cares about Ukrainian clubs. That’s too bad. FIFA doesn’t care about us,” said Palkin, whose club is now struggling financially. “To sum up the whole story, FIFA is like a god in heaven. You can’t reach her, it’s like nobody knows where she is. You can’t communicate with FIFA, they don’t answer, they don’t respond properly to our questions. It’s hard for me to understand.”
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