Officially. Address of the Executive Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine

28.12.2018 12:00

Appeal of the Executive Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk regarding the inadmissibility of influence of state authorities on the activity of FFU.

The Executive Committee of the Football Federation of Ukraine is forced to say that the hybrid information war against the FFU and its leadership, which began in the spring of 2018, is still ongoing. Its manifestations are individual statements, openly biased articles and media stories, which contain unjustified accusations against the organization. Unfortunately, for the sake of achieving this goal, the campaigners do not neglect to manipulate facts known by football names and political figures.

As an example, a recent manifestation of this hybrid information war was the appeal of the former President of Ukraine and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of FC Dynamo Kyiv Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk to the current President Petro Poroshenko to “understand the situation related to the activities of the Football Federation of Ukraine and its leadership ". In addition, Leonid Kravchuk stated that such a request was supported by two dozen well-known veterans of Ukrainian football. At the same time, some of the individuals he mentioned later said that they did not sign the letter and that their signatures could have been falsified.

Obviously, the former Head of State, under whose presidency the Football Federation of Independent Ukraine was created, was misled and was not informed about the real state of affairs in the FFU and the possible consequences of his address to the President of Ukraine.

At the same time, we consider it necessary to remind that according to the FIFA Statute, each association manages its affairs independently and cannot be influenced, in particular, political, as well as by its interference with third parties, including the state and public authorities .

Failure to comply with these requirements entails an immediate reaction from FIFA in the form of suspension of FIFA membership of the Association and disqualification of all association and club teams of the Association, with the exclusion of all competitions held under the auspices of FIFA.

There are examples of how a number of national associations have been suspended by FIFA through various forms of government interference and direct influence on their activities: unlawful change of leadership without transparent democratic elections, blocking of management access, blocking of accounts of organizations, administration, lawsuits to associations, the pressure of the state on possible corruption abuses and the threat of the state to dissolve the existing association and create an alternative to it.

As a result, the membership of Pakistan, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Kuwait has been suspended only in recent years due to state intervention and its influence on the activities of FIFA associations.

Football federations and the leadership of football nations such as Spain, Greece, Nigeria, Ghana and Albania have been warned by FIFA for a possible suspension of their membership in FIFA unless the state immediately suspends any action on its interference with football matters.

In fact, there is a corresponding negative experience in the history of Ukrainian football. In particular, at the end of 2010, when the team of another former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, tried to change the leadership of the federation by force and contrary to the FFU statute, UEFA issued a warning about the inadmissibility of such actions. The mentioned actions of the authorities created at that time a serious threat of losing Ukraine's right to host the matches of the final part of Euro-2012.

Against this background, we appeal to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to refrain from any action that may be considered by FIFA as influencing or interfering with the activity of the Football Federation of Ukraine and capable of suspending FFU membership in FIFA with automatic disqualification and removal of all national teams and club teams from competitions held under the auspices of FIFA.

The Football Federation of Ukraine is always open to dialogue with the media, the public, fans and authorities. The main priorities in FFU's activities are the comprehensive development of football among all segments of the population, as well as maximum transparency and social responsibility. The FFU Executive Committee, which represents the football community of Ukraine, expresses full and complete support for the reform course implemented by the leadership of the Ukrainian Football Federation and supports all its initiatives aimed at updating and growing Ukrainian football.