Football news

Former Dnipro and Ukraine national team striker Denys Balaniuk has been disqualified under a "doping article".

According to the list of athletes disqualified for violating anti-doping rules from the National Anti-Doping Center, Balaniuk is disqualified for sample substitution starting from December 26, 2023.

It should be noted that since November 2020, Denis has played for the following clubs: "Torpedo (Moscow, Russia), Mariehamn (Finland), Spartak (Varna, Bulgaria) and Samgurali (Georgia). It is not reported which team the player, now 27 years old, committed the offense for.

Serhiy Kunitsyn is a legendary figure in football and politics in Crimea. Theformer president of Tavria, president of the Football Association of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and former prime minister of the Crimean autonomy are just some of the 63-year-old Ukrainian politician's resume.

Read completely →

This afternoon, the Russian city of Kursk hosted a Second League A match between the local Avangard and Omsk Irtysh.

Read completely →

Armenian journalist Khrach Khachatryan claims on Twitter that he has information about the transfer of a Russian footballer to Paris Saint-Germain.

It is reported that PSG has made a serious request for Krasnodar goalkeeper and so-called Russian national team player Matvey Safonov and is ready to sign him for €20 million. However, there has been no official offer yet.

Former Ukraine national team and Lviv Karpaty player Ihor Khudobiak recalled the circumstances under which he decided to move to Russian Rostov.

Read completely →

The traitor to Ukraine Anatoliy Tymoshchuk answered the question of local propagandists about the dominance of Brazilians in Zenit, where he serves as an assistant.

Read completely →

Legendary forward and UAF President Andriy Shevchenko spoke in an interview with NV about his attitude towards Ukrainian athletes who continue to play and live in Russia.

- I do not make any contacts. Russia is the aggressor, and all those who support it are enemies for me. There is no point in talking about them. We are moving forward, we have made our choice. This is the main thing. I recently saw Vashchuk at a football match. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who serve in the Armed Forces. There are also those who have died. This is a huge pain and devastation. And at the same time, I have great respect for those who went to defend Ukraine," said Andriy Mykolayovych.

Former Ukraine defender Artem Fedetskyi told us whether it is worth returning defender Ivan Ordets, who is on loan from German side Bochum, to the national team of Ukraine.

- A stable player for Bochum, he beat Bayern Munich? So what? We need to talk about human qualities here, not football qualities. Ordets should be forgotten forever. Let him beat the world team, we don't need to remember him.

His challenge will destroy the atmosphere in the national team. I think Rebrov himself understands this perfectly well. There is no need to even mention Ordets. He is from Volnovakha, which was destroyed by the Russians, and his contract still belongs to Dynamo Moscow, and he has not clearly expressed his position on the war. Such people should be forgotten. Let him live his own life, which suits him. Ukraine definitely does not need him," Sport-express quotes Fedetsky as saying.

Girona forward Artem Dovbyk commented to Tribuna on the information that he will be able to take part in the match against Real Madrid in the 24th round of the Spanish championship on 10 February.

"It's a secret," Dovbyk said.

Due to a knee injury, the footballer missed the 0-0 match with Real Sociedad on 3 February. This season, he has scored 14 goals and made 8 assists in 24 matches.

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has ordered Norwegian footballer Mathias Norman to pay compensation to Russian club Rostov for the termination of his contract. The Norwegian fled Russia after a drone attack on Moscow.

This was reported by Nettavisen with reference to the FIFA decision, which is at the disposal of the publication. According to the source, Mathias must pay Rostov 2.9 million euros in compensation.

The Norwegian insisted on his innocence, calling what happened to him in Russia force majeure. In addition, he said he was concerned about his safety, and Rostov did not engage in dialogue and ignored him. However, most of the judges in the trial sided with the Russian club.

The source adds that if Norman is unable to pay the €2.9 million in compensation on his own, this obligation will fall on Saudi Arabian Al-Raed, which lured the player. The footballer was given 45 days to pay the compensation. If he ignores this, he may be suspended from football, and Al Raed will face sanctions from FIFA in the form of a ban on player registration.

Andrey Arshavin, deputy general director of Zenit St Petersburg, has compared his club with Shakhtar Donetsk in the context of the number of Brazilian legionnaires brought into the team.

"10 years ago I told the owner of the club that we should do like Shakhtar. And, in principle, we have now become similar to Shakhtar.

Naturally, in terms of philosophy I would like us to be like Barcelona. But for this we need the club academy to produce players. And for this, we need not only to invest money in the academy, but also to instil the soul and philosophy," Russian media quoted Arshavin as saying.

The so-called "deputy chairman of the defence committee" of the illegal State Duma, Alexei Zhuravlev, has accused local football players of betrayal.

- I don't recall any cases of any of our footballers giving even part of their fabulous salaries to the Russian army. Maybe it's such a treacherous environment in general, because we don't hear any other opinions from the football guard," the member of the "parliament" said.

It seems that the flight of football players from the terrorist state will soon intensify considerably.