Sports lawyer Ilya Skoropashkin spoke about the nuances of litigation between Ukrainian defender Yevhen Khacheridi and Dynamo Brest.
Recall that in the winter of 2021, Khacheridi left the Belarusian club ahead of schedule and began litigation with him regarding the amount of compensation due to the club's violation of the terms of the contract. A few days ago, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of Lausanne put an end to this dispute, awarding the Ukrainian compensation in the amount of 600 thousand dollars.
- As far as I understand, CAS decided to give Evgeny a birthday present, approving the final decision on July 28?
— You can say that. In fact, we received the decision of the Lausanne Court a little earlier.
- Tell us in a nutshell what happened to Khacheridi in Dynamo Brest, why did he leave the team and how did he get the right to compensation?
— Evgeniy signed a two-year contract with Dynamo Brest in 2019. At that time, the club was the champion of the country and was in private hands. A year later, the situation has changed. The club passed into state ownership. Uncertainty arose, there were delays in payments. Eugene decided to terminate the contract due to a violation of its terms by the club.
- Why did they initially ask for a million dollars, what was this figure tied to?
- The contract itself established this amount of compensation for violation of its terms by one of the parties.
- If the amount was agreed upon by the parties, then why did they file complaints?
- The claim, first of all, is filed to establish the fact of violation of the terms of the contract by one of the parties. First, we turned to the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, which confirmed the violations and did not change the amount of the contractual compensation.
But the sole arbiter of CAS probably listened to the club, whose main argument was the lack of money to pay such an amount. They referred to the maintenance of a children's and youth school, teams of young players of different ages, insufficient funding, and more.
- Do you agree with the decision of the court?
- Previously, we considered options for an out-of-court solution to this issue, but the club took a tough stance. During the trial, we proved numerous violations of the football player's rights. Eugene himself is pleased with the decision. It is acceptable enough.
— How will you do it now? Belarusians agree to pay?
- Now banking operations with Belarus have been completely stopped, as a country - an assistant to the aggressor, who unleashed a full-scale war in Ukraine, destroys social infrastructure, and carries out regular terrorist attacks against the civilian population of Ukraine.
But the club confirmed its readiness to comply with the CAS decision. We hope for help from international football institutions.
Andrey Shevchenko