Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin commented on his club's financial difficulties.
Sergey Palkin (photo: V. Rasner)- Before the war, we bought half a dozen players for whom we owe clubs. We have no income on the Ukrainian market, we are at war, how could we reimburse them? FIFA initiated mediation, and when we discussed it, I asked the same question: "How can I pay if you let my player leave for free?" I was told: "We understand, but you still have to pay your debts. We know it's difficult, but if you don't pay, UEFA can revoke your licence to compete."
They are afraid of a domino effect. If we don't reimburse a club, that club will tell another club that it can't pay either because it hasn't received money from the Ukrainian club... An interesting and ironic theory. Why should we be the only ones to suffer? We are going through a war, and you want to shift all these problems onto Ukrainian football? Where is your help, where is your support?
The money from Mykhailo Mudryk's transfer? Firstly, we have not yet received the full amount and have to pay our debts. A significant amount of this transfer will be used for this. We also finance social actions. We help refugees, people who have lost loved ones, seriously wounded soldiers... We also provide weapons to our ultras who are on the frontline, and there are a lot of them," Palkin told L'Equipe.
