Serhiy Palkin: "Ukrainian football is suffering a catastrophe"

Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Serhiy Palkin has spoken about the situation in Ukrainian football.

"Frankly speaking, in the current situation Ukrainian football is suffering a disaster. Fans are not allowed to visit stadiums, so games are played behind closed doors. Clubs have almost zero income inside Ukraine in terms of sponsorship, match revenues, ticket sales and TV rights.

The only option we have is to sell only Ukrainian players (FIFA has introduced a temporary rule according to which foreign players of Ukrainian clubs can unilaterally suspend their contracts for the duration of the war and move to clubs outside Ukraine without transfer fees - ed.). FIFA stole from us the ability to sell some players, that's all. Okay, three or four Ukrainian clubs participate in European cups, can receive financial bonuses from UEFA for this and have a chance to survive more or less. But if we talk about the remaining twelve UPL clubs, the situation is catastrophic. And we are alone with this problem.

This is the most important issue. I am in constant contact with the managers of many of our clubs and I already feel that some of them are becoming complete bankrupts. Some of them even say that they do not know how to survive until the end of the season.

State support from inside Ukraine? There is a war going on, and the Ukrainian government has other priorities now - they know very well who should be supported in the current situation. Football is now in the last position in this respect," The Athletic quoted Palkin as saying.