Konstantin Valeulin, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of FC Metalist 1925, addressed the "fans and the football community" with a statement announcing the actual termination of the club's operations.
Konstantin Valeulin"Charles de Gaulle said: "Always choose the most difficult path - there you will not meet any competitors". AES Group has always lived by this principle and, back in 2016, took a direct part, together with many football romantics in Kharkiv, in the birth of a new football project - the people's club Metalist 1925, which the city began to call "Born in Battle", that is, to call things honestly - the Great War began in 2014.
"In 2020, AES Group became the Club's general investor, leading the team to the Premier League, creating a competitive and very promising U19 team, and preserving the children's academy, which is a particular pride of the Club. Watching joyful children on the green fields of the city during the war was like watching fire or a mountain river, this energy gave us the strength to move on. This year, in the new season, a new women's project, Metalist 1925, was launched. The girls' team in the Premier League has become a real highlight of the Club. During July and August, the team was joined by new players, and the plans were really ambitious.
Over the years, AES Group, together with the club, has experienced the joy of success, the bitterness of defeat, and the sadness of fans leaving for another club, which was especially painful because at those moments, we gave up. Despite the comments of detractors that it was a fake project and would soon die, the club lived and developed. Waking up in horror in February 2022, the club, like the whole country, united in one powerful fist of resistance to the aggressor. "During this wartime, AES Group worked properly, fulfilling the tasks of the Ukrainian government and replenishing the country's budget. From the very first days of the war, the company was involved in maintaining the viability of the region and provided material support to the defence forces. At the same time, the company's management decided to continue the activities of the Metalist 1925 club, realising that a new patriotic society would be born in peaceful Ukrainian Kharkiv against the backdrop of victory, and it would need true guidelines, such as Zhadan in culture, and that Born in Battle had every chance of becoming such a guideline in sports.
During the year and a half of the war, the company suffered four missile attacks on its assets. But it was not just the assets that suffered, the military attacks took human lives, the lives of our employees and like-minded people. The first two attacks were a knockdown, but despite the heavy losses, we survived. During the off-season, the club made new plans for the future. The application for the 2023/24 season and the birth of the women's team directly indicates the fact that we had ambitious plans and real opportunities. The third missile strike at the end of July 2023 on the port infrastructure of Odesa region was a knockout blow for AES Group. We lost almost all our assets in Ukraine. The air attack that took place on the night of 10 August was the last crushing blow. Unfortunately, this is the essence of war, its price and its consequences.
Today, AES Group is forced to announce the termination of funding for Metalist 1925 Football Club, sincerely hoping that the pack of jackals will not be happy about this development.
We have been open and honest with the Club and its fans, and we are honest today, informing them that we have been mortally wounded by the aggressor.
We apologise to everyone who was upset by this message, especially the Club's employees, players and fans, but this news is an objective reality of today.
It is now necessary to convene the General Meeting of the Club's founders to discuss this difficult situation. "AES Group holds a controlling stake, however, there are other founders who can take up our initiative to develop the Club and provide its financing, or make other proposals.
With this message, we are addressing Kharkiv citizens from all over the world, government authorities, business representatives and the global football community.
We are ready for any proposals, from temporary productive cooperation to the free transfer of the Club's corporate rights. "Born in Battle is not a project of one investor, it is a project of the future peaceful sports revival of the Kharkiv region."
