Lawyer: 'Dovbik's agent may lose FIFA agent status'

Lawyer Evgeny Kuzmin, who is dealing with the recent scandal related to Artem Dovbik's transfer to Girona, told us what the essence of the case is and what facts of the forward's transfer to the Spanish club may become the subject of a UEFA financial fair-play investigation.

- As a lawyer, I notified both Alexey Lyundovsky himself and FC Girona about these facts to the email. Everything is backed up by papers. I am sure that the competent football authorities of UEFA, where I have prepared a lawsuit, will look into these violations and make a fair and appropriate decision. I hope that the Ukrainian Football Association will also pay attention to this case.

Returning to your question, I note that, as in other transfers, FC Girona had to pay for the transfer of Artem Dovbik to SC Dnipro-1 and Lyundovskiy himself the amount due. This is what happened.

In this case, taxation should take place exclusively under Ukrainian law. It is natural when the seller is a Ukrainian club, Dovbik is a Ukrainian player and Lundovskyi is a Ukrainian agent. All payments should go to the accounts of Ukrainian banks only. If we talk about sports law, the footballer is registered as a client of the Ukrainian company of Lundovskiy. And only this organisation has the right to accept any payments related to Artem Dovbik.

In this case, it is unclear on what documents the payment for agency services was made to the Estonian company, which is registered to the Ukrainian agent. This is already the subject of pre-trial investigation.

- But it is not prohibited to have a foreign company. There are even tax regulations for CFCs (controlled foreign companies) in Ukraine.

- Lundovsky has also registered a personal residence in the Republic of Estonia, living permanently (more than 183 days in each calendar year) and having his main and only residence exclusively in Ukraine.

According to information from the Estonian Commercial Register, no other transactions other than agency payments were made for Dovbik by his company. Although the payment should have been made in favour of the Ukrainian company to Ukrainian bank accounts, which did not happen, as well as most likely taxes in Ukraine were not paid. According to the most minimal calculations, Ukraine could lose a very decent amount of budget revenues from this transfer.

Artem Dovbik is not only a player of the national team of Ukraine, but also a citizen of Ukraine, so such actions of Oleksiy Lundovskiy may include signs of economic aggression against our state.

- What sanctions can UEFA impose on Girona and Oleksiy Lundovskiy in case of improper transfer of Artem Dovbik from Dnipro-1 to Girona?

- In this case, UEFA may impose sanctions on the Spanish club FC Girona, Ukrainian SC Dnipro-1 and Oleksiy Lundovskiy's agent. For the clubs - a large monetary fine, loss of licence and suspension from participation in the national championship and in European club tournaments. The football agent himself could face the loss of his licence to act as an agent.