Dnipro-1 Commercial Director Vyacheslav Fridman confirmed the Dnipro club's withdrawal from the Ukrainian championship and shared his plans for the future.
Vyacheslav Fridman- Vyacheslav Yevhenovych, is it true that Dnipro-1 has already submitted a letter to the UPL about withdrawing from the championship?
- Yes, that's right. The letter was signed by the general director of Dnipro-1, Anton Fursov. We are not going to spoil the championship for anyone, so we made this decision. Let the UPL decide who will play instead of Dnipro-1. We are not ready to participate in the championship this year. We asked the UPL to retain the status of a professional club for Dnipro-1. Perhaps next year we will start our journey with the Second League.
- As I understand it, you were unable to find investors.
- No, we haven't. Unfortunately, no one in Dnipro, or in the whole of Ukraine, wants anything. There were some minor talks, but it didn't come to anything concrete.
- Ihor Burbas said that Vladimir Nosov, the owner of Metalist 1925, could become an investor in Dnipro-1.
- This is not true at all! It is outright nonsense! Why does Nosov need two clubs? Burbas could at least use his brain. Neither Rusol nor I have ever talked to Nosov. We do not take Bereza into account, these are empty words.
- Has Dnipro-1 dismissed all the players?
- We have already employed almost all of our players. There are a few guys left, we are looking for clubs for them. Next week we want to pay off most of the debts to the Dnipro-1 staff.
- Many people hate Dnipro-1 because Ukraine has lost a participant in the European Cups, and UEFA will not allow replacing it with another representative.
- There is more noise here. Do you think it would have been better if Dnipro-1 had been relegated from the Pushkas Academy after losing twice? The Hungarians have a pretty decent team. Let's discuss the failure of Ukraine at Euro 2024 and the game of our youth team at the European Championship, where we are also struggling and need to win against Italy.
- What is your subjective opinion: who should take Dnipro-1's place in the UPL?
- I would draw a ticket between the penultimate team in the UPL, Minaj, and the third team in the first league, L'viv Bereg. "Metalist 1925 and Epicenter are lower in the table, so they don't deserve a second chance.
- But the UPL wants to draw a ticket between these four teams.
- This means that it's all artificial and money is again at the head of the game.
- It was written that at the UPL meeting, Rukh proposed to disqualify Rusol from football for life. Is it true?
- It's just an intra-Lviv showdown, nothing more. So you shouldn't take such statements seriously.
- Yuriy Bereza told us in an interview that Dnipro-1 "had to live within its means", hinting at irrational spending by you and Rusol. What can you say to that?
- I am tired of answering such nonsense. If we lived within our means, as Bereza says, Dnipro-1 would not play in European competitions, would not beat Dynamo and Shakhtar every year, and would only play in the village championship at most. I think that's the level Bereza was talking about.
Andrii Piskun
