The Vice President of Kharkiv "Metalist 1925" Yuri Korotun commented on the situation surrounding forward Oleksiy Sidorov, who fled Ukraine:
Yuri Korotun"The situation with Sidorov looks as follows: an agreement was reached between our club and FC "Koloss" for the player’s loan for one year. The contract was not signed only because Sidorov himself did not want to stay in Kovalivka.
As of June 30, the loan term of Oleksiy ended, he returned to "Metalist 1925" U-19, trained for a few days and then disappeared. Later, we received information that Sidorov left Ukraine.
This was a shock for us and for the entire football community. I do not know how the player left Ukraine while having a valid contract with the club for another three years. We sent an official letter to the footballer offering to return by August 11. If he does not do this, we will use the legal mechanisms stipulated in the agreement. They are quite stringent, particularly those clauses that foresee consequences for the unilateral termination of the agreement.
We communicated a lot with Oleksiy, especially regarding his family issues. We offered help, but he still decided to leave the country — this is his own decision,” Korotun said.
