Dnipro Football Club President Ihor Kolomoisky has refuted reports about the liquidation of the team.
“I was amazed to learn from the press that the team is being disbanded, according to my decision. No one even called me to ask whether this rumor was true,” the TSN.ua news service [controlled by Kolomoisky] quoted him as saying.
Kolomoisky acknowledged that Dnipro is experiencing difficulties but said that closing the club had not been discussed. He said the squad is being assembled and is preparing for matches in the Premiere League. Dnipro management, meanwhile, is developing a new strategy for the club, which will be approved by stakeholders in the team.
“The club will not exist in the same form as before. It is not normal to spend crazy amounts of money when the coefficient of useful activity equals zero. Approaches must be reviewed when ‘millionaire’ players lose to a team of postmen [reference to Northern Ireland’s victory over Ukraine’s national squad at the European championships being held in France],” Kolomoisky said.
The businessman said that Ukraine’s Football Federation is behind rumors about the club’s demise. “When it was unable to transfer responsibility for the ‘successful’ play [of Ukraine’s national team] to sports journalists, they decided to direct attention to the story about the Dnipro team,” Kolomoisky said.
