Shakhtar Donetsk’s chief executive, Serhii Palkin, has accused Fifa of failing to support Ukrainian football in the three years since Russia undertook its full-scale invasion of the country.
Ukraine’s domestic league has managed to play on after an initial six-month pause but resources are scarce and the long-term outlook remains uncertain. Palkin claimed the world governing body had kept its doors “closed to us” and he repeated previous entreaties for the creation of a fund to help maintain a sport that has endured severe physical and financial damage. He also urged Fifa and Uefa to hold firm on their commitment to bar Russian teams from international competitions amid an increasingly precarious geopolitical climate.
