Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Almost all Ukrainian football clubs are owned by offshore companies
Offshores are present in the ownership schemes of 11 out of 16 Premier League clubs. Who legally owns the top football clubs and on whose stadiums do they play?
Nashi Groshi has already analyzed the Ukrainian Premier League for political affiliations of football money. Now we went further and, ahead of the start of the new season, analyzed who legally owns the top football clubs and on whose stadiums they play.
Of course, this data will not give a direct answer to the question “Will Metalist and Tavriya survive? Which clubs will continue competing at all?” But at least Nashi Groshi has become more or less clear about who and how actually plays in Ukrainian football.
We included in the analysis 16 companies that represented the legal entities of the teams at the start of the 20133/2014 season (which is why Arsenal remained on our list). We took the names of these companies from the Premier League charter and from the clubs’ own websites.
Viktor and Oleksandr Yanukovych went to major football matches, but had no relation to the clubs.
One way or another, exactly half of the championship can be attributed to the Party of Regions – Shakhtar, Chornomorets, Zorya, Sevastopol, Illichivets, Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, Hoverla, Tavriya.
Only five clubs turned out to be purely Ukrainian; foreign companies are present in the ownership schemes of 11 clubs: Metalist, Dynamo, Dnipro, Vorskla, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Metalurhs, Volyn, Sevastopol, Illichivets, Hoverla, Arsenal.
The most popular jurisdiction turned out to be Cyprus – six cases. The most amusing was Shufrych’s Hoverla, whose principal owner has a final registration on Broadway in New York.
As in the case of Brokbusinessbank, it was again not possible to find documentary proof of Serhiy Kurchenko’s presence among the founders of Metalist – again offshores and unknown Kharkiv residents. Also, Petro Dyminskyi is not present in Karpaty, Kostiantyn Zhevago is not present in Vorskla, Vadym Novinskyi is not present in Sevastopol.
1 PJSC “Football Club Shakhtar” (authorized capital 1,22 billion UAH).
Almost crystal-clear transparency: Shakhtar belongs to PJSC System Capital Management, the sole shareholder is the club president Rinat Akhmetov.
The team plays at its own stadium, Donbas Arena, worth $400 million.
Public representative of the SEPEK cooperative Serhiy Kurchenko (center) and Kharkiv governor Mykhailo Dobkin (right).
2 PJSC “Football Club Metalist” (1,26 billion UAH).
The shareholder is LLC Metalist FC, which in turn is owned by LLC Metalist Holding and two Cypriot firms – Eplenos Trading Limited and Hensley Capital Limited (through the latter firm the lion’s share of the club’s authorized capital is routed – 1,23 billion UAH). Metalist Holding is a classic matryoshka, because its founder is Metalist FC itself and the same Eplenos. The only hint of Kurchenko’s presence in the ownership scheme is the surname of Metalist Holding’s director: Vitaliy Savosta previously headed the private enterprise Kaskad KSV founded personally by Kurchenko.
The team plays at the Metalist stadium, which last summer the Kharkiv regional council allegedly sold to LLC Sports Complex “Metalist Stadium”. This firm belongs to one Oleksandr Parkhomenko and LLC Professional Service. The latter firm contributed 700 million UAH to the authorized capital of Stadium Metalist, while Parkhomenko – 10 thousand UAH. However, the direct authorized capital of Professional Service is only 1 thousand UAH. So the money was injected from somewhere on the side. The owner of this firm is Vitaliy Reut from the village of Barvinkove in Kharkiv region. In other words, again we have the same scheme of unknown Kharkiv residents as in the case of Brokbusinessbank, which allegedly also belongs to Kurchenko’s group.
At the same time, the firm “Stadium Metalist” cannot be called the full-fledged owner of the Kharkiv stadium. Recall that after concluding the agreement with the regional council this company managed to pay only 80,90 million UAH of the total 674,52 million UAH. After this, the Regional Committee for Assistance and Support to Disabled Veterans of the Great Patriotic War and other categories and groups of Kharkiv region and the city of Kharkiv (headed by Volodymyr Rom) decided that its interests were harmed by this deal. They argued that the stadium was reconstructed before Euro-2012 partly with budget funds, therefore it cannot be sold. Thus the sale of the stadium was blocked in the courts (more here) and to this day there is no final decision. As a result, the Kharkiv regional budget still has not received almost 600 million hryvnias for the stadium sold to Kurchenko.
3 LLC “Football Club Dynamo Kyiv” (261,59 million UAH).
A more or less transparent ownership scheme is provided by the presence among the founders of the club president Ihor Surkis, who owns 64% of the authorized capital. Less than one percent belongs to Leonid Kravchuk, to the daughter of the legendary coach Svitlana Lobanovska, and to the public organization “FSK Dynamo Ukraine”, which is headed by Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Viktor Korzh, a former MP from the Party of Regions. Another 11% of the club’s authorized capital is held by the Cypriot company Alutsiana Commercial Ltd, 23% by the asset management company MTIR Asset Management, associated with the Surkis group. The owners of the asset management company are six Cypriot offshores: Listono Management, Noresia Constakshn Ltd, Vincetio Holdings Ltd, Kirelma Enterprises Ltd, Merseno Holdings Ltd, Ortenia Investments.
For the first team’s matches the club has rented the state Olympic Stadium since last year; on their own Dynamo stadium the reserves and others who wish to play.
4 LLC “Football Club Dnipro” (50 thousand UAH).
The meager authorized capital is partially compensated by the presence among the founders of the club president Ihor Kolomoyskyi (9%). The rest of the authorized capital is distributed among four Cypriot offshores: Broalia Ventures Ltd, Gringot Enterprises Limited, Cisera Investments Limited, Formosa Investments Limited.
The director of FC Dnipro, Andriy Stetsenko, has a large degree of freedom in the club; he is allowed to conclude purchase-sale agreements up to $500 million and property transactions up to 1 billion UAH.
The team plays at its own Dnipro-Arena; its reconstruction in 2008 cost 800 million UAH. Upon completion of the work, the German builders Hochtief demanded that Dnipro repay debts of up to 11 million euros and in 2013 they obtained a court decision in their favor. Then searches were conducted in Austria at the hotel where Dnipro stayed during training camps.
5 PJSC “Football Club Chornomorets” (600,00 million UAH).
The club president, People’s Deputy and builder Leonid Klimov (Party of Regions), owns 30% of the authorized capital, another 59% is divided between LLC Avensis and LLC Black Sea Realty Group. The founders of these firms are a number of other companies from Klimov’s Primorye group; he himself is also among their founders. Data on the size of the Odessa city council’s and regional council’s stakes in SMIDA are not disclosed.
Klimov said that the reconstruction of Chornomorets stadium cost him 3 billion UAH.
6 LLC “Football Club Vorskla” (5,00 million UAH).
This firm belongs to LLC Ferrexpo, registered to Eduard Shelayev, and the Virgin Islands offshore Univate Inc. The honorary president of Vorskla is non-affiliated MP Kostiantyn Zhevago, the president is Kremenchuk mayor Oleh Babaiev.
The team rents the stadium, which belongs to the Poltava city council, for 4 thousand UAH per month.
7 LLC “Football Club Zorya” (20,01 million UAH).
The sole owner is the head of the Verkhovna Rada budget committee Yevhen Heller (Party of Regions).
The team plays at Avanhard stadium, which belongs to the Luhansk regional council. From the state budget 38,54 million UAH was previously allocated for the stadium’s reconstruction and this year another 110 million UAH was allocated. All contracts for reconstruction were awarded to Ukrsplav, a firm of Yevhen Heller and Spartak Kokotyukha.
8 LLC “Football Club Metalurh” (Donetsk) (83,16 million UAH).
The club president Serhiy Taruta owns 24,7% of the authorized capital; the same share is owned by his partner in the Industrial Union of Donbas, Oleg Mkrtchan (also known as co-owner of the Russian club Kuban). The rest of the capital is divided equally between two Cypriot offshores: Arrowcrest Limited, Crownzest Limited.
The team rents the Metalurh stadium from the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant of Viktor Nusenkis’ group.
9 LLC “Football Club Volyn” (74,47 million UAH).
After the co-owner of Ukrnafta Ihor Palytsia again became a People’s Deputy, he supposedly lost interest in sponsoring the club in the constituency from which he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada. Also inside the club there was a major conflict with local businessman Vasyl Stolyar, who since 2000 had been the club president. Now his position was taken by the team’s coach Vitaliy Kvartsianyi, who owns 16% of the club’s authorized capital. The lion’s share of the capital is recorded to the Cypriot offshore Mantimus Commercial Ltd. About 0,03% is held by Kyiv firms Air Gate Gourmet and Air Investment Group of Ihor Khmelov and Andriy Shabaev.
The team plays at Avanhard stadium, which the city authorities transferred to the club from communal ownership in 2011.
10 LLC “People’s Team Football Club Karpaty” (1 thousand UAH).
The club’s meager authorized capital fully reflects the fundamental lack of principle that prevails in Karpaty.
The founders of the firm are the club’s legal adviser Yevhen Pakosh (99%) and the head of the club’s information center Danylo Nikulenko (1%). Honorary club president Petro Dyminskyi says he invests $5–6 million per year in the team. At the same time he is unwilling to pay players more than $10 thousand in salary. Because of this the club has already lost several cases in sports arbitration to disgruntled players.
The team continues to play at the stadium Ukraina, rented from the city hall until 2018 for 1 hryvnias, and does not want to move to Arena Lviv because of the high cost of maintaining the stadium (20 million UAH per year) and the city authorities’ unwillingness to give Dyminskyi 17 hectares near the stadium for commercial development. The director of the state stadium, Roman Cherkhavyi, says he is ready to give Karpaty the stadium for 100 thousand UAH per year. For more than half a year no events have taken place at Arena Lviv, and workers have not received wages.
11 LLC “Football Club Sevastopol” (20,00 million UAH).
Vadym Novinskyi’s (Party of Regions) presence in the club is evidenced by his position as honorary president and the former co-owner LLC – the company of the Russian-Ukrainian oligarch Smart-Holding. Now its share of 26% of the club is registered to LLC Asset Management Company “Investment House Megapolis”. The rest of the authorized capital is distributed between the Cypriot offshores “Viorgal Ventures Ltd” and
“Prastol Services Ltd”. The club director Viktor Moskvitin was a tax official in Alushta and tried to become an MP in 2012 running in a majoritarian district for the party of Nataliya Korolevska.
The team plays at SCS Arena, which until 2010 belonged to Sevastopol Marine Plant of Petro Poroshenko and Kostiantyn Hryhoryshyn. Then the stadium was bought into communal ownership and leased to Novinskyi’s club for 25 years.
12 Public organization “Football Club Illichivets” (0 UAH).
The founders of the public organization are 15 individuals whose surnames are unknown. A better idea of influence on the club is given by LLC “Football Club Illichivets” with authorized capital of 293,00 million UAH.
A lion’s 96% is routed to the Bahamian offshore Sabina International Trading Limited. Another 2% is held by People’s Deputy from the Party of Regions Volodymyr Boyko, former owner of the Mariupol metallurgical plant Illichivets (now part of the Akhmetov-Novinsky group). Even smaller shares are held by Serhiy Matvienkov, Pavlo Razumnyi and Tariq Mahmud Chaudry.
The team plays at Illichivets stadium, which belongs to the metallurgical plant.
13 LLC “Football Club Hoverla” (6,00 million UAH).
90% of the authorized capital is routed to LLC Western Investment Company, whose ultimate owners are the father of People’s Deputy Nestor Shufrych (Party of Regions) Ivan Shufrych and the American corporation Intercontrade (registered on Broadway Street in New York). The club’s vice-president is the deputy’s son Oleksandr Shufrych (in the photo).
Another 10% of Hoverla belongs to LLC RG Service of Viktor Lytvynenko, Dmytro Malyarets and Vyacheslav Cherepani (business partner and assistant of Nestor Shufrych).
The team plays at the communal Avanhard stadium, but is in conflict with the city council over rental terms.
14 LLC “Professional Football Club Metalurh-Zaporizhzhia” (51,58 million UAH).
42% of the authorized capital is routed to the public organization “FC Metalurh”, the founders of which are seven individuals.
The son of People’s Deputy from the Party of Regions Vyacheslav Bohuslaiev (Motor Sich), Oleksandr (in the photo) owns 0,004% of the club; the same share belongs to Liliya Trufanova.
About 29% is owned by Panamanian offshores Enfields Trade & Capital Corp. and Business House Helena, AG.
The team plays at the communal Slavutych-Arena.
Borysov, Firtash and Mohylov
15 LLC Sports Club “Tavriya” (150,00 million UAH).
The sole owner of the firm is the former head of the state company Ukrgazvydobuvannya Yuriy Borysov, who previously worked at Dmitry Firtash’s Ostchem. The club president is the Prime Minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anatoliy Mohylov.
The team plays at the state stadium Lokomotyv. Mohylov believes there is no point for the club to buy the arena from the state, since the team already plays on it.
16 LLC “Football Club Arsenal.” (9,13 million UAH)
The sole owner of the firm is the Belize offshore Grasshover Limited; the director is Viktor Holovko.
The team does not play anywhere anymore, because due to financial problems it was removed from the Ukrainian Championship.
Yurii Nikolov, Nashi Groshi
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Почти все украинские футбольные клубы находятся в собственности офшорных компаний". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.