"A black day in the history of the club": Shakhtar deprived of the title of champion of Belarus for organizing match-fixing

Minus 50 points and 370 thousand Belarusian rubles fine

In recent years, Belarusian football has not given much reason for optimism. If earlier BATE regularly reached the group stages of European competitions, now local teams do not shine with results in the international arena. The same can be said about the national team, which has not known victories in official matches since March 2021. Unfortunately, the Belarusians reminded of themselves only with a high-profile case of match-fixing, which has few analogues in the world. Only the sensational Italian Calciopoli in 2006 comes to mind, as a result of which Juventus was transferred to Serie B.

As then, the reigning champion suffered the most. Information about the beginning of the investigation by law enforcement agencies appeared at the end of January, when the office of Shakhtar Soligorsk, according to media reports, was searched, and the former sports director of the club Vladimir Niedergaus, the legend of the Volgograd Rotor, was detained in Minsk. Since then, fans have been waiting with a shudder for the final decision.

And in May, the Belarusian Football Federation (ABFF) issued a verdict. The Control, Disciplinary and Ethics Committee imposed sanctions on three clubs and a number of individuals. A statement on the official website of the organization says that the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus established that in the last season of the national championship, the leadership of Shakhtar organized match-fixing, and also financially stimulated other teams. More than 20 people involved in those events were interviewed.

As a result, we had to revise the results of the tournament. The main blow fell on the grand of the championship, which, in terms of financial power, can be compared with Zenit. Soligorsk residents allowed themselves to buy legionnaires that were expensive by local standards and, according to media reports, allegedly bypassed the established salary ceiling. This helped to win three consecutive championship titles.

The club was deprived of the latter. An unprecedented decision has been made - at the end of 2022, the winner of the gold awards will not be determined. Moreover, the Pitmen were actually excluded from the fight for medals this and next season, because in 2023 they were deprived of 30 points, and in 2024 they will start with a record of -20. Now, after seven rounds of the national championship, the team closes the table with "-17" points in the passive. A fine of 370,11 Belarusian rubles (almost 3.<> million rubles) will further complicate the club's life.

As for the specific contractual meetings for which the residents of Soligorsk were punished, only one is indicated. In the last round of last year's championship, they defeated Belshina with a score of 4: 1 and guaranteed themselves first place. Now the result of the game is annulled, and both teams are awarded a technical defeat.

The silver medalist will not be determined either. The runner-up "RCOR-BSU" was also left without 20 points this season and will not count ten next season. In addition, the club will have to pay a fine of 74 thousand Belarusian rubles. No less a blow was the disqualification for five years of the chief curator of the project, Anatoly Yurevich.

Under his leadership, on the basis of the Republican Center for Olympic Training, there is a club that focuses entirely on its own pupils and other young players and relies on their subsequent sale to richer teams. For example, in 2020, the top scorer of the 2019 Belarusian championship Ilya Shkurin turned out to be in transit through Dynamo Brest to CSKA. Despite modest funding, the team has shown good results in recent years and even took the second position.

Yurevich's severe punishment is all the more surprising because back in February, local media reported that he would be responsible for the strategy and program for the development of football in the country. Allegedly, the specialist was supposed to be endowed with amazing rights - to be responsible for all coaching appointments in the championship of Belarus and discuss them personally with the Minister of Sports Sergei Kovalchuk.

Against the background of Shakhtar and RCOR-BSU, Belshina did not suffer so much. This season, ten points were deducted from her, and next season - five. At the same time, all clubs and players who have been subjected to sanctions can appeal the decision to the appeals committee within ten days from the date of its issuance.

"Why are players punished like that? How are they going to give that money back?"

A loud scandal led to the redistribution of places in European competitions from the country for the next season. Shakhtar and RCOR-BSU did not receive licenses from the relevant ABFF committee. But they were issued to BATE, Dinamo-Minsk, Isloch, Neman, Slavia-Mozyr and Torpedo-BelAZ. According to one of the local publications, Borisov, who won bronze, are likely to start in the qualification of the Champions League, and Dynamo and Isloch - in the qualifying tournament of the Conference League. In case of victory in the final of the Cup of Belarus, Torpedo-BelAZ will also go there.

"UEFA is aware of this scandal. They knew about the progress of the investigation, as we are constantly communicating. The situation is unprecedented, so they also do not yet have a final decision on which teams will represent Belarus in European competitions. So far, this issue has not been resolved. Yes, the licensing committee provided the clubs with its licenses, but UEFA did not, "ABFF press attaché Alexander Aleinik told RT.

At the same time, he found it difficult to answer the question of whether the investigation by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus continues, and stressed that no one has yet filed appeals against the verdict.

As for personal sanctions, the most severe ones were imposed not even on Yurevich, but on Niedergaus and former Belshina striker Dmitry Gomza. They, according to the ABFF, played the main roles in the scandal. Both were deprived of the right to engage in football activities and fined 37 thousand Belarusian rubles each.

All other players, coaches and managers received conditional suspensions and fines. If they do not pay them within 30 days, the suspension will take effect. The list also included quite noticeable performers by local standards - Nikita Korzun and Mikhail Gordeychuk. He spent the last second half of last season at Dynamo Brest. According to media reports, Shakhtar allegedly tried to negotiate an agreement through him. The midfielder refused, but did not report it to the relevant authorities, for which he suffered.

In Soligorsk, there was no official reaction to the decision of the ABFF, but in Bobruisk and Minsk they were shocked. For example, the coach of Belshina, Albert Rybak, himself conditionally suspended for six months, admitted that he did not understand why the team was deprived of points.

"If Gomza was involved in any contract, then everyone else played fair. The coaches were doing their job. No tricks. We also played fair against Dinamo Minsk. There has been no meeting yet. Now the players saw the news and did not understand ... Why are players punished like this? How will the boys give this money? Let's be honest, let's approach the issue in a manly way. They already go out on the field for a penny, "BYSport quotes the words of a specialist.

And in social networks, RCOR-BSU called this day one of the blackest in the history of the club, although they promised to cope with all the difficulties.

"What happened will not benefit Belarusian football"

However, for some clubs, what happened can play into the hands. First of all, we are talking about Dinamo Minsk. A club with a rich history, even becoming the champion of the USSR, has not won the national championship since 2004. At the same time, he, along with Shakhtar and BATE, is one of the wealthiest teams in Belarus.

In addition, in recent years, the blue and white have found an influential fan in the person of Alexander Lukashenko. In 2021, during the opening of the club's children's and youth football center, he stressed that next year Minsk residents should become champions. It was not possible to fulfill the wish - they did not even manage to take medals, finishing fourth.

But this season, Dynamo is close to fulfilling the president's wishes. With 18 points, it is ahead of its closest pursuers in the face of BATE and Torpedo-BelAZ by four points, and now it has lost one of its main competitors. It is curious that the captain of the leader of the tournament is Sergei Politevich, who had previously played for Shakhtar for three years.

"So far, there is no clear understanding of the situation. I read the news and am in a slight bewilderment. It would even be more correct to say shock. Personally, no one from the federation approached me and did not summon me for interrogations, although last season I defended the colors of Shakhtar. The players, probably, have nothing to do with it. I can only say that I feel sorry for the team. We need to analyze everything and understand how much the ABFF made the right and fair decision, "the player admitted in a comment to RT.

One Russian was also indirectly involved in the case. Sergey Tashuev, under whose leadership Akhmat is fighting to get into the top 5 of the RPL, headed Shakhtar in April last year. The specialist worked with the residents of Soligorsk until September, after which he accepted the residents of Grozny. In his opinion, depriving the team of the title looks strange.

"When I went to Akhmat, some strange things began. Information about match-fixing appeared in the press, but it was periodically jammed. After me, there was a game with Belshina, but I will never believe that they agreed on something. The team is lower level, it's ridiculous. This is not a rival for Shakhtar," the coach assured.

He also recalled how in the winter, during the training camp in Turkey, representatives of the ABFF came to the location of the team from Chechnya and presented him with an award for his contribution to the development of sports in the republic.

"Everything is positive. And now they are taking away from everyone ... Let them know that I will not give up my awards. I am not involved in this scandal. Now Vladimir Niederhaus is still being accused, he has been forbidden to engage in football activities. This is also incomprehensible to me. Volodya is a professional and has never been involved in such matters when we worked with him," Tashuev added.

Sergei Gurenko, who managed to lead both Dynamo and Shakhtar at home, was also surprised by the federation's verdict. He believes that the fans did not fully understand why the teams and players were punished.

"If we are talking about match-fixing, then everything is to the point, and if only about incentives, when you pay the team to play well with your direct competitor, I don't see a crime. These are different things. The problem is that we don't know everything at the moment. Before that, we had cases when individual players handed over matches for the sake of sweepstakes, but not on such a scale, "the specialist explained.

At the same time, he confirmed that depriving Soligorsk of 50 points in total for two seasons will bring Minsk closer to finally winning the championship.

"Now in the championship minus one grand. What happened will definitely not benefit Belarusian football. A serious blow was also received by RCOR-BSU, which, with a minimal budget, has shown good results in recent years. The curator of this project, Yurevich, was suspended for five years, but officially he did not work at the club, so I don't think this will be the end for the team," Gurenko added.