“Presented with a fait accompli”: Pyunik canceled friendly matches with Russian teams because of Ukrainian football players

Several Russian teams, which were supposed to play test matches with Pyunik, found themselves in an extremely unpleasant situation at the training camp in Turkey. The meeting with Orenburg on January 22 did not take place. Instead, the Yerevan team played with Shakhtar Donetsk. The confrontations with Krylia Sovetov (February 7) and Khimki (February 11) were also cancelled.

The head coach of the 15-time champion of Armenia, Roman Monarev, explained the incident with the dissatisfaction of the Ukrainian Premier League clubs.

“If we had agreed to these matches, we could have lost sparring sessions with them. We have meetings with Ukrainian teams, namely Shakhtar, Zorya and Oleksandriya, scheduled for the end of the training camp, that is, just before the resumption of the season. It would be difficult to find an opponent there. We made this choice and games with Russian teams were forced to cancel,” the specialist explained.

Orenburg cited the reluctance of Pyunik’s Ukrainian football players to confront the domestic squads as another reason. Currently, the squad includes two defenders with the appropriate citizenship: Andrei Bratkov and Sergei Vakulenko.

The sports director of the Orenburg team, Dmitry Andreev, was extremely dissatisfied with the behavior of his counterpart and emphasized that they would have to pay compensation. According to media reports, it is €10 thousand.

“We signed the contract about a month before the date, and we were informed about the cancellation on the eve of the meeting. We would have calmly refused compensation if Pyunik had explained its position in advance. But we were presented with a fact, and this attitude towards Orenburg does not suit us. It’s good that we were able to quickly find a replacement... The team is preparing for the season, and every day is scheduled,” the functionary emphasized.

And the press service of “Wings of the Soviets” noted that they would not demand payment of penalties from Yerevan residents, since they also quickly found a new opponent.

Meanwhile, the President of the Armenian hegemon, Artur Soghomonyan, who has a Russian passport, denied what Monarev said. He associated the cancellation of the matches with a number of “inconsistencies” and assured that he maintains close ties with his native country.

“I don’t organize games myself. At first, in some places we were not ready, in others it was the Russians. Standard story. There are many teams at training camps, and everyone has some issues or injuries. Purely technical issues, definitely not national. We plan to hold our last meetings with domestic teams. If it works out with Khimki and Orenburg, great,” the Championship quotes the head.

Nevertheless, the fights will definitely not take place, and two people immediately confirmed that what happened was somehow connected with Ukraine. This is not at all surprising, because local teams this winter are trying in every possible way to disrupt the preparation of their colleagues from the RPL. Now they unanimously refuse matches with teams that have included sparring matches with domestic ones in their calendar. For example, on February 16, Dynamo Kiev will fight with Moldavian Petrokub instead of Kazakhstan’s Ordabasy.

Due to the confrontation with the Voronezh residents, the Slovenian Koper also suffered. Rukh refused to compete with him. The general director of the Lviv team, Igor Dedyshyn, admitted that he asked the agency responsible for organizing friendly sparring to cancel it.

Chernomorets took a similar step in the situation with Struga from North Macedonia. Moreover, the residents of Odessa threatened the Uzbek Andijan that they would not play against them on February 4 if they faced off against CSKA on the 1st.

“Finding teams and organizing matches is not a matter of hours or even days. Agreements were concluded with most of the sparring partners when they did not have agreed dates for fights with other clubs...” says the Sailors’ Telegram channel.

Finally, Vorskla, without explanation, announced the cancellation of the game with the Uzbek Nasaf on January 30, which had previously played against Fakel and Alania. Instead, Poltava residents examined the Polish “Arch”.

So far, it seems that with such behavior Ukrainians are creating difficulties primarily for themselves. In most cases, we are talking about refusals from matches with opponents who have already met with domestic teams, and does not affect the latter in any way.

And threats to cancel confrontations for the most part have no effect. For example, Andijan still played against CSKA on February 1. The match between “Fakel” and “Ordabasy” is still planned for the 10th. But the representatives of the neighbors themselves are forced to rearrange their schedule at the last moment.

According to the honorary president of the RFU, Vyacheslav Koloskov, what is happening resembles absurdity and one should not even pay attention to the position of the neighbors.

“Yes, they are trying to influence foreign teams, but what does that matter to us? Complete nonsense. Believe me, the Russian teams are neither cold nor hot from their actions. They have been sparring and will continue to do so. But sometimes things reach the point of absurdity. How can you demand that clubs from other countries emphasize loyalty to their foreign policy? This is not our choice. I repeat, you just shouldn’t pay attention to them and stir up a scandal. Empty stupid things. But other teams have their own heads on their shoulders, and they are unlikely to seriously listen to the threats of their colleagues from Ukraine. This story will live for a day and will not affect domestic football in any way. Our teams and the RFU don’t care about this,” the functionary said in a conversation with RT.