Ukraine’s 2030 World Cup bid likely dead after country’s FA chief arrested

Two leading officials in Ukraine’s football association, including its head, have been arrested over fraud and money-laundering allegations related to the construction of an artificial grass factory.

Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Ukraine FA, and Yuri Zapisotsky, the association’s general secretary, are accused of “embezzling” 26.5m Ukrainian Hryvnia (£600,000).

The two men were ordered to be held in custody until 22 January to allow further investigation or be released on bail of £200,000 on condition that they do not leave Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, or contact witnesses.

The development is likely to kill off a joint bid Ukraine has made with Spain and Portugal to co-host the 2030 World Cup in a move that had been sanctioned by the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Ukraine, which has been under full-scale invasion by Russia since 24 February, had been due to host one of the tournament’s groups under the bid led by Pavelko.

The allegations against Pavelko and Zapisotsky follow a four-year investigation into claims of overpayments made by the UFA to a company in the United Arab Emirates, known as SDT, that had been working with the national football body to build Ukraine’s first artificial grass factory.

The general prosecutor’s office alleged: “According to the investigation, during the purchase of equipment for the construction of a factory for the production of artificial surfaces for football fields, UAF officials seized UAH 26.5m. Later, they laundered part of these funds.

“At the request of the prosecutors, the Pechersk district court of Kyiv ordered the suspects to be placed in custody with the alternative of bail in the amount of UAH 9.9m each.”

When the charges against the men were first reported last week, the Ukrainian FA had accused those investigating them of acting on behalf of pro-Russian politicians.

Denys Bugai, a lawyer acting for the UAF, also told a local media outlet, Glavkom, that while there had been overpayments to SDT, the money had been reclaimed by the football body.

The cash had not re-emerged on the UAF’s balance sheet, he said, as it had been paid via a third company, Softex, to the former Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, who was a creditor.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Collina, who oversaw refereeing in Ukrainian football between 2012 and 2015.

Rivals for the 2030 World Cup include Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia, and a South American proposal from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile.

Last month the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, said he believed Spain and Portugal would put together a “winning bid”.

Pavelko, who has led the Ukrainian FA since 2015, served as a member of Fifa’s disciplinary body for two years up to 2020.

According to Fifa, he resigned from their body after being ordered to pay a fine for “publicly criticising a decision” taken by colleagues on the disciplinary committee at the World Cup in Russia.