Do the bosses of the Portuguese club know about the strange business characteristics of their new partner in the figure of Ms. Kryvopishyna? Are they aware of the corruption scandals and legal proceedings involving OlympicVillage and its owners?
Lately, more and more domestic swindlers and schemers are associating their affairs with football, pretending to be benefactors with a European face, and bringing to life their schemes that would make Ostap Bender envious. Just think of the blatant simplicity of the grass machinations for football fields carried out by Andriy Pavelko, the head of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) and a People’s Deputy from the BPP, which has been extensively covered. Following Pavelko’s example, some other members of the domestic "elite" have also decided to engage in football themes, genuinely hoping that the theme will "pass"...
The author of these lines recently read with great interest the news that a football academy of the world-famous Portuguese club "Benfica" from Lisbon is opening in Ukraine. By the way, the "Benfica" academy is recognized as one of the best in the world, having nurtured numerous famous players who kick the ball in the best clubs for multimillion-dollar fees.
At first glance, it seems great, and finally, the global football progress has reached Ukraine, providing something for the boys on the street to engage in. But this is only at first glance, citizens; everything is great in this news. Indeed, after reading this informational message, the author of these lines immediately envisions oddities and "incomprehensibilities," which later only began to increase geometrically...
So, the informational message cheerfully announces that some citizens of Portuguese and Ukrainian nationality have decided to open a "Benfica" football academy in Ukraine. These citizens have names and surnames — the famous footballer and sports director of "Benfica" Rui Costa, Ukrainian ambassador to Portugal Inna Ohnivets, and Ukrainian citizen Mariya Kryvopishyna. We’ll discuss the latter below, but for now, let’s mention that Inna Ognivets was only present at the signing, and the agreement was directly signed by Costa and Kryvopishyna.
The first thing that caught the eye is that the Ukrainian "Benfica" football academy was strangely opened in Lisbon. This immediately puzzled some experts in this field, with whom the author of these lines spoke. According to them, if you are opening an academy in Ukraine, it should be done in Kyiv or another city where the academy will actually be based. And with this — there are questions...
In which cities will Ukrainian boys be taught football skills by coaches from "Benfica"? What are the conditions, on which fields, and what is the legal basis? Will youth contracts be signed with Ukrainian boys, where and with whom will they play, and who will eventually train them?
Saying that the news surprised Ukrainian football experts who work in youth football is an understatement. According to them, nobody had heard of a "Benfica" academy in Ukraine before, and moreover, it is not clear to anyone how it will function in our realities because there is a whole chain of uncertainties that remained behind the scenes and were not clarified.
However, the signatories of the agreement assured journalists in Lisbon that the "Benfica" academy would be operational in Ukraine from April. Again — why was the presentation not held in Ukraine? Were they afraid of uncomfortable questions? Interestingly, after this announcement, there was silence, and nobody revealed details about what it was...
For a football academy, infrastructure is primarily necessary. High-quality football fields for year-round activities, like in Portugal, a base, medical staff, and coaches who will teach teenagers football skills according to "Benfica" standards. And now let’s return to the Ukrainian party’s signatory Mariya Kryvopishyna, mentioned in the information report as "director of the Benfica Football Academy in Ukraine."
That is, before signing the agreement, having previously not distinguished herself in the football world, or in finding young football talents, Mariya Kryvopishyna already held the position of director of the "Benfica" academy. That is, a structure whose traces were not present in Ukraine as a legal entity at all before the signing...
And now let’s think, does Ms. Kryvopishyna have the necessary resources for such an academy? And here it makes sense to take a closer look at the persona of the Ukrainian party’s signatory. For the last few years, the surname Kryvopishyna has been stirring the minds of domestic law enforcement agencies in connection with schemes involving "Ukrzaliznytsia" money, which came to businesswoman Mariya Kryvopishyna (née Snizhko) thanks to her father Oleksiy Kryvopishyn, a former head of the South-Western Railway...
And the scheme here was absurdly simple. Oleksiy Kryvopishin, during his leadership of the PZZ, with the hands of his subordinates and using the state enterprise’s construction equipment, built a private modern sports and entertainment center called "OlympicVillage" in the Kyiv-Svyatoshynskyi district of Kyiv. A scandal erupted, Kryvopishyn was removed, and a criminal case was initiated against him and his family, whose guilt the investigation quickly established. However, the court could not seize the "OlympicVillage" sports complex to prevent the Kryvopishins from using this property...
Kryvopishyna’s father was reinstated and then again removed from his position, despite ironclad evidence (by the way, it turned out Kryvopishin was also involved in thefts of rail stocks from the PZZ reserve), but the case landed in hopeless obscurity. Oleksiy Kryvopishyn managed to work as an advisor to Vitaliy Klychko during the judicial controversies, and his daughter Mariya (by the way, often signing documents with her maiden surname for some reason) continued to "promote" "OlympicVillage," despite the legal proceedings.
By the way, prosecutors for some reason asked the court to transfer the facility to the "responsible storage of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in Economic Security of the Security Service of Ukraine." And it is completely unclear in the end how this all concluded, and who now owns this complex. However, Kryvopishyna until recently implied that she has direct involvement with "OlympicVillage" as the business owner and property controller.
Perhaps the "OlympicVillage" resource was what the director of the Benfica Football Academy in Ukraine, Mariya Kryvopishyna, had in mind as the academy’s foundation. By the way, the news about the signing includes a Facebook page link, but instead of the academy’s "Benfica" page opening, the "OlympicVillage" page opens.
That is, Ms. Kryvopishyna somehow persuaded the Portuguese to open a football academy in Ukraine, having only the scandal-ridden "OlympicVillage" as a resource, which still lacks both a professional football infrastructure for training footballers and professionals who could teach children football skills according to the declared canons and standards of the Portuguese club.
By the way, interesting comments from employees characterizing the level of work of the aforementioned center can be found regarding the quality of work and internal relations within "OlympicVillage."
In this context, it is interesting whether the bosses of the Portuguese club are aware of the, to put it mildly, strange business characteristics of their new partner, Ms. Kryvopishyna? Are they aware of the corruption scandals and legal proceedings involving "OlympicVillage" and its owners?
If they are aware, then the Kryvopishyn family, apparently, either managed to offer or "slip" something to them. Perhaps it is a "franchise" with a rollback, or the Kryvopishins decided to "sell" the scandal-ridden sports complex to the Portuguese as a base for the "Benfica" Football Academy and quietly "disappear" from the radar?
There are many ambiguities, and as the author of these lines feels, this is far from the end of the story, which promises to be loud not only by Ukrainian standards...
Serhiy VESELOV, "ORD"