FC Rostov informed about their intention to apply to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne

FC Rostov CEO Oleg Lopatin gave his comments regarding yesterday statement of the FUR President Nikolay Tolstykh, and also informed that the club administration took their decision to apply to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne.

• Yesterday FUR President showed again his disrespect towards our club,  - Oleg Lopatin, FC Rostov CEO pointed out. – How can the head of all-Russian public organization call the Vice-Governor of the region with population of 4,5 million people, who less than a month ago had received from his hands a medal for winning the Cup of Russia, - a certain Gorban?! This is exceptionable and indelicate. During the last season FC Rostov achieved maximal results in its history: got the 7^th place in the Championship and won the Cup of Russia competition. Vice-Governor of Rostov Region and President of our club Sergey Gorban contributed a lot into this success. All his free from the main work time he spends on support to FC Rostov. Tolstykh, being the head of the FUR, also faces financial difficulties in his company. National team of Russia players cannot get their bonuses for qualifying to the final round of the FIFA World Cup  for more than six months. It means that being located in Moscow he is not able to find sponsors for the main football team of Russia! You can imagine, how difficult is for Sergey Gorban to look for partners for our club. And this is with such kind of “assistance” from the FUR head.
• What do you mean?
• For the recent several months Sergey Gorban had been having active negotiations with several big companies regarding concluding sponsorship contracts. After winning in the Cup of Russia final these negotiations came to the final part and our potential partners, besides support during the Championship, wanted to become the title sponsors of the club in UEFA Europa League. Such hard and fast decision taken by FUR deprived us of the tangible benefit, which the club could have received from placing the advertising of the sponsor on the playing kit in UEFA Europa League. Besides, the negotiations about partnership are  suspended for now. We shall hope that this is only temporary and they will be continued soon. And even without any sponsor benefits, only the participation of Rostov in European Cups would bring to it considerable finance benefit from ticket sales, team attributes sales and, of course, TV rights. So instead of support from the FUR, we can speak now about lost opportunities and unreceived income.

-          Yesterday Nikolay Tolstykh told that the club spends a lot of money on fees to players agents and it is necessary to have an audit check of FC Rostov.

-          Referring to the fact that in the current season we have paid agents fees to some New York companies, the head of the FUR either does not have any information or exaggerates it a lot. Regarding checks I can say that one year ago Tolstykh filed requests to different authorities to check the finance activity of the club. All the authorities have finished their checks, except the tax authorities: their check have lasted for nine months already. Especially I would like to point out that in accordance to the current legislation, before the tax authorities do not finish their work and provide appropriate act, they do not have any information regarding any debts as per 31 March. The document confirming my words was produced at the licensing procedure. But it seems that in order to get the license, we should not follow the laws, but only to fulfill the private requests of Nikolay Tolstykh. I would like to give an example of that: during the last year licensing procedure, when all necessary requirements had been fulfilled, FUR President before the Licensing Commission and five representatives of FC Rostov announced: “You will not get the license until you pay all your debts to the ex-CEO of the club Yury Belous”. My predecessor arranged a many-million salary for himself for his “pretty good” job. Belous applied several times to different legal authorities, but lost all actions. It happens that Tolstykh, the main function of whom is to develop football, by settling personal scores and taking hard and fast decisions, does not allow our club to reach self-financing and thwart the development of it.

-          The supporters took hard such tough decision regarding their favourite team.

-          I understand them perfectly. And the fact that more than six thousand people from different cities and countries signed their names under the petition, means a lot.  Our supporters also perfectly understand that law is law. But as for exactly this case the decision could have been less hard and fast. Naturally thousands of people have the same question: why for the club, which has its first show in the UEFA Champions League, had the most strict verdict been issued of all possible ones. As the result, players and coaching staff suffered most of all, and they won the Cup of Russia in the fair and sporting spirit and they deserved getting the qualification to second in ranking European tournament. And then this right is withdrawn from them with a mere stroke of the pen. You can imagine the feelings of our club veterans and supporters, which are really concerned about their team?! On which grounds somebody is trying to take their dream about witnessing official international matches of their favourite team away from them?!

-          Nikolay Tolstykh declared that if Rostov wants to carry on war, then the FUR is ready to defend itself.

- The problem of Tolstykh is that he sees enemies in everybody. Rostov does not fight off the football pitch. On the opposite, we propose to the FUR not to start war and not to stop the club from its development. It will be enough for that if the FUR will be dealing with its primary responsibilities and  develop football in Russia, and FC Rostov is a part of this Russian football.

- Will the club apply to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne?

- Only late at night on Monday we received at last  the decision of the licensing committee from the FUR. Our legal services studied this document thoroughly and found some grounds for application to Lausanne. We shall file a suit to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in the nearest future!