Hryhorij Surkis

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Hryhorij Surkis (2011)

Hryhorij Mychajlowytsch Surkis ( Ukrainian Григо́рій Миха́йлович Су́ркіс ; Russian Григорий Суркис , Grigori Surkis ; born September 4, 1949 in Odessa ) is a Ukrainian oligarch and sports official . Surkis was President of the Ukrainian Football Association (FFU) from 2000 to September 2012 . He is also a member of the UEFA Executive Committee and Chairman of the National Team Competitions Committee and Deputy Chairman of the UEFA Stadiums and Security Committee. Surkis also played an important role in Ukrainian politics, especially in the 1990s.

Life

In Ukraine , Surkis was responsible for organizing the 2012 European Football Championship , which took place in parallel in Ukraine and Poland .

Hryhorij Surkis, who studied engineering and is now a billionaire, now belongs to the small circle of powerful oligarchs in Ukraine. From 1975 to 1991 Surkis still worked for the normal salary of just a few hundred rubles in the construction department of the city administration of the capital Kiev , most recently as head of the housing combine . After the independence of Ukraine (1991) he made a career and invested money of unknown origin in oil, agriculture and banks.

In 1993 Surkis bought his favorite football club Dynamo Kiev , of which he was president until 1998; since then the club has been run by brother Ihor . In 1995, both brothers tried to bribe the Spanish referee Lopez Nieto with expensive fur coats for the club's European Cup match . Dynamo Kiev was then banned for one year. In 1996 Surkis became President of the National Football League of Ukraine, and in 1998 a member of the Olympic Committee.

For a long time Surkis belonged to the leaders of the so-called "Kiev clan", an influential network of several Ukrainian industrialists. In March 1998 he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada as a member of the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (Sozial-Demokratytschna partija Ukrajiny) . In 1999 he supported the campaign for the re-election of the then President Leonid Kuchma , in the same year he ran for the office of mayor in Kiev, but lost this election to Oleksandr Omelchenko with only 17 percent of the vote, despite an intensive advertising campaign.

As president of the industrial and financial group Slavutych , a closed joint-stock company with the core areas of energy supply, processing of agricultural products and investment projects, today he also influences the Ukrainian media world as the main owner of television channels. Before the 1999 presidential election , Surkis controlled a quarter of the regional electricity suppliers. Surkis was also considered one of the most influential men in Ukraine during the reign of President Viktor Yushchenko .

criticism

On March 19, 2019, criminal proceedings against the former President of the Ukrainian Football Association Hryhorij Surkis for embezzlement, embezzlement of property or confiscation through abuse of the official position in particularly large numbers and / or by an organized group of people began. The criminal proceedings relate to the construction of a training base for national teams in the village of Horenytschi near Kiev. In 2003, Surkis and FFU Vice President Oleksandr Bandurko announced the construction of a sports base. An arena and 10 full football fields were to be built on an area of ​​40 hectares. The funds for the construction were paid by domestic clubs from the 2000/2001 season to the 2003/2004 season as “solidarity payments” to UEFA. 12 million hryvnia was allocated for the construction in Horenychi (almost 2 million euros at the 2003 exchange rate). However, the sports base was never built.

After a publication in Der Spiegel entitled “How UEFA payments appeared in the British Virgin Islands” and an internal investigation, the Ukrainian Football Association filed charges against Surkis in November 2019 for embezzlement amounting to 380 million euros.

According to Der Spiegel , from 1999 (over 15 years) UEFA has transferred funds totaling 380 million euros for the Ukrainian Football Association and the development of Ukrainian football, the offshore company Newport Management Limited.

This company is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is reportedly controlled by Hrygoryi Surkis, who headed FFU from 2000 to 2012 and was a member of the UEFA Executive Committee for more than 10 years (until February 2019).

On January 21, 2020, a decision by the Kyiv Holossiyivin District Court indicated that the police and the Attorney General's Office were investigating the use of UEFA funds raised by the Ukrainian Football Association for the offshore intermediate company Newport Management Ltd during the presidency of Hryhorij Surkis . had received.

Hryhoriy Surkis was suspected of the financial motivation of the members of the preliminary investigation commission "Football" of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which is investigating the construction of football fields. A certain amount is even called 1 million UAH.

FootballLeaks-2

In Germany, with the authorship of the journalists Rafael Buschmann and Michael Wulzinger and the publication “Der Spiegel” FootballLeaks-2 was published.

A separate section of the book entitled "The Ukrainian Brotherhood" describes Ihor and Hryhorij Surkis' path in football and their interaction with the Newport Offshore, through which all of the capital's club money has been flowing since 1993. In their book, authors cite FootballLeaks2 documents.

The book states that Dynamo Kiev has had full financial ties to Newport since 1993. It is controlled by the current club boss Ihor Surkis. Referring to the FIFA data, the authors note that in 2011-2017 there were 82 Kiev players to buy. Dynamo from Newport spent 324 million US dollars, which means that taxes on this amount were not paid in Ukraine.

Crime in Kiev

On December 18, 2019, the German edition of Kicker published an article entitled "Crime in Kyiv". The article talks about how UEFA funds for Ukrainian football ended up in an offshore company controlled by the Surkis brothers.

bribery

In 1995 the Surkis brothers tried to bribe Spanish Champions League referee Antonio Lopez Nieto before the game between Dynamo and Panathinaikos. They offered two mink coats and $ 30,000. For the actions of Surkis, Dynamo was removed from the Champions League and disqualified for one year.

Awards

  • 1996: Ukrainian Order of Merit 3rd degree
  • 1999: Ukrainian Order of Merit 2nd degree
  • August 2006: Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (5th class) "for great sporting achievements, courage, self-sacrifice and the will to win at the World Cup as well as strengthening the international authority of Ukraine" by President Viktor Yushchenko
  • 2012: Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (IV class)
  • 2014: Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (3rd class)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Platini's thanks and the role of Surkis ( memento of October 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Kiev's kicker oligarch. ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ Who owns the economy in Ukraine?
  4. ↑ The secret turning point in Ukraine
  5. ↑ The godfather breaks his silence
  6. ↑ " In Ukraine, football is overloaded with political content ". In: Berliner Zeitung, June 2006.
  7. ↑ Спортбаза в Гореничах: слідство з'ясовує, куди були витрачені кошти екс-головою ФФУ Суркісом. Retrieved February 26, 2020 (Ukrainian).
  8. ↑ УЄФА може спитати з Григорія Суркіса за розтрату 2 млн євро | НашКиев.UA. Retrieved February 26, 2020 (Russian).
  9. ↑ Michael Wulzinger, Rafael Buschmann, DER SPIEGEL: How UEFA Payments Ended Up in the British Virgin Islands - DER SPIEGEL - International. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  10. ^ Ukrainian Association of Football. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ DER SPIEGEL | Online news. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Поліція та ОГП розслідують розкрадання мільйонів євро, які ФФУ на чолі з Павелком вана . In: НАШІ ГРОШІ . ( nashigroshi.org [accessed February 26, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Парламентська ТСК з футболу могла коштувати Суркісу 1 млн грн, - блогер. February 12, 2020, accessed on February 26, 2020 (among others).
  14. ↑ Football Leaks-2: Суркисы через оффшоры купили в “Динамо” футболистов на $ 324 млн. Retrieved February 26, 2020 (Russian).
  15. ↑ "Криминал в Киеве", - немецкие СМИ вновь обратили внимание на украинские футбольные реалии. Retrieved February 26, 2020 (Russian).
  16. ↑ Ilya Fokin: Научный журнал Геофизические исследования: 05. Accessed February 26, 2020 (English).
  17. ↑ football24.ua: Шубы, договорняки и 30 тысяч долларов. Топ-5 дисквалификаций в истории еврокубков. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  18. ↑ High awards for Blochin and Ukraine stars ( Memento from February 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Surkis, Hryhorij
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Surkis, Grigori (transcription from Russian); Surkis, Grigoriy (transcription from Russian); Surkis, Gregori (transcription from Russian); Суркіс, Григорій Михайлович (Ukrainian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ukrainian industrialist, politician, President of the Ukrainian Football Association (FFU)
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Odessa