MOSCOW, Jul 26 CEO of Kyiv-based FC Shakhtar Sergey Palkin said that allowing legionnaires to suspend contracts with Ukrainian clubs allowed football agents to get rich. Earlier, the International Football Federation (FIFA) extended the permission to suspend contracts with Russian clubs for foreign players until June 2023, in connection with which a number of legionnaires left the teams of the Russian Premier leagues (RPL). A similar measure is envisaged in relation to Ukrainian clubs due to the situation in the country. «We sent a letter to FIFA saying that if they do not help us in this situation, we will sue them. The decision gave the agents the opportunity to become much richer because they can tell other clubs that they don't have to pay Shakhtar Donetsk, but they can get more commissions from it. This is a huge challenge for us because we need to create an almost completely new team, «Palkin is quoted as saying Mirror.» FIFA should have paid attention to the situation with Shakhtar Donetsk in 2014, not now. Their decision does not support Ukrainian clubs, it destroys them — we have a lot of foreigners in the league. We lost deals worth almost 50 million euro,» the general director said. Before the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Shakhtar had 14 legionnaires, almost all of them left the team when they had the opportunity to suspend the contract.
