MY ACCOUNT
Ukraine are set to strip their former captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk of his record 144 caps and impose a string of further heavy sanctions as punishment for his ongoing work at Russian club Zenit.
The proposals were announced on Wednesday by the ethics and fair play committee of the Ukrainian Football Association, which accused Tymoshchuk of making a “conscious choice” that “damages the image of Ukrainian football”.
Tymoshchuk, 42, was a Champions League winner with Bayern Munich in 2013. Either side of his four-year playing spell in Germany, he had stints with Zenit, and in 2016 he joined up again with the Russian Premier League club in a coaching role.
The Ukrainian FA (UAF) ethics investigators said that by continuing to work for Zenit, while Russian forces invade Ukraine, Tymoshchuk was breaching the association’s code of ethics and fair play.
The ethics committee said in a statement on the UAF website: “Since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, Tymoshchuk, the former captain of the Ukrainian national team, has not only made no public statements in this regard, nor has he stopped his cooperation with the aggressor’s club.
“By making this conscious choice, Tymoshchuk damages the image of Ukrainian football.”
It said it intended to ask high command within the UAF to remove Tymoshchuk’s coaching pro licence and to request that public authorities remove his state awards and honours.
On top of that, it said it would request that his status as a winner of domestic competitions at club level in Ukraine be wiped, and for him to be removed from the official register of players to have represented Ukraine national teams.
Tymoshchuk won Ukrainian Premier League, Ukrainian Cup and Ukrainian Super Cup honours with Shakhtar Donetsk before embarking on his first spell at Zenit.
