FC Dynamo Kyiv president Ihor Surkis has told the “Velykyi football” show about topical issues concerning life of the club, transfer policy, work of Mircea Lucescu and Ukraine national team:
On euro cups chances
- To me, the difference between the first and the second place in the league has faded as we’ve reached the point, when victory in Ukrainian league doesn’t guarantee a place in the Champions League group stage. The team that finishes second will play more qualifying matches, but it’s questionable what’s better: to start with playoff round or to move towards the Champions League gradually, opposing weaker teams. Victory in our league has been devalued. If we don’t have 4-5 decent clubs, there won’t be any progress. Metalist are making headway which is good. Our euro cups results speak for themselves. We used to be 9th in the UEFA ranking, then 10th, now we’re 11th.
Big kudos to clubs’ presidents, who support their teams. Rinat Akhmetov and I love football, invest money and our souls into it. We work for our football. Other presidents should do the same. Not only sit at the stadium, but invest money and follow their teams’ progress. There’re clubs with 4-5 months of unpaid wages.
- On return of Kolomoiskyi
I think the fact that Kolomoiskyi has returned to the stadium is the first step to revival of his interest to football. I told him that abandoning of Dnipro and other teams he funded was a betrayal of Ukrainian football. Teams he partially funded opposed his club fiercely. So, Kolomoiskyi was honest in football.
Return of such people as Yaroslavskyi and Kolomoiskyi, who love football, would have been very beneficial. I want every matchday to be exciting.
On situation in national team
- I’m totally okay with Olexandr Petrakov. He’s a kind of person, who says everything he thinks. What’s wrong is that he’s been appointed as “acting” coach. If you believe in him, give him proper position, but warn that if Ukraine don’t qualify for the World Cup he’ll be fired.
We can wait for Rebrov really long. If they really wanted to hire Rebrov, they could pay compensation for him. But if they don’t to pay, they should hire head coach without the “acting” part. Just imagine the atmosphere in the team. Why have I prolonged the contract with Lucescu till 2024? What if my players find out this is his last year in the club? What will their attitude to work be like? They’ll think tomorrow new coach comes. They say if Petrakov helps Ukraine qualify for the World Cup, he’ll take the team there, but I’m not sure about it. How can he work then?
I think qualifying matches were a failure. Ukraine did well against France, but lost points where they weren’t supposed to, for example, against Kazakhstan. Then some people started blaming my players. Well don’t call them up. This wasn’t the case when Shevchenko was in charge. It’s about coach’s wisdom. On shouldn’t wash dirty linen in public.
This time they offended Karavayev, next time they’ll offend someone else. I’ve had a lot of different conversation with players, but those were private. For example, Malinovskyi is a leading player. One should be able to find common ground.
On transfer policy
- Shaparenko is making headway faster than we expected. So are Mykolenko, Zabarnyi, Syrota, Tsyhankov. As president of the club, I must give them a chance for progress. If we sign foreigners, they must play.
Rodrigues is a very good performer, but he was convinced he must always be in starting lineup. He was saying that out loud. That’s impossible when Lucescu is in charge. There’re no irreplaceable players.
On Dynamo horizons in the Champions League
- Quality of football is top priority. It gladdens me. I liked how the team followed the game plan opposing Benfica. If we were luckier, we could win, although we could lose too. There’s still some fear, but it was obvious players followed the plan.
In domestic league, we perform very decently. One should also take into account that Lucescu couldn’t be with the team early in the season which had significant impact on our youngsters.
Now we’re in for very tough away game against Bayern Munich. Who knows, maybe we’ll witness positive outcome. I really want to re-act glorious traditions of Dynamo 1999, when we weren’t worse than Bayern. Today we can only dream of it, but if we dream, that can happen. Today I’m satisfied with our team’s work and I tip my hat to Lucescu.
