Ukrainian football club FC Kryvbas has sacked two coaches for apparently having dissenting views on the conflict with Russia.
The club, which hails from the central Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog and plays in the country’s second tier, announced on its website that youth team manager Vitaliy Vitsenets and assistant Stanislav Dyachenko would be leaving.
“FC Kryvbas has a clear and unambiguous pro-Ukrainian position. Ukraine is a sovereign independent state. Russia is the aggressor,” read the message, before aiming various insults at the Russian army and President Vladimir Putin.
“A different view of what is happening is unacceptable for the club, there is simply no other position for Kryvbas. The club will not turn a blind eye or excuse anyone.
“We are convinced that those who have a different opinion have no place in the Kryvbas family.
“With this in mind, FC Kryvbas decided to stop cooperation with the coach of the U-19 Academy Vitaliy Vitsenets and his assistant Stanislav Dyachenko.”
Vitsenets is a former Ukraine youth international who spent part of his club career at Shakhtar Donetsk, and only took over his coaching role at Kryvbas last year.
Ukrainian football has shown little tolerance for those not willing to speak out against the Russian military campaign.
That has been most evident with the country’s record international appearance-maker, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
A former Champions League winner at Bayern Munich, Tymoshchuk has been assistant coach at Russian giants Zenit St. Petersburg since 2017 – a club where he had two spells as a player.
After remaining in his role at Zenit following the outbreak of the conflict, the 46-year-old was accused by the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) of “remaining silent and working for the club of aggressor” and was subsequently stripped of his coaching badges and all titles in his homeland.
Elsewhere, TV pundit Viktor Leonenko was removed from his role on a Ukrainian channel after saying Russian athletes should not be criticized if they refuse to comment on the conflict.