Brest football players on strike

Football club Brest went on strike.

The strike is only a warning. Football players ignore only practice sessions, but say they are ready to stop playing official matches if club managers don't pay the wages the club owes to them.

Charter97.org learned from players of the FC Brest first team disrupted another practice session agreeing to do only some tactical drills in protest against failure to pay their wages. Coaches didn't interfere feeling they cannot influence the players.

Team captain Vitaly Haiduchyk (by the way, he already announced he would go to BATE after the end of the season) says “the team has not received salary for 3 or four months. Players from the first team receive payments more often. The rest have been waiting for their money for the fourth month. The team doesn't even remind about extra pay – they can get it in December or January or even later.”

At a meeting with FC Brest chairman of board Uladizmir Bazanau, who was recently elected a member of the “house of representatives”, the football players said they would not appear for a friendly match with Ukrainian Volyn if at least one salary was not paid. If their demands are ignored, the team is ready not to play the final game of the Belarusian championship.

Uladzimir Bazanau explained that club sponsors stopped fulfilling their obligations and tried to assure the players that all debts would be paid by November 1. The club is going to take a loan from a bank for this purpose. However, the team players are sceptical about the promises.

Another curious detail was revealed. An exhibition game with Volyn, a rather successful Ukrainian football club (its coach is Anatoliy Demyanenko, a former prominent football player), will be held not  at the stadium of the Brest sport complex, but in a training centre outside the city. As the club press service reports, one more game at city's main stadium will bring additional expenses for the club.