The record holder for the number of games for the Ukrainian national football team, Anatoly Tymoshchuk, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne with a complaint about the deprivation of his titles by the country’s football federation. In March 2022, the federation stripped him of three Ukrainian champion titles, three cup titles and one super cup, and removed him from the national team roster for continuing to work in Russia after the February invasion of Ukraine.
44-year-old Tymoshchuk is a former midfielder of Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayern Munich and Zenit St. Petersburg, one of the most titled football players in the modern history of Ukrainian football. He works as an assistant coach at Zenit. The Ukrainian Football Federation stated that by remaining in St. Petersburg after the start of the war and not speaking out against it publicly, he deliberately damaged the image of Ukrainian football.
“While the Ukrainian’s other former club, Bayern Munich, publishes statements and holds actions in support of Ukraine, Tymoshchuk continues to remain silent and work for the aggressor club (Zenith),” the federation said in a statement. He was banned for life from working in Ukrainian football and was deprived of his top-level UEFA coaching license issued in the country, which allowed him to work in European clubs. In addition, the federation had to appeal to the government with a recommendation to deprive the athlete of state awards and titles.
In January, Tymoshchuk lost his appeal to the Control and Disciplinary Committee of the Ukrainian Federation. The Court of Sports in Lausanne is the final court to decide on conflicts in sports. The federation said in a statement that it was preparing its position on this issue for the court.
In March 2022, deputies from Tymoshchuk’s native Lutsk deprived the athlete of the title of honorary citizen of the city. He did not publicly comment on this or the deprivation of sports titles.
In December, Ukrainian media, with reference to the Russian website Sport24, published statements on behalf of Tymoshchuk, in which he stated that he does not comment on the war because he believes that “not everything is clear” in it. The original source later deleted the material; the Sports.ru website claimed that the athlete did not say such a thing.
