Dynamo gift causes uproar

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - An uproar has ensued from a report that the Ukainian soccer club Dynamo, based in Kyiv, contributed its winnings from a February 11 tournament in Moscow to a fund for families of Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya.

According to various accounts in the Ukrainian press, after taking the CIS championship, in its first attempt since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the team donated its total winnings of $42,000, which has led to a slew of letter writing to editors of major newspapers.

On February 13, Parliament Deputy Yaroslav Iliasevych was quoted in Vechirniy Kyiv as being incredulous that members of the Dynamo soccer team would donate money to soldiers who "orphaned, crippled and made homeless thousands of Chechen children."

He said he would pursue canceling of the state subsidy to the soccer team, which is appropriated at 230 billion karbovantsi ($1.28 million) for this year. He said that if the team can hand out thousands of dollars as gifts, then obviously it doesn't need the money.

He added that it is especially inappropriate since there are Ukrainian soldiers and families who are indigent and homeless; and miners and pensioners who do not receive regular paychecks and cannot afford even bread.

A letter writer noted in Narodna Hazeta that even the Russian club Spartak-Alania, which took second place, hadn't made such a gesture. The writer asked whether Kyiv Dynamo is ready to donate its future winnings for worthy causes, such as aiding the child-victims of the Chornobyl tragedy, or even to victims of gangland terrorism in Ukraine.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 3, 1996, No. 9, Vol. LXIV

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