Valentijn Driessen questions PSV’s conduct regarding the transfer of Guus Til. The 24-year-old midfielder recently made the switch from the Russian Spartak Moscow to the Eindhoven club. It is salient that payment traffic with Russia has come to a standstill, in order to discourage business with Russian companies or clubs. However, PSV and Spartak found a construction to pay the transfer fee of four million through a German bank. “Such a shortcut is of course not neat,” says Driessen in a video item from The Telegraph†
“The sanctions say you can’t trade with Russia,” Driessen continues. “I don’t know if you should want that as a club. It’s not neat. I also don’t know whether the old director, Toon Gerbrands, had given his approval for this. Marcel Brands (the new general manager, ed.) does not care, but do you want to go through life as a club with such a stamp?” The European Union did indeed impose sanctions to discourage trade with Russia, but they do not completely exclude trade.
Valentijn Driessen questions how PSV has attracted Guus Til.
Spartak is owned by two oligarchs: Leonid Fedun and Vagit Alekperov. Fidelity know that the two gentlemen are not on the sanctions list of the EU, the United Kingdom or the United States. “You can just do business with Russians who are not sanctioned,” lawyer and sanctions specialist Yvo Amar told the newspaper. “Chelsea got into trouble because owner Roman Abramovich was on that sanction list.”
Otkritie, the ‘probable house banker’ of Spartak and also namesake of the stadium, writes Fidelity further, it is on that list. That is why PSV would have taken a shortcut and paid the transfer fee of four million euros to Spartak via a bank in Germany. According to the Eindhoven residents, more clubs act in this way and they have not conducted any illegal business.
Also the General Newspaper is critical of PSV’s conduct. The morning paper emphasizes the recent extension of a transfer-free status, which FIFA awarded to players of Russian clubs. Journalist Mikos Gouka therefore finds it remarkable that PSV does not temporarily take over Til on a free transfer, but fixes it for four years, including transfer fee. “The fact that the trade sanctions are there for a reason does not seem to count. The football world has its own laws,” writes Gouka.