Shakhtar Donetsk Deny Swapping Midfielder for Natural Gas

Listen up, people. Sure your homes might be freezing cold and you don’t have any money to pay your gas bill, but whatever you do don’t go running to Shakhtar Donetsk looking for help. Contrary to what you might have read in the Ukrainian press, the football club does not have $10 million in natural gas at its disposal after selling midfielder Anatoly Tymoshchuk to Russian league club Zenit St. Petersburg

Serhiy Palkin, Shakhtar’s general director, makes it all very clear on the club’s Web site that his team got real cabbage for Tymoshchuk and not natural gas.

“These are nothing more than rumours. This information is groundless. Our Club’s policy has always been open. All contracts we are signing are transparent and absolutely legal. I officially declare that there wasn’t and couldn’t be any gas-relating aspects in our agreement with Zenit concerning Tymoshchuk’s transfer. Shakhtar is a football club, not a gas trader.”

Are we clear on this? Good. It is beyond the pale to even think that a soccer club would sell one of its players for natural gas.

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Category: World Football