Salavat Yulaev Ufa may be left without their main source of funding

Ural charitable foundation has suspended the funding of the KHL club Salavat Yulaev due to the ‘lack of transparency in spending’.

The foundation has been established and governed by the previous president of Bashkortostan (constituent republic, of which Ufa is the capital) Murtaza Rakhimov. According to him such a decision had been caused by the lack of transparency in the club’s spending.

According to Rakhimov, during last season the charity has transferred more than two billions roubles (€50 million) to the club. However, the new Salavat management still has not provided the charity with a possibility to perform a full-scale audit of the club’s financial activities. Moreover, some members of the club’s board were replaced at the beginning of May without the participation of the main sponsor’s representatives and the new president of the club has been elected with a two weeks post factum notice.

«We had to to make this hard decision due to the impossibility to monitor whether the financial aid our charitable foundation has been providing to the club is spent appropriately.»

«If the situation concerning the questions we’ve put does not clear up in the nearest future, we would not exclude the possibility to file a claim to the law enforcement authorities.»

«The dismissal of Bykov and Zakharkin from their coaching positions at Salavat Yulaev – at least, in the way it occurred now – was not on our plans. We had made an agreement that the issue of their coaching future at the club should be decided at special session after the World Championship, but it did not occur. Nobody even consulted us», Rakhimov stated ti RIA Novosti.

It’s also worth noting that recently the current president of Bashkortostan Rustem Khamitov has assured the public that he will do his best to keep the club’s funding at the same level.