War in Ukraine. What is the reaction of the Monegasque clubs?
AS Monaco and the Roca Team wanted to react to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Owned by Russian presidents, AS Monaco and AS Monaco Basket have been at the heart of the news since the start of the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine on 23 February.
At the head of the club’s presidency since last January after a decade which saw the Ukrainian Sergei Dyadechko structure the club and take it to the roof of Europe, the Russian Aleksey Fedoricsev was present during Monaco’s victory against Fenerbahçe (92-78) in the Euroleague, alongside Sergei Dyadechko.
If the two men have not yet wanted to speak jointly, on the ground, on the other hand, the former player and now assistant coach of the Roca Team, Sergiy Gladyr, posted a “Stop War” on his tactical tablet.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper MarkSergiy Gladyr named he was ” worry ” and ” scared “ by war. “I still don’t know what decision to make.he declared while part of his family is present in the South of Ukraine. I have my wife and two children here in France, it’s very complicated. I hope this situation can end soon. »
As a reminder, with a personal fortune estimated at 1 billion dollars, Aleksey Fedoricsev (66) is the founder of Fedcom, the world leader in sulfur and fertilizers. If the company is well known in the Principality, it is because for almost 25 years it was the jersey sponsor of AS Monaco footballers.
Since June 2021, Aleksey Fedoricsev has ceased to sponsor ASM, except on the shirts worn this season in the European Cup, to take over AS Monaco Basket. Considered the 100th largest Russian fortune, the businessman bought almost half of the shares of the basket section to become its president. Sergeï Dyadechko, he remained the vice-president.
As for AS Monaco footballers, the Ligue 1 match against Stade de Reims was marked by a missed kick-off, in order to protest against “acts of war” Russians in Ukraine, on the initiative of the president of the Reims club, Jean-Pierre Caillot, in favor of an action “symbolic”. Scheduled for 1 p.m., the kick-off was given at 1:05 p.m.
“Despite all the respect I have for the Monaco club and for its leaders, we had to symbolically show that we were totally in disagreement with the acts of war carried out by Russia there”, explained the president of the Stade de Reims at the microphone of Prime Video before the meeting. Asked about this action at a press conference after the match, ASM coach Philippe Clément assured that there was no “Not a man in the whole club who wants war. »
For his part, the vice-president / general manager of the club, Oleg Petrov, also wanted to react. “It is an obviously difficult and very painful situation, which we are monitoring closely. As the manager of a football club, I think that the field that one can imagine being suitable for a confrontation is the sports field. I hope peace will come as soon as possible. »
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Oleg Petrov was present at the match alongside Prince Albert II and his children, as well as Ekaterina Sartori Rybolovleva, the daughter of the president of AS Monaco, and Juan Sartori, his kind, appointed vice-president of ASM in November.
According to information from the newspaper L’Equipe, Dmitry Rybolovlev was never close to Vladimir Putin. As proof, the man who has chaired AS Monaco since 2011 left his country in 2010, encouraging his parents to do the same to follow him to the Principality.
Information revealed by the journalist Lazar Van Pariseditor at Footballski.fra media specializing in Eastern European football. “Compared to Roman Abramovich (Chelsea chairman), Dmitri Rybolovlev is far from being close to Vladimir Putin. He left Russia in 2010, he was more or less forced to sell. When he leaves Russia, he is not really in the odor of sanctity. It was then that he arrived in Monaco with a lot of money that he wanted to invest there to buy peace and security. »
In Europe, the Russian leader is not worried about sanctions for the moment. And according to Lazar Van Parijs, even if the situation is determined “fairly complex”there is for now “Few reasons to want to attack Dmitri Rybolovlev. »