The Association of European Football Federations (UEFA) has imposed severe fines on the Latvian football club “Ventspils”, its president Adlan Shishhanov and sports director Nikolai Djakkin for influencing the games.
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Adlans Šišhanovs, the president of Ventspils club and until recently the main shareholder, received a lifetime disqualification from football, the Ventspils club received a seven-year disqualification from the UEFA Eurocup competition, and Djak was sentenced to four years of disqualification from all football-related matters.
“Ventspils”, Šišhanovs and Djakins have been punished for “fraud, bribery and / or corruption” and “violations of the integrity of matches and competitions”. This is the biggest football scandal in the history of Latvia. Given that the penalties have been imposed by UEFA, Ventspils’ violations are most likely related to international matches.
Taking into account the events of recent months around the Kurzeme club and the financial problems of “Ventspils”, UEFA’s decision may draw a line on the club’s existence.
UEFA has also reportedly disqualified Russian judge Sergei Lapochkin for ten years. The referee has not reported any attempt to influence the result of the 2018 UEFA Europa League match between Ventspils and Bordeaux Girondins. The media “Sport24.ru” has previously reported that the case was initiated after UEFA received information from the Latvian authorities about the correspondence between Lapočkin and one of the persons involved in the criminal case.
“Ventspils” and Shishanov’s possible connection with the influence of the game results have been talked about for a long time. The suspicion was heightened by the fact that Shishhanov was often seen together with Oleg Gavrilov, who had once been disqualified for life for influencing the results of football matches.
From 2010 to 2017, Shishhanov also managed the Moldovan football club Dačia in Chisinau, which ceased operations in 2018. The club under his leadership once triumphed in the Moldovan championship, but was also accused of tax evasion and several charges were brought against Shishhanov.
Šišhanovs took over the titled Kurzeme football club before the 2018 football super league season. The Russian citizen owned the majority of the shares and is the real beneficiary of the club and chairman of the board with the right to represent the unit separately.
In April of this year, Shishhanov announced his departure from the club, which is most likely directly related to the UEFA investigation and the upcoming penalties.
According to Lursoft data, SIA “Futbola kluba” Ventspils “” 50.09% of shares belong to SIA “Ventspils futbola sabiedrība”, 34.31% of shares are owned by SIA “VK Tranzīts”, 11.23% of shares – Ventspils City Council , 2.5% – JSC “Kālija parks” and the remaining 1.88% of the shares are owned by JSC “Ventspils prekybos osta”. Until January 7, 2021, the sole owner of the main shareholder “Ventspils football company” was Shishhanov, but currently the official owner is Aslambeks Edilsultanov, a Russian citizen. Edilsultanov is a confidant of Shishhanov, as the two roads often intersected and the names of both figured in connection with possible irregularities in Moldova.
The Port City Football Club has triumphed in the Latvian Football Super League six times, but has been able to win the Latvian Cup in football seven times. Thus, it is considered to be the second most titled football team in independent Latvia after the football club “Skonto”. Represented by several players of the national team, the “Ventspils” team was still the only Latvian team to achieve a group tournament of a European Football Federation Association (UEFA) league, 2009/2010. entering the main league of the European League in the season.
