According to Zviad Sichinava, president of Georgian Football Federation, "PrivatBank" will withdraw lien on bank accounts and real estate of GFF on Wednesday.
Sichinava talked about it at the press conference which was held in the federation.
The president of GFF presented a letter of Aleksandre Chochia, first secretary of chairman of "PrivatBank" (former "TaoPrivatBank", the name was changed on December 17, 2010) board of directors. There was written that the bank is ready to withdraw lien. Football Federation transferred 150 000 EUR to the account of "PrivatBank" on Wednesday. The federation will transfer 25 800 EUR to the bank at the beginning of every month next year. The debt of the federation is 459 600 EUR. But according to Sichinava, they paid 20 000 EUR in October.
The president of GFF said how 300 000 EUR was spent which the federation borrowed from the bank on December 29, 2008. Because of fines, 300 000 EUR increased up to 459 600 EUR. The federation transferred 20 159 EUR to the account of "Mainz" company in Germany - because of Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, the federation hired stadium in Mainz to hold a qualifying round match of World Championship 2010 between Georgian and Irish national teams. On December 29, the rest of the money was converted and it was 663 223 GEL. On December 30, 2008, 469 000 GEL was transferred to the account of F.C. "Dinamo" Tbilisi and 162 400 GEL - to the account of F.C. "Zestaponi". According to Zviad Sichinava and Revaz Arveladze, perhaps, the federation gave them money because of participating in European tournament. First this money is transferred to the federation and then it is shared among clubs. It seems that when UEFA transferred money to the federation, the federation spent its money and gave the rest of it to the clubs in December. Sichinava stated that "Zestaponi" lent 165 536 GEL to the federation on December 31. 115 000 GEL was transferred to the account of Ucha Ugulava, former general secretary of GFF. In 2010, "Zestaponi" got its 70 000 EUR back.
According to Sichinava, only facsimili of Nodar Akhalkatsi, former president of the federation, is on the documents. He did not sign the documents.
"Perhaps, Akhalkatsi's finger hurt. I do not have facsimili and if there are 400-500 papers, I sign them" - added Sichinava. The president mentioned that he had no pretensions against former management but he is going to involve investigative bodies to find out if 300 000 EUR can be lent with facsimili and without guarantees in Georgia. As for transfering money to the account of Ucha Ugulava, Sichinava and Rezo Arveladze, general secretary of the federation, could not explain why the federation did it. After the press conference, Arveladze stated that when the federation had financial crisis, the management helped it with their own money and then, this money returned to them. But he said that it would be better if we asked it to Ugulava. "World Sport" tried to contact former general secretary but in vain. By the way, Sichinava was told that Kakha Ugulava, former chairman of "PrivatBank" board of directors, is brother of Ucha Ugulava and perhaps, that's why, the federation received credit so easily. But he did not say anything about it.
At the press conference it was found out that the federation recognized this debt at the beginning of 2010 and applied to Bogdan Lesiuk, chairman of the board of directors, for its restructurization. Sichinava mentioned that he met leaders of "PrivatBank" with Arveladze in August and September. At that time, GFF had 348 000 EUR debt but Sichinava wanted to pay only 300 000 EUR. The bank did not agree on it. Later, the sides reached agreement that the federation would pay 20 000 EUR every month. They transferred money to the bank in October and were going to do it in December but the bank seized accounts of the federation. The reason of it was that the bank expected the second transfer on December 15. When the federation told them about their agreement, representatives of the bank said that they could not find such document. Sichinava also stated that every day 266 EUR was adding to the debt as fine. Sichinava was sorry that he had to take loan to pay to "PrivatBank" and all his programmes will stop now. The federation was ending 2010 with 4 300 000 GEL debt but now it will increase up to 4 800 000. Yet, the building of GFF is property of "Bank of Georgia". The federation had to pay 1 380 000 EUR to the bank and will transfer 410 000 EUR on January 4, 2011. When journalists asked Arveladze if he knew about this debt, they received answer from Sichinava: "Rezo Arveladze was vice-president and he did not participate in financial issues. It was not his responsibility". Then Arveladze stated that he knew about this debt. Sichinava was asked if this everything was connected to future presidential elections - "Would I have seized my own accounts?" - he was surprised. When he was explained that the journalist meant if other opponents wanted to hinder the elections, the president did not make comment.


Lasha Tabagari