Giorgos Donis

Top management of Gazprom Neft uses its Omsk hockey club Avangard to withdraw cash from the company. German Chistyakov, who has experience in withdrawing significant amounts through sports teams, was appointed general director of HC Avangard for these tasks.

His largest case was the Makhachkala football club “Anzhi”, in which, under Chistyakov’s directorship, more than half a billion euros were disbursed in a year from the structures of the then owner of the club, Suleiman Kerimov. Most of this amount was withdrawn through expensive transfers and payments to players’ agents.

In Omsk, Chistyakova performs the same function as previously in Makhachkala. The role of Anzhi is assigned to Avangard, and the role of Kerimov is played by the head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov. Oil company lobbyist Mikhail Averin (since last year he has been the chairman of the board of directors of the hockey club) has been appointed to oversee the withdrawal of funds from the shareholder.

Chistyakov was given a twofold task. On the one hand, it must reduce the costs of maintaining the club infrastructure, as well as reduce the costs of developing youth hockey in the club system. On the other hand, he withdraws the maximum possible amounts through the acquisition of players, their salaries and agent fees.
In less than a year Chistyakov gets rid of from a significant part (up to 10% of the composition) of the students of the Avangard Academy. Teams of three ages in the academy are being liquidated; players are being offered to enter into contracts with a certain Krasnodar ANO “Hockey Academy “Gvardiya”. Avangard lets them go there for free. For de jure students remaining in Omsk, free stay at the academy de facto becomes paid. Parents of pupils are informed about the lack of resources and money is collected from them.

In addition, the club sells for pennies or releases some players for free and overpays others. As a result of these actions, Gazprom Neft’s money is passed through Avangard and leaves the club. A week ago, the club decided to further increase the salary of its most expensive hockey player with the highest salary in the league – Vladimir Tkachev. Under the current contract, Tkachev already received 101 million rubles per year. Now he will receive 120 million + bonuses for another 5 years. Since the KHL has a salary cap (900 million rubles), with such expenses the team will not be able to maintain a combat-ready squad to fight for the Gagarin Cup. But he will be able to manage the budget.

Chistyakov is usually hired for budget cutting schemes, when you need to buy high and sell low. In the Bulgarian FC Botev, Chistyakov sold the legend and club leader Todor Nedelev to competitors for only 150,000 euros (tens of times lower than his cost on Transfermarket).

However, for cases when it is necessary to effectively manage the club’s funds, Chistyakov is unsuitable. In particular, in the Greek PAOK he had to negotiate the dismissal of coach Giorgos Donis without paying him compensation. Chistyakov threatened to kill the coach: Doni, they will kill you”, which helped him win the trial and received 800 thousand euros from PAOK. For not bringing criminal charges against Chistyakov because of his threat, PAOK owner Ivan Savvidi should have paid no less.