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Ajax sporting director Sven Mislintat
Photograph:
David Inderlied / dpa
The supervisory board of the Dutch football record champion Ajax Amsterdam has apparently prohibited sporting director Sven Mislintat from a transfer. As »De Telegraaf« reports, the former sporting director of the Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart wanted to sign the Russian-born Armenian Eduard Spertsyan from the Russian first division club FK Krasnodar. However, due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Supervisory Board refused to give its approval.
"Ajax must be a role model for society. We fulfil an important, broader role than just fielding a football team on a field," supervisory board chairman Pier Eringa had previously said in an interview – taking a different position than champions Feyenoord, who had loaned Poland's Sebastian Szymanski from Dinamo Moscow for two million euros last season, or rivals PSV Eindhoven, who bought five-time Dutch international Guus Til from Spartak Moscow for three million euros. obliged.
Club belongs to Putin-affiliated oligarch
FK Krasnodar is owned by Russian billionaire Sergei Galitsky, who appeared in the US Treasury Department's "Kremlin Report" in 2018 as one of a total of 210 alleged confidants of Vladimir Putin from politics and business. In March 2022, Krasnodar had given foreign club employees the opportunity to unilaterally terminate their contracts due to the war. Eight players as well as the coaching team around the German Daniel Farke had also made use of this.
The 23-year-old Spertsyan, born in Stavropol, Russia, as a member of the Armenian minority, did not leave the club and became Krasnodar's top scorer in the league with ten goals and twelve assists. The attacking midfielder, who is considered the successor to former Dortmund player Henrikh Mkhitaryan in his homeland, is under contract in Russia until 2026.
CEV/SID