NOC's rep in U.S. reacts to Dynamo flap (03/31/96)

NOC's rep in U.S. reacts to Dynamo flap

by Roman Woronowycz

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The Ukrainian soccer team Dynamo has no connection whatsoever with either Ukraine's Ministry of Youth and Sports or the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, Laryssa Barabash-Temple, U.S. representative of the NOC-Ukraine, told The Weekly on March 22.

"We have no more control over Dynamo than the United States Olympic Committee has over the Dallas Cowboys," said Ms. Temple.

A brouhaha of sorts developed when the Ukrainian World Congress, the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the United States and Canada, the Canadian Friends of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee and its European counterpart sent a letter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports expressing their condemnation of a financial gift by Dynamo players to a fund for the widows and children of Russian soldiers who died in Chechnya.

Ms. Temple said that she has received correspondence of a rather nasty sort also from individuals expressing their disgruntlement with Dynamo's move.

Ms. Temple explained that Dynamo is part of the Ministry of the Interior and that historically the team's athletes have been members of the militia. Through a joint venture, the team is also partly owned by Concern Ometa, whose president, Grigoriy Surkis, is also president of Dynamo.

The Weekly also learned there is some supposition among sports officials in Ukraine that the reason Dynamo made the controversial donation is because the Russian vice-president of the Union of European Football (Soccer) Associations (UEFA), Anatoliy Koloskov, said he would intercede on the tam's behalf with international soccer officials. On September 20, 1995, the UEFA and suspended the term for three years following an incident during which the Dynamo coach allegedly tried to bride to referee to fix its match against a club from Greece.

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