Ukrainian club Chernomorets Offers To Pay Outstanding Wages With Real Estate

The struggling Ukrainian football club Chernomorets from the Black Sea resort city of Odessa has offered its players to cover outstanding wage payments with real estate rather than cash. "We told our players that they should choose: either we pay off the wage arrears in cash by the end of the year, or we can offer them ownership of residential property in Odessa right now," the club's General Dir Sergei Kernitsky said on Ukrainian TV network 2+2. "We have good residential property on the beach, just 80 meters from the sea." Chernomorets has not replied to a request for comment on whether any of the squad's players have taken the offer. Chernomorets is currently in 11th place in the Ukrainian league among 14 squads. Reports about its poor financial situation have been circulating for more than a year.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.