Kyiv, November 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Representatives of the sports sector have criticized the reforms initiated by the Youth and Sports Ministry of Ukraine.

"Eighty percent of our sports family are outraged and stand against the reform that [Youth and Sports] Minister [Dmytro] Bulatov wants to jam through today. We're not against reforms, we support reforms, but they must be reasonable," Olympic winner, honorary master of sports of Ukraine Stella Zakharova said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

According to her, the reforms that the leadership of Youth and Sports Ministry wants to introduce into Ukrainian sports are unacceptable.

"This is pure corruption. Gyms will be transferred into private property of great reformers, and we'll destroy children's sports completely," she said.

She also said that representatives of the sports sector had not been involved in the development of the reforms.

"Our opinion is being ignored today... We want reforms, but we want to come together so that everyone could be heard. [This way] everyone will contribute a little and we'll discuss it properly and release a good product," Zakharova noted.

Head of the state-run Ukrsportzabezpechennia Directorate for Technical and Material Support of Sports Events Serhiy Kachynsky also criticized the Youth and Sports Ministry's initiatives.

"The new bill doesn't foresee decentralization; it has a substitution of notions. In addition, we are funding a federation, rather than a type of sports. No one showed the mechanisms in the bill regarding the allocation of funds. Unfortunately, no one proposed mechanisms of sponsorship and patronage in the bill. Sports schools and clubs may and need to be developed, but the bill doesn't specify how," he said.

He noted that the sports laws should be amended, but not in such a dramatic way, as suggested by the Sports Ministry.

"We'll practically turn the whole system into a profit-based one and it will simply collapse," he said.

According to him, it will be difficult to control how sports federations spend money allocated by the state, as there are a lot of them in Ukraine. In addition, there is no mechanism or principle to fund any particular types of sports.

The state coach of the national rowing and canoeing team, Oleksandr Mostovenko, noted that the current situation in sports had led to a huge outflow of Ukrainian athletes abroad.

As an example, he spoke of the situation with rowing and canoeing, which bring Olympic medals for Ukraine. According to Mostovenko, since January 1, there has been no funding for this type of sport. The appeals to the ministry bring "no real answers."