The new owner of FC Metalist Kharkiv, Serhiy Kurchenko, Metalist coach Myron Markevych and the management of the club have discussed the tasks on its development in the near future, reads a statement posted on the club's official Web site.
The meeting took place in Kyiv on Sunday in the office of the Gas Ukraine group of companies.
"All meeting participants agreed that stable bronze medals in the Ukrainian championship are an achievement that must be continued. The club's new owner promised that the team will soon see even more impressive progress. The team's coach and administrators were promised continued cooperation under contracts, as well as a gradual increase in fees to players and the improvement of the training base. In particular, Kurchenko plans, as he promised, soon to buy the Metalist Stadium from the city authorities," the club's press service reported.
Kurchenko said he was confident that the future of the club and the team lied in the younger generation and that he plans to make significant investments in the training of young players.
The club's new owner plans to meet with the team ahead of its departure for a training camp in Dubai. He also emphasized the importance of the fan club and the fans and said that the most active of them would be invited to England for the first match of the Europa League round of 32, in which Metalist will take on Newcastle United at St James' Park. The match will take place on February 14, and the conditions of the competition, the most active members of which will go to Newcastle, will be announced soon.
In addition, all participants in the meeting the praised the activities of the former club's president, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky. Kurchenko said that he was grateful to Yaroslavsky who made a breakthrough in the development of the club and who made an invaluable contribution to the development of Ukrainian football.
Kurchenko noted the importance of this meeting to him, for the sake of which he interrupted a foreign trip. He said that he had always dreamed of working in "big" football and said that he planned to use his ability to achieve success in business in the management of the football club.
Markevych, in turn, said that the objectives were very ambitious and difficult, but "it's necessary to set the bar high."
"The meeting was held in a working atmosphere. The new owner confirmed his ambitious plans to develop the club and also announced the new, more comfortable and beneficial terms of cooperation, at a meeting with me and the staff of the club. In general, I'm pleased with the outcome of the meeting, and I'm sure that the arrival of a new investor will have a positive impact on the game of the team and the life of the club," Markevych said.
