The owner of FC Metallist (Kharkiv), Serhiy Kurchenko, is to buy for $70 million a stake in the municipal ownership in the stadium at which the club plays.

"We've signed a contract with authorities that we're buying the Metallist stadium for $70 million," he said in an interview with the journal Korrespondent.

Kurchenko also said that all liabilities to the former owner of FC Metallist, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, on the acquisition of the football club were fulfilled in the middle of May.

"We had payments in installments, and on May 15, 2013 we fully fulfilled our liabilities. The agreement has a confidentiality clause, but I can say that the sum he [Yaroslavsky] received, is more than a fair price. From the point of view of business he is satisfied with the deal," he added.

Kurchenko said that expenses on maintenance of the football club are around $70 million a year and from the next season they will rise to at least $105 million.

"How much could FC Metallist cost, given it incurs at least $70 million in expenses a year, and this will expand by 1.5 times when we reach the Champions League?" he said.

Kurchenko said that when he arrived to FC Metallist he increased bonuses for the team, improving the incentive scheme.

As reported, Head of Kharkiv Regional Administration Mykhailo Dobkin earlier said that the stadium could be put up for sale in the third quarter of 2013, and it will be sold for a sum equivalent to $70 million (the funds spent on the reconstruction of the stadium from budgets of various levels).

In December 2012, VETEK reached an agreement to acquire FC Metallist from Yaroslavsky. Kurchenko, a key shareholder in VETEK, was elected new President of FC Metallist.

VETEK trades in liquefied and natural gases, oil products, goods for the oil and gas sector, and runs some 150 filling stations. It owns Odesa oil refinery.