Leanid Kovel: I'd rather be disqualified than return to Karpaty

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Karpaty, Dinamo Minsk and Saturn all made several official announcements claiming that they possessed rights for Belorussian U-21 international forward Leanid Kovel. He had signed the contract with Dinamo Minsk until 2010. Last year the Lviv club loaned him with the buyout option. After the New Year Kovel appeared in the Russian club Saturn and signed a contract with them. At the same time Karpaty claim that they have bought Kovel and even publish copies of payment documents and the contract itself signed by the player and dated January 1, 2008. Kovel says he was home at that time and didn't sign any contract in Lviv. Now Karpaty and Dinamo Minsk want Kovel's case to be investigated by FIFA lawyers. VZ asked Kovel's agent Oleksandr Kulishevich (pictured) to comment on the situation.

The Belorussian signed two contracts

- Are you really Kovel's agent, do you work with another FIFA agent?

- I am Leanid Kovel's official agent. It is registered in the FFU database. I haven't transferred my rights of signing Leanid's contract with any other club to anybody.

- What are other players you work with?

- Ukrainian internationals Volodymyr Yezerskiy, Bohdan Shust, Karpaty forward Maksym Feschuk, Arsenal defender Andriy Raspopov and others.

- Karpaty Lviv, Dinamo Minsk, Saturn Ramenskoe all claim that Kovel belongs to them. Which club owns the player?

- It turns out that the Belorussian signed two contracts. So now FIFA will decide which club owns him.

- How often do you contact Leanid?

- Regularly, over the phone. Kovel was in the training camp in Turkey with Saturn and Belarus U-21 national team. He apologized for the situation that happened.

- If he apologized, then he had signed the contract with Karpaty?..

- I know what happened but currently I don't want to make this information public...

They are terrible people

- Where does Kovel want to play?

- He said to me firmly: "I'd rather be disqualified than return to Karpaty"... He may be disqualified for one year if it is proven that he signed signing contracts with two clubs. He said he hadn't signed the contract with Karpaty, they just let him sign a blank sheet and he thought he was signing the loan contract.

- In his recent interview to Belorussian newspaper Pressball Kovel said about the Lviv club that "terrible people" were working there. What did he mean?

- By "terrible people" Leanid meant FC Karpaty management. He always respected Lviv fans and his Karpaty teammates.

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