Andriy Vasylyovych Pavelko (; born 7 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and sports official. On 6 March 2015, he was elected as president of the

Football Federation of Ukraine The Ukrainian Football Association (, ; UAF) is the governing body of football in Ukraine. Before 2019, it was known as the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU; ). As a subject of the International Olympic Movement, UAF is a member of the Nation ...

, replacing

Anatoliy Konkov Anatoliy Konkov (; 19 September 1949 – 4 October 2024) was a Soviet football player from Ukraine and Soviet and later Ukrainian football manager. Native of Eastern Ukraine, he made a football career in Dynamo Kyiv of 1970s. He was honored as t ...

. Pavelko had been the acting president since 23 January 2015. In May 2019, he changed the federation's name to Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF).

Political career

Following the

2010 Ukrainian local elections The 2010 Ukrainian local elections took place on 31 October 2010,

, he was elected as a deputy of the

Dnipropetrovsk City Council Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

for Front of Change. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor. He headed the Dnipropetrovsk branch of Front of Change from 2009 to 2012. Pavelko was number 29 on the electoral list of

Batkivshchyna The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (), referred to as Batkivshchyna (), is a political party in Ukraine led by People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As the core party of the former Yulia Tymoshenko B ...

during the

2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 28 October 2012.Parli ...

. In October 2013, Pavelko was expelled from the Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction for "not sharing the position of the faction on key issues." In late 2013 he became the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Democrats". In the

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an un ...

, Pavelko was re-elected to parliament after being number 33 on the electoral list of

Petro Poroshenko Bloc European Solidarity (, ; , YeS) is a political party in Ukraine. It has its roots in a parliamentary group called Solidarity dating from 2000 and has existed since in various forms as a political outlet for Petro Poroshenko. The party with its the ...

. In February 2019, his vote was registered in parliament while he was in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

attending

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's 43rd congress. Pavelko did not take part in the

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parli ...

.Small biography on Andriy Pavelko

Civil movement "Chesno" Chesno () is a Ukrainian public campaign that emerged late 2011 to advance a fair election process. It is widely known for its critical analysis and evaluation of politicians and the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) in Ukraine. The organization provi ...

Scandals

in June 2018, the

NABU Nabu (, ) is the Babylonian patron god of literacy, scribes, wisdom, and the rational arts. He is associated with the classical planet Mercury in Babylonian astronomy. Etymology and meaning The Akkadian means 'announcer' or 'authorised pe ...

opened proceedings suspecting Pavelko of abuse in the construction of artificial football mini-fields. Future LLC was the applicant in the proceedings. In January 2022, the

Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (, САП, SAPO) is an independent structural unit of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, and is primarily responsible for supporting and overseeing criminal investigations launched by the ...

stated that no evidence of Pavelko's guilt had been established. The case was transferred to the

National Police of Ukraine The National Police of Ukraine (, ; /NPU ), often simply referred to as the (), is the national, and only, police service of Ukraine. It was formed on 3 July 2015, as part of the post-Euromaidan reforms launched by Ukrainian president Petro Por ...

. In 2020, the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

formed a temporary investigative commission to investigate the construction of artificial football mini-fields; after the commission began its work, seven criminal proceedings were opened in Ukraine, and other cases were opened in Germany, Switzerland, and Cyprus. In 2020, representatives of the

National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine () is a Ukrainian Government, Ukrainian law enforcement agency, law enforcement anti-corruption agency which investigates corruption in Ukraine and prepares cases for prosecution. It has investig ...

, the

Prosecutor General of Ukraine The Prosecutor General of Ukraine (also ''Procurator General''; , ) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General (, or, before 2020, ). The prosecutor general is appointed and dismissed by th ...

, and the National Police announced that there were no criminal proceedings against Pavelko. In November 2020, members of parliament refused to vote for the extension of the Provisional Investigation Commission's work. The commission's interim findings indicated a lack of evidence against the UAF leadership. On 29 November 2022, the Pechersk Court ordered the arrest of Pavelko and UAF Secretary General Yuriy Zapisotskyi for two months with bail of UAH 9.88 million, but Pavelko was released shortly after posting bail. In February 2023, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv suspended Pavelko as president of the Ukrainian Football Association until 17 March in connection with corruption and embezzlement charges. On 16 June 2023, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Lviv arrested Pavelko on charges of fraud and embezzlement of UAH 26.5 million, and sent him to a pre-trial detention center for 60 days. In July 2023, the Court of Appeal did not grant Pavelko's request to change the preventive measure.

Achievements

In 2019, under his leadership of the UAF, the

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( ) represents Ukraine in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine's home ground is the ...

won in ten matches, including eight matches of the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

. They also reached the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

. In addition, the

Ukraine national under-20 football team The Ukraine national under-20 football team is primarily a special team that is formed for the FIFA U-20 World Cup after a successful performance of the Ukraine national under-19 football team. The team is also used as an immediate reserve of th ...

, led by Oleksandr Petrakov, won the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

Anti-corruption law

While serving as

People's Deputy of Ukraine A people's deputy of Ukraine (, ) is a member of parliament and legislator elected by Direct election, popular vote to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine. They are often referred to simply as "deputies". Prior to 1991, the Verkhovna R ...

, Pavelko initiated law No.743-VIII "On the prevention of corruption offences influence on the results of sporting competitions". The parliament passed the law in November 2015.

References

External links

Profile
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavelko, Andriy 1975 births Living people Politicians from Dnipro Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University alumni Oles Honchar Dnipro National University alumni Front for Change (Ukraine) politicians All-Ukrainian Union "Democrats" politicians Independent politicians of Batkivshchyna Petro Poroshenko Bloc politicians Seventh convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Eighth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Ukrainian Association of Football chairmen