Sergei Galitsky at the Russian Football Championship match between “Krasnodar” and “Ufa” on March 1, 2021. Businessman Sergey Galitsky, who currently holds the position of president of the football club “Krasnodar”, has announced his illness. He did not specify what exactly he is sick with, but he announced changes in the management structure of “Krasnodar”, stating that his club “should not depend on one person”.
“Yes, I missed three matches. For the people of Krasnodar it’s no secret – I’m ill, and unfortunately I’m going through a period in my life when I can’t attend home matches in large numbers. I can’t communicate with the club as much as the president needs. But that’s life, you can’t always control your own destiny. Unfortunately, I’m not in the right shape and that’s why I miss some matches,” the 54-year-old Galitsky said in an interview with the YouTube channel “Comment.Show”.
According to him, next year “Krasnodar” should have a board of directors and a monitoring council: “We are working to change the structure. The club should not depend on one person. I am working on the structure so that the budget of 50-60-70 million dollars can work without me, and the youth academy can be financed without me. I think by March-April we will have completed all these processes.
The billionaire did not disclose what exactly he is suffering from. A source close to Galitsky told RBC that news of his illness became known about two months ago. Galitsky assured that the financing of “Krasnodar” would be “100% financed by me, but without me and regardless of whether I can attend the games”. According to him, the residents of the city have the right to know that they are supporting “something that could end tomorrow”.
Football club “Krasnodar” was founded in 2008. The owner is Galitsky, the founder of the Russian retail chain “Magnit”. Forbes estimates his fortune at 3.5 billion dollars, and he ranks 40th in the magazine’s ranking. At the beginning of 2018, the businessman sold about 29% of his shares in “Magnit”, which became the largest network in Russia under Galitsky’s leadership, to VTB Bank for 138 billion rubles ($2.45 billion) and retained all positions in the company, focusing on football.
In April this year, Viktor Goncharenko, a Belarusian specialist who previously coached CSKA Moscow, became the head coach of Galitskiy’s football club. Krasnodar is currently ranked sixth in the Russian Premier League. The club won the bronze medal in the Russian championship three times and reached the round of sixteen in the Europa League twice.
In 2020 Galitsky started the construction of a second football stadium next to the first one for the football academy “Krasnodar”. The founder of TCS Group, Oleg Tinkov, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $4.7 billion, has publicly announced his illness. In March last year, he revealed that doctors had diagnosed him with acute leukemia (he had learned of the diagnosis earlier, in October 2019). A year later, Tinkov stated that the effects of treatment should become apparent in another year. He is being treated in London.