From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Nov 2030
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market11 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match9 Nov 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom11 Nov 2030
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom11 Nov 2030
Feniks are $21.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Nov 2030
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Feniks squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Squad11 Nov 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
Mykola Marlos has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Feniks can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Feniks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market4 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Onni Hänninen commits to Feniks for another 4 years.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
$453.6K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Match2 Nov 2030
Onni Hänninen scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Vorskla, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad4 Nov 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market4 Nov 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Oct 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market28 Oct 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Oct 2030
116 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Marked 9.59 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
169% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match26 Oct 2030
Three points for Feniks, 2‑0 the final word against Probiy in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Oct 2030
Feniks sink to position 14
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad21 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Oct 2030
Matheus Vieira scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Podillia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Oct 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.73, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Oct 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.87, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $21.5M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad14 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Oct 2030
It needed Matheus Vieira to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Inhulets, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Romagnoli, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wojciech Szafranek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
A mark of 5.51 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Oct 2030
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The owner puts $447.1K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Oct 2030
Ahrobiznes left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Sep 2030
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.99, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
148% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match28 Sep 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Anthony Stella’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Feniks.
Squad30 Sep 2030
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad30 Sep 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market23 Sep 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Chornomorets, and the manager let it.
Match21 Sep 2030
A bad afternoon for Feniks against UCSA
0‑1 to UCSA, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Sep 2030
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad16 Sep 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market16 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Marked 9.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
A performance of 8.72 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2030
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Market9 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksandr Chornomorets and Feniks agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match7 Sep 2030
0‑2 to Prykarpattia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Oleh Synytsia
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Valerii Kucherov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market9 Sep 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Aug 2030
11 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Match28 Aug 2030
The cup run ends for Feniks
0‑3 against Dynamo Kyiv, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match31 Aug 2030
Chastening afternoon for Feniks
A 0‑3 beating by Epicentr was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market2 Sep 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksandr Chornomorets and Feniks agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
$425.6K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Stella, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Wages eat 131% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Aug 2030
9 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market26 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match24 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
A mark of 5.09 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
The one thing Onni Hänninen could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Aug 2030
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Market19 Aug 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Aug 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Marked 8.74 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.8M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad19 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Roman Hahun
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market19 Aug 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rostyslav Rusyn has his answer from Feniks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Aug 2030
7 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market12 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Aug 2030
The shirt still fits. Axel Castagne is back at Feniks, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Match10 Aug 2030
A bad afternoon for Feniks against Nyva
0‑2 to Nyva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Onni Hänninen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market12 Aug 2030
He is 18, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Aug 2030
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Market5 Aug 2030
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vitalii Zhupanskyi commits to Feniks for another 4 years.
Squad5 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
$408.4K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Marked 8.95 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Wages eat 99% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market5 Aug 2030
Ruslan Abdullayev is 18, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Jul 2030
The wait goes on for Feniks
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market29 Jul 2030
The shirt still fits. Nazariy Vanat is back at Feniks, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market29 Jul 2030
The shirt still fits. Serhiy Vanat is back at Feniks, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market29 Jul 2030
The shirt still fits. Vasyl Sobol is back at Feniks, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Match27 Jul 2030
1‑2 to Chornomorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Jul 2030
A performance of 8.63 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Jul 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Market22 Jul 2030
Inhulets are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Feniks will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market22 Jul 2030
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Feniks could get for him.
Market22 Jul 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kostiantyn Rebrov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Feniks.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A season on the outside for Anthony Young
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Feniks has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Feniks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match15 Jul 2030
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 26 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market15 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksym Radchenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market15 Jul 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Jul 2030
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Oleksandr Chornomorets, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Jul 2030
Inhulets come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Feniks did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrii Kukharuk commits to Feniks for another 2 years.
Squad8 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
$397.5K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jul 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Rostyslav Rusyn was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jun 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jun 2030
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market24 Jun 2030
Inhulets are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Feniks will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The terraces24 Jun 2030
The stands have heard the Maksym Radchenko talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Feniks would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Emil Overgaard knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emil Overgaard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Jun 2030
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Maksym Radchenko’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Feniks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match17 Jun 2030
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 26 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market17 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Jun 2030
61 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market17 Jun 2030
Diego González is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Feniks has been clear about where Diego González stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Jun 2030
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom10 Jun 2030
100% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Jun 2030
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Feniks could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Jun 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market3 Jun 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The owner puts $400.2K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Market3 Jun 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Jun 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 May 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 May 2030
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad27 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 May 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom27 May 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad27 May 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom20 May 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Match20 May 2030
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 26 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad20 May 2030
89 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market20 May 2030
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 May 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Rostyslav Rusyn was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 May 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 May 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2030
The medical room confirms 48 days on the sidelines for Artem Mykhailychenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom13 May 2030
Wages eat 115% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad13 May 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market13 May 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrii Kukharuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 May 2030
Mykola Marlos has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Feniks can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 May 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market6 May 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 May 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pavlo Orikhovskyi and Feniks agree another 2 years.
Squad6 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The owner puts $416.9K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Apr 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Apr 2030
The medical room confirms 83 days on the sidelines for Valerii Kucherov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match22 Apr 2030
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 26 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market22 Apr 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Apr 2030
117 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitalii Zhupanskyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Apr 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom15 Apr 2030
Wages eat 157% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market15 Apr 2030
He is 18, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad15 Apr 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Apr 2030
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Apr 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Apr 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
The owner puts $430.8K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Market8 Apr 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market8 Apr 2030
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Apr 2030
111 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market1 Apr 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $20.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market1 Apr 2030
Mohammed Al-Subaie is 20, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market1 Apr 2030
Filippo Grassi is 20, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market1 Apr 2030
Experience through the door at Feniks
Abdalla Hamisi arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Feniks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Mar 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Match25 Mar 2030
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 26 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market25 Mar 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Matheus Vieira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market25 Mar 2030
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Mar 2030
Hassan Obaid hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom18 Mar 2030
176% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad18 Mar 2030
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Mar 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market11 Mar 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Mar 2030
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad11 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Mar 2030
139 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market4 Mar 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
$444.9K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $21.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad4 Mar 2030
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Kostiantyn Rebrov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market4 Mar 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match25 Feb 2030
Every point is an argument now for Feniks
Position 14 and 26 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 Feb 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Feb 2030
0‑3 to Bukovyna, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market18 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match16 Feb 2030
The wait goes on for Feniks
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom18 Feb 2030
Wages eat 193% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrii Kukharuk, and the manager let it.
Boardroom18 Feb 2030
Doors closed at Feniks
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad18 Feb 2030
At 22 years old, Sviatoslav-Mykhailo Oryshchak became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Feb 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Feb 2030
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad11 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Feb 2030
It needed Onni Hänninen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Prykarpattia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad11 Feb 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mykola Marlos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market4 Feb 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Chornomorets and Feniks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The owner puts $427.5K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad4 Feb 2030
12 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Vitalii Zhupanskyi has given nobody the chance.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Feniks are $20.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Jan 2030
Every point is an argument now for Feniks
Position 14 and 24 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market28 Jan 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
A mark of 7.72, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pavlo Orikhovskyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jan 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Marked 9.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
Wages eat 172% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match19 Jan 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Oleh Synytsia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Feniks.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Jan 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jan 2030
The wait goes on for Feniks
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market14 Jan 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jan 2030
83 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Jan 2030
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jan 2030
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Market7 Jan 2030
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The owner puts $418.4K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Onni Hänninen, and the manager let it.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Feniks are $20.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market7 Jan 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Feniks, another week without a signature from Vitalii Zhupanskyi.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Dec 2029
11 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Dec 2029
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match31 Dec 2029
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 14, 19 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market31 Dec 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Dec 2029
A bad afternoon for Feniks against Metalist
1‑2 to Metalist, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrii Kukharuk, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Marked 8.63 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Dec 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Dec 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
171% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad24 Dec 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match22 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Nicolás Ramírez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Dec 2029
9 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Dec 2029
The medical room confirms 111 days on the sidelines for Pavlo Orikhovskyi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Dec 2029
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Dec 2029
8 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market10 Dec 2029
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Marked 8.65 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Feniks are $20.2M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Match8 Dec 2029
A 2‑2 draw with Podillia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Match1 Dec 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrii Kukharuk and Feniks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
$385.7K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match24 Nov 2029
The wait goes on for Feniks
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market26 Nov 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
185% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad26 Nov 2029
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match24 Nov 2029
Feniks come up short against Nyva
Nyva left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Nov 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad19 Nov 2029
139 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match17 Nov 2029
5 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Nov 2029
72 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Nov 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2029
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market12 Nov 2029
Ernesto Vata hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Match10 Nov 2029
The wait goes on for Feniks
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Nov 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
Feniks are $19.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Roman Hahun gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Defensive actions: 141. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Mykola Marlos has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Feniks can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Nov 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Nov 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anthony Stella and Feniks agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
$369.0K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Oct 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
49 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
181% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Marked 8.87 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad29 Oct 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Oct 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Oct 2029
100 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match20 Oct 2029
A bad afternoon for Feniks against Epicentr
0‑2 to Epicentr, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maksym Radchenko, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Oct 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Vitalii Zhupanskyi knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Marked 9.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match13 Oct 2029
A 2‑1 win over Chernihiv, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
A performance of 9.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitalii Zhupanskyi, and the manager let it.
Boardroom15 Oct 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom15 Oct 2029
Feniks are $19.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pavlo Orikhovskyi and Feniks agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match6 Oct 2029
Ahrobiznes left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
$342.0K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market8 Oct 2029
He is 18, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Marked 9.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
Wages eat 170% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match29 Sep 2029
A 1‑0 win over Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Squad1 Oct 2029
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Denys Kulach, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Sep 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Sep 2029
The medical room confirms 128 days on the sidelines for Valerii Kucherov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Sep 2029
A 1‑0 win over Livyi Bereh, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Sep 2029
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Feniks have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Sep 2029
18 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Igor Bambecki
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Bambecki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Onni Hänninen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
Feniks are $19.2M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match15 Sep 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Sep 2029
17 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market10 Sep 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Sep 2029
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Maksym Radchenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 8.66 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Match8 Sep 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Sep 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 Sep 2029
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match29 Aug 2029
The cup run ends for Feniks
0‑2 against Shakhtar, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market3 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
The owner puts $321.1K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
161% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Aug 2029
14 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market27 Aug 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wojciech Szafranek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Aug 2029
156 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match25 Aug 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Aug 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Market20 Aug 2029
Igor Bambecki has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market20 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
Feniks are $18.7M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad20 Aug 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.74 on the card, and the Feniks support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Aug 2029
12 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Aug 2029
The medical room confirms 52 days on the sidelines for Maksym Radchenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad13 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Matheus Vieira
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market13 Aug 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Defensive actions: 13, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match11 Aug 2029
Feniks draw a blank against Nyva
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Nyva defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
5.50 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Aug 2029
The wait goes on for Feniks
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Onni Hänninen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Aug 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market6 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The owner puts $289.6K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Roman Hahun was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
145% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Chornomorets, and the manager let it.
Match4 Aug 2029
Feniks come up short against Veres
Veres left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Jul 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match28 Jul 2029
10 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market30 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market30 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wojciech Szafranek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market30 Jul 2029
The shirt still fits. Artem Mykhailychenko is back at Feniks, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market30 Jul 2029
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Match28 Jul 2029
1‑2 to Chornomorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Onni Hänninen, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jul 2029
Feniks sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market23 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Jul 2029
Igor Bambecki has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Maksym Tymchyk, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Feniks are $18.1M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad23 Jul 2029
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad23 Jul 2029
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Feniks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Maksym Radchenko asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksandr Chornomorets commits to Feniks for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
Wages eat 132% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market9 Jul 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Maksym Radchenko asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wojciech Szafranek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksandr Chornomorets commits to Feniks for another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
$267.3K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Jun 2029
Every point is an argument now for Feniks
Position 14 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 Jun 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Feniks cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Market25 Jun 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Feniks will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Feniks are $17.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market25 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrii Kukharuk signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market25 Jun 2029
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Feniks could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market18 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market18 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Feniks have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market18 Jun 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Metalist will make the call about Nicolás Ramírez this week. Feniks have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market18 Jun 2029
Wolfgang Schlager is 17, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
95% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market11 Jun 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market11 Jun 2029
He is 18, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jun 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
$266.4K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Market4 Jun 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Remi Shittu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 May 2029
Every point is an argument now for Feniks
Position 14 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad28 May 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom28 May 2029
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market21 May 2029
Igor Bambecki has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Ramírez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market21 May 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrii Kukharuk signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad21 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wojciech Szafranek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 May 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom14 May 2029
110% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Market14 May 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Rostyslav Rusyn may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad14 May 2029
Nicolás Ramírez has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Feniks that is a harder question to answer.
Market14 May 2029
The clock does Wojciech Szafranek’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Feniks could ask drops and the wages Wojciech Szafranek can ask rise.
Market14 May 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 May 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mykola Marlos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 May 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleh Synytsia commits to Feniks for another 3 years.
Squad7 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The owner puts $247.1K into Feniks
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Market7 May 2029
Lukasz Jozwiak is 17, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market7 May 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Vertonghen, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Apr 2029
Feniks sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad30 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $17.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market30 Apr 2029
Riccardo Sartori is 19, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A new face in his position, and Matheus Vieira suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Feniks have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rostyslav Rusyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market30 Apr 2029
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Gundars Smilškalns arrives at Feniks with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market30 Apr 2029
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Levan Gamsakhurdia arrives at Feniks with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market23 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
142% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Apr 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Apr 2029
Feniks sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market2 Apr 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$248.2K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $17.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
170% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Anthony Stella was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Charles Batshuayi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Mar 2029
Feniks sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$245.4K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $17.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Rostyslav Rusyn
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Ramírez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market5 Mar 2029
Feniks spent the window trying to move Anton Zadereiko on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Feniks
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Feniks is running low.
Squad26 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Feb 2029
9 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market19 Feb 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Feb 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
Wages eat 199% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A performance of 8.53 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Diego González asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Feb 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Feb 2029
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market12 Feb 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Feb 2029
Prykarpattia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market12 Feb 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market12 Feb 2029
Niko Pasalic is 18, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Remi Shittu gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market12 Feb 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mykola Marlos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match5 Feb 2029
Feniks sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market5 Feb 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Feb 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad5 Feb 2029
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
$279.4K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Feniks
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match27 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Jan 2029
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.77 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market29 Jan 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Igor Bambecki has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Feniks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market22 Jan 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
182% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market15 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Match13 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Feniks's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Feniks has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Andrii Kukharuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Jan 2029
61 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$262.6K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match6 Jan 2029
A bad afternoon for Feniks against UCSA
0‑1 to UCSA, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $16.7M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match30 Dec 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Feniks will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Dec 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match23 Dec 2028
Oleh Synytsia scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Vorskla, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
188% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Roman Hahun
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The terraces25 Dec 2028
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market18 Dec 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Feniks
Andrii Kukharuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match16 Dec 2028
Three points for Feniks, 1‑0 the final word against Probiy in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Feniks know it.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chrysovalantis Manos, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Marked 4.52, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.