Double-jobbing Blokhin worth his weight in 'hryvnia'

Euroscene: Oleg Blokhin must be just about the only World Cup coach who works for free. As we gear up for another dramatic World Cup Wednesday, Ukraine coach Blokhin can wring some wry comfort from the consideration that none of the other 63 coaches on World Cup duty can claim to earn less than he does.

While some of his western European colleagues such as Sven Eriksson or Marcello Lippi are paid by the million (sterling or euro), Blokhin receives not a hryvnia for his efforts in leading Ukraine to the top of European Group Two. All of this we know, thanks to a ruling from a Ukraine appeal court last weekend, of which more anon.

Those of us of a certain age will remember Blokhin well. He was an explosively fast, powerful and clever winger in the outstanding Dinamo Kiev sides coached by the late maestro, Col Valery Lobanovsky, in the 1970s and '80s. We got to know him because that Dinano Kiev side proved itself an exception to those grey, secretive, Soviet Union times (Ukraine was then part of the old USSR) by actually winning a major European competition, namely the old Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986.

Remarkably, Blokhin played in both winning teams. Such was his patent class at the height of his career that he won the European Player of the Year award in 1975. Still holder of the all-time Soviet league scoring record with 211 goals in 432 games, Blokhin also played in a marvellous Soviet side at the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals.

Since then, however, he has made few waves on the big football stage. After his late (too late) retirement in 1990, he coached a number of Greek clubs before he abandoned football for politics in 1997, becoming a member of the Ukraine parliament. Originally elected as a "communist", he then switched to the party that backed former president Leonid Kuchma, who stepped down in January.

Blokhin's journey to the appeal court began in September 2003, when he took over from Leonid Buryak as national coach. The problem there was that, under Ukraine legislation, a deputy does not have the right to hold down another job. The parliamentary rules committee, perhaps inspired by deputies less than enamoured with Blokhin's links to former president Kuchma, questioned the legality of the dual mandate.

An outraged Blokhin responded furiously, telling reporters that all he gets from the football job is a "headache", adding: "I can call my job with the national team a kind of teaching job and deputies are allowed that by law. Besides, I don't get a single penny for my work there."

Under pressure from what he dubbed a "political witch-hunt", Blokhin resigned as coach two weeks ago.

Had Ukraine been bottom of their World Cup group, going nowhere fast, then perhaps not too much fuss would have been made. Yet, Ukraine go into tomorrow night's crucial home qualifier with Denmark sitting proud on top of the group on 14 points, three clear of reigning European champions Greece and five clear of Denmark and Turkey.

Unbeaten in the group, Ukraine have picked up some tidy results, such as a 3-0 away win against Turkey and a 1-1 away draw with Denmark. Put simply, Ukraine are still on course for an historic, first World Cup qualification.

This, then, was hardly the moment to throw out your coach. The point was not lost on the 29 members of the Ukraine Football Federation's committee. Surprise, surprise, all 29 voted to reject Blokhin's resignation, prompting the visit to the appeals court last weekend which ruled that Blokhin can indeed legally continue to hold down his dual mandate.

Blokhin has called the court's decision a "big boost" ahead of tomorrow night's game. In truth, he would have received an even bigger one if his star striker, AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko, had declared himself fit to play.

Still recovering from a broken cheekbone sustained during a Serie A game against Cagliari on February 19th, Shevchenko will be in Kiev tomorrow night to offer moral support. Without "Sheva", Ukraine rely on the collective team work offered by a side made up almost exclusively of Dinamo Kiev and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk players. Against an experienced Danish side Ukraine will need all the team work they can muster.

But at least the "gaffer" is still on the bench.