Coach salaries are not uniform, but opportunities for development suffice - Bidny

The Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Matviy Bidny, states that Ukraine has a large number of qualified coaches who have fairly decent working conditions.

"The salaries of coaches are not uniform. Coaches work both as part of the national team, where the salary is quite decent, and also work in children’s and youth sports schools, where the situation is worse, because these are municipal institutions, and the salary is determined by local budgets. In addition, coaches also work in private or public sports clubs. We live in a time when priorities in countries are different, but we have a large number of qualified coaches who have fairly decent working conditions. Especially if we are talking about the composition of national teams, where there are certain prize awards for sports achievements," Bidny said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, answering the question of what is currently happening with the salaries of coaches in Ukraine.

He added that it is more or less possible to say that today the sphere provides enough opportunities for development for both athletes and coaches.

When asked whether there is no financial motive that forces coaches to move abroad, the minister answered in the negative.

"I will tell you more that there is no big money in Olympic sports anywhere. There is a significant difference between Olympic sports and professional sports, where we are talking about multi-million contracts in those countries where it is developed, where there is a market for sports services, sports marketing and media. Ukraine today provides quite decent conditions for high-level coaches. It cannot be said that it is financial conditions that can force someone to go work abroad," he added.

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