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Russian Football Premier League team FC Anzhi Makhachkala has closed down its esports division — Cyber Anji — after just four months, amidst allegations that they haven’t paid their their athletes.
At the start of March, FC Anzhi Makhachkala announced it would be opening an esports division and formed a Dota 2 team. However there was an allegation that the only player on the roster to ever get paid was Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich, the biggest name in the team and a former Dota 2 International winner with his former team of Na’Vi.
Cybersport spotted a statement on the Russian social media platform VK from Aliev Murad, a former project manager for Cyber Anji.
In reference to payment, Murad said — translated by Cybersport, so thanks again guys. — “On 10th of May [agreed upon day of payment] the player’s salary never arrived [except for the first time, with only one player with a signed contract in the roster], after which I started calling the directors to inquire about the payment delays, and they said that it would arrive tomorrow. They kept feeding us with “tomorrow’s” until the start of June”
At a meeting Murad managed to organise in June, he was told that the real reason behind the payment delays was “unsatisfactory results.” and as a result the team felt “spat on” by the team’s directors.
The players released from Cyber Anji, unpaid, are Vadim "Sedoy" Musorin, Yaroslav "Pikachu" Vasilenko, Maxim "yoky-" Kim, Evgeniy "Chuvash" Makarov and Alexander "NoFear" Churochkin.
We’ve sent FC Anzhi Makhachkala a request for comment, and will update that here if one is forthcoming.
