PICTURE: Toronto lawyer Igor Demitchev, owner of FC Vorkuta with its many successes in local amateur and professional soccer, offers a first step to develop a path forward for special young players.
The story of FC Vorkuta, which premieres on the beIN SPORTS channel on Friday, June 11 at 10 pm ET, is more than a soccer documentary. It’s also about a Toronto lawyer who arrived in Canada from Vorkuta, a community just above the Arctic Circle in northern Russia where many inhabitants dream about living in more desirable conditions. Vorkuta is cold most of the time and it exists mostly for its coal mining. It is well out of anyone’s way as the most eastern town in the whole of Europe. But it’s not coal that comes to mind with many Russians. It’s Russia’s reputation for incarcerating millions of its citizens in brutal conditions in forced labour camps over a period of more than 20 years between 1930 and 1955.
Igor Demitchev was raised in Vorkuta, emigrated to Canada where he soon realized he could continue to enjoy his passion for football. With fellow immigrant Samad Kadirov they launched FC Vorkuta in 2008 in memory of and a tribute to those who suffered. The launch was highly successful in the amateur leagues in the Toronto area and in 2017 the club was accepted as an expansion team in the semi-professional Canadian Soccer League to be even more successful while attracting the attention of the Canadian soccer community.
It didn’t take long in those early days for Demitchev, along with coach Denys Yanchuk, to realize that many young Canadians were good soccer players and given the right opportunity could play anywhere in the world. Perhaps FC Vorkuta’s success in professional soccer is the first step in helping to serve as a path to the high level game in Canada and elsewhere.
The story of FC Vorkuta is produced by Alex Bastyovanszky.
Stan Adamson