When Bulat Chagayev Destroyed Xamax: “I Will Kill You All”

It will be a memorable afternoon in Basel’s St. Jakob Park. Not because of the game, that was decided early on after two quick goals for Sion.

During the interval, Tschagajew marches past the surprised guards straight into Neuchâtel’s dressing room. Before new coach Bernard Challandes can make any tactical changes, the Chechen insults his players in Russian to such an extent that the translator has trouble following him. Tschagajew wants to replace goalkeeper Jean-François Bédénik on the spot, and when he slowly runs out of breath after his brilliant angry speech, Tschagajew threatens the players: “I will kill you all!” However, this is just the beginning.

Face slaps and 200,000 francs in the underground car park

The day after the Cup collapsed, Chagayev fired Challandes, who had just been hired, and hired ex-Servette star Sonny Anderson, even though he didn’t even have a coaching license. After the second game of the new season, Anderson has to get back to work.

Chagayev was promoted at the start of the season and hired, among others, the Swiss Haris Seferovic as a striker. He lured midfielder Victor Sanchez from Barcelona to Neuchâtel with a fee of CHF 200,000. The bundles of banknotes are handed over to Sanchez in cash in a briefcase in the underground car park of Maladière.

The new coach is called Joaquin Caparros, also a Spaniard. But his commitment is also short-lived. After a 2-2 draw against Lausanne, Chagayev again stormed the dressing room, this time accompanied by armed bodyguards. It comes to fists and blows between coach Caparros and Tschagajew. Three days later, Caparros is fired. There is a state of emergency in Neuchâtel.

The then chairman of the association Thomas Grimm wanted to see the matter personally and followed Tschagajew’s invitation to the Maladière. After talking to Chagayev for two hours, Grimm is confident. “I got the impression that Mr. Tschagajew wants to get involved in the long run. He may have unusual methods. But as long as he moves within the rules of the competition, there are no objections from us,” Grimm told Blick.

Kitsch, art, empty offices

Mid-August 2011 Tschagajew invited SonntagsBlick for an interview: Rue du Commerce 7, 1204 Geneva. An unadorned building, threadbare carpet, kitsch, art on the walls. Chagaev’s assistant invites us to the conference room. She puts water in large cups and an ashtray on the table. Chagaev smokes half a pack of Parliament for the next two hours.

It is a wild conversation, between angry speech, delusions of grandeur and feigned humility. Chagaev speaks without a full stop or comma. “At the end of the season we are champions, then the Champions League,” he trumpets. Or: “The cup final has been bought.” He accuses the people of Neuchâtel of ingratitude: “I thought I could do something useful here.” When it comes to money, Chagayev becomes monosyllabic. ‘I’m not going to talk about that. I do my business in construction and the stock market. I employ 230 people worldwide.”

Coincidentally, none of these employees are in the Geneva office, except for his assistant. They are probably all busy in Dubai, Hong Kong or New York right now. These are probably Tschagajew’s other headquarters.

Missing wages, fake bank guarantee

At the same time, Chagaev’s other employees on the Maladière are slowly getting restless. The wages of the professionals come in with a lot of delay. A player’s agent demands 400,000 francs for his services. Chagaev is asked by a civil court to provide bank guarantees for his assets. An alleged bank statement should prove that he has $35 million in a Bank of America account. The paper is fake.

The prosecutor’s office has Chagaev’s office in Geneva searched. The charges: money laundering, dishonest business practices, forgery of documents. The league issues fines and point deductions for unpaid player wages.

Nevertheless, the team left for the training camp in Dubai in January 2012. When checking in it appears that the flights have not been paid for. The organizer of the friendly tournament in Dubai, in which Xamax participates, intervenes. Blick reveals the same day: Xamax owes his creditors in Neuchâtel at least 8 million francs.

On January 16, 2012, the horror came to an end: the league revoked the license for Xamax. Islam Satuyev, Chagayev’s governor in Neuchâtel, who knows nothing about football or anything else, takes it easy: “We lost the permit,” he tells a confidant, “but it doesn’t matter. I had printed a copy .”

“It all seemed like a bad joke,” then-captain, Stéphane Besle, told Blick. Despite Satujev’s copy, the proud Neuchâtel club is forcibly relegated to the second division interregional.

In 2012, Chagayev was taken into custody. There the millionaire becomes a beggar: Chagayev has to scavenge cigarettes from fellow prisoners and guards because he hardly had any with him when he was arrested. He was sentenced to 30 months in 2013 and subsequently deported from Switzerland.

Since then there has been no trace of him.