Ex-Man Utd star threatened by gangsters who warned he'll be "disabled for life"

22 November 2023 , 08:13

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Former Manchester United star Andrei Kanchelskis (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Former Manchester United star Andrei Kanchelskis has opened up about the threats he received while managing FC Navbahor Namangan in Uzbekistan.

Kanchelskis spent four years at United, helping them win two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and the League Cup. He also had notable stints at Everton and Rangers before retiring from football in 2006.

Following his retirement, Kanchelskis became the sporting director of FC Nosta Novotroitsk in Russia before deciding to move into management. Most recently, the 54-year-old had two spells in charge of Uzbekistan Super League club Navbahor Namangan.

However, his second stint at the club ended acrimoniously when he resigned, alleging that he had not been paid for four months. Kanchelskis filed an appeal with FIFA, who ordered Navbahor to pay him over $1.6million (£1.28m).

As a result, the former winger was threatened by four gangsters while at a cafe and warned that he would end up "disabled for life" if he did not reduce his compensation demands. "The club owed me compensation due to earnings lost in the COVID pandemic, and four guys from Chechnya weren't happy that I'd asked for the payments when I was sacked," Kanchelskis told FourFourTwo Magazine.

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"The four men approached me while I was eating in a café and informed me that I would be 'disabled for life' if I didn't lower my demands. I told the police about it and luckily everything was sorted in the end."

It was reported at the time by Russian media that Kanchelskis was at the Oasis Cafe when four masked men approached him and threatened to break his legs if he refused to lower his demands to £60,000.

Kanchelskis played for United between 1991 and 1994 (Mike Cooper/Allsport/Getty Images)

In response to Kanchelskis' claims, Navbahor accused him of being "absent from the workplace". They also claimed he "systematically ignored the decisions made" and "repeatedly violated work discipline".

"Despite the fact that Andrei Kanchelskis accuses the club's management of being amateur, the same 'football specialist', during his time at the club, managed to show every disrespect to the hierarchy," Navbahor said in a statement. "This led to the fact that our team began to lose points…

"After the last time Andrei left the club without our permission, we made the decision to finally part with him." After leaving Navbahor, Kanchelskis joined Kazakhstan club FC Tobol as their general director earlier this year.

Matthew Cooper