Serhiy Rebrov Apologizes for Playing Padel with Vasily Berezutsky
Serhiy Rebrov has issued a public apology after a video of him playing padel with former Russia international Vasily Berezutsky sparked outrage in Ukraine.
The clip, filmed in Marbella, Spain, showed the pair as doubles partners and spread quickly across Ukrainian social media in recent days. The exact date of the recording remains unknown, but the reaction was immediate and fierce, with many fans accusing the former Ukraine head coach of crossing a moral line during wartime.
Under pressure, Rebrov turned to Instagram to explain himself and address the backlash.
He stressed that he had agreed to play with Berezutsky because of the Russian’s public antiwar stance, not knowing that the former CSKA Moscow defender had since returned to Russia to work as a coach.
“I knew about Berezutsky’s antiwar stance, but I wasn’t aware that he had recently gone to Russia to work as a coach — I don’t follow football in the terrorist state,” Rebrov said. “As a public figure, I want to apologize to the Ukrainians I offended by doing this, but I ask that no one doubt my pro-Ukrainian stance.”
The words underline the tightrope any Ukrainian public figure walks in the current climate. A casual game of padel abroad turned into a political flashpoint.
Rebrov, a former Dynamo Kyiv and Tottenham forward, took charge of Ukraine’s national team in 2023. His tenure ended in the spring of 2026 after Ukraine failed to qualify for the World Cup, a disappointment that closed his spell on the touchline but not his influence in the game. He now serves as a vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Football, a role that keeps him firmly in the public eye and magnifies the scrutiny on his actions.
On the other side of the controversy stands Berezutsky, a prominent figure in Russian football during the 2010s. A stalwart for CSKA Moscow and the Russian national team, he was among the very few Russian athletes to speak out on February 24, 2022, posting “No to war” on social media. At that moment he was part of the CSKA coaching staff led by his twin brother, Alexei.
That stance set him apart, but it did not end his career in Russian football. After CSKA dismissed Alexei Berezutsky in the summer of 2022, Vasily moved to Spain. He later returned to the Russian game in December 2025, taking over as head coach of Ural. His spell there was short-lived: he left at the end of the season after failing to guide the club to promotion from the First League to the Russian Premier League.
Those career moves, and Rebrov’s claim that he did not track them, now sit at the heart of the storm. For Ukrainian fans, the context matters as much as the image: a leading football figure, still a senior official in the national federation, sharing a court with a coach employed in Russian football.
Rebrov’s apology draws a line in the sand about where he stands. Whether that will be enough for a fan base living through war, and demanding absolute clarity from its sporting icons, is another question entirely.
