Anton Nikulin: “We must know how to attract extra-budgetary funds”

At SBC Summit Ukraine Lviv 2026, Anton Nikulin spoke about the ways the city works with business that help attract additional resources for the development of sport. As examples he named holding the Unbroken Games under mixed funding, opening the Hakivka ice arena and restoring school sports grounds with private partners. Separately, Nikulin outlined the priorities of the Lviv City Council’s Sports Office: support for adaptive sport and children’s sport.

Co-financing sports projects

In Nikulin’s view, one of the important conditions for developing sports infrastructure and hosting large-scale events is the ability to attract funds outside the city budget. He stressed that a sports manager’s job should not be limited to distributing budget money; it is important to look for partners and additional sources of funding.

Among the projects where this approach has worked, Nikulin mentioned the Unbroken Games. The competition brings together more than 600 participants, and organising it takes substantial financial resources. The Sports Office representative cited last year’s budget for the event to show how the city manages to bring sponsors into such events.

“Look, I always say that we must know how to attract extra-budgetary funds. We have many such cases. Together with the team we organise the largest adaptive sport competitions in Ukraine. That is the Unbroken Games, with more than 600 participants. And, for example, we take 6 million from the city budget, and 6 million is sponsor money. So we work 50-50”, Nikulin said.

Another example of the city working with business, he said, was the opening of the Hakivka ice arena, which took place on the eve of the summit. According to Nikulin, this project was also carried out on a 50/50 basis with a private partner.

He stressed that he regards attracting extra-budgetary funds as one of the indicators of an effective official. In his view, spending taxpayers’ money is not in itself a reason for pride, and sports managers are now expected to look for ways to bring in additional resources.

“Any official has to be a good, first-class manager if he manages to attract extra-budgetary funds; I think that is, you know, a kind of efficiency ratio”, Anton Nikulin noted.

Grants and partnerships with schools

Besides working with sponsors, the Lviv City Council’s Sports Office works with grant programmes. It has a separate department for attracting grant funds. Nikulin cited one recent result of its work: 250,000 euros for adaptive sport.

“We are working with grant funds in the same way now. Recently we won 250,000 euros to buy equipment for our Unbroken Games project, for adaptive sport”, Nikulin said.

Another form of cooperation with the private sector concerns school sports infrastructure. Nikulin described a model in which a business leases a neglected sports ground for 10 years and invests in restoring it. In return, the city stipulates that schoolchildren use the space until lunchtime, and after classes end the entrepreneur may use it for commercial activity.

“I guarantee that we will give you a 10-year lease, but your task is to bring it back into shape. Your task is that until lunchtime schoolchildren train here, and after lunch it is your business”, – the Sports Office representative explained.

According to him, such agreements have already been put into practice many times. This approach makes it possible to attract private funds for renewing sports spaces while keeping children able to use them directly.

Nikulin stressed that he wants to keep developing such forms of cooperation and attracting extra-budgetary funding. He believes it could give additional momentum to the development of sport in Ukraine.

Adaptive sport – Lviv’s top priority

Asked by what criteria the accessibility of sport in the Lviv region could be judged in three to five years, Nikulin named adaptive sport as the main focus of work. He noted that Lviv already has a fairly high level of sports development compared with other communities, but the accessibility of activities for people who need adaptive formats remains one of the key tasks. The director of the Sports Office described how the city works with the people who already join such activities.

“But our main task now, what we are doing and what the region is doing, is adaptive sport. That is the first and most important task we face. And not only in terms of competitions and organising competitions. For example, more than 10 sports clubs have already been set up in Lviv where people train systematically. We look at active people who try one sport or another, we go to them and ask what they need, and accordingly help either with equipment or by renting premises”, he said.

Nikulin stressed that supporting such clubs should remain one of the city’s main areas of work. In his view, it is important to create conditions both for taking part in individual sporting events and for regular training.

“And that, I think, is what we should be working on now. And that should be task number one – adaptive sport”, the Sports Office representative concluded.

Children’s sport and the “Plich-o-plich” programme

One tool for bringing children into mass sport in the Lviv region has been the “Plich-o-plich” (“Shoulder to Shoulder”) programme. It gives schoolchildren a chance to try different sports regardless of where they live or their family’s means. Anton Nikulin stresses that the main task of such initiatives is to interest children in sport and create new opportunities for them.

“No programme can meet all needs, but “Plich-o-plich” is about new meanings and new opportunities for children. Our task was to make everything vivid so that it would truly be a celebration for the children. They will carry those emotions through their whole lives and, perhaps, someday they may say thank you to us”, – Anton Nikulin.

Answering a final question about which sports in Lviv deserve more active development, Anton Nikulin singled out children’s sport. He believes this area also needs consistent work and a joining of forces among different sports organisations.

“I am for children’s sport, I am for “Plich-o-plich”. And I think it is a very effective, good mechanism. And together with the federations we will develop it, because children are our future.”

Sponsors and partners of SBC Summit Ukraine 2026 Lviv

General sponsor – BETKING

Premium sponsor – GGBET

Co-organisers – Mass Sports Agency of Ukraine and Sports Office of the Lviv City Council

Construction partner – system developer RIEL

Business Lounge partner – Jack Daniel’s Gentleman Jack

Accommodation partner – Kostjukowki Apartments. Sports equipment partner – Kappa x KOKOTASPORTS. Mood partner – PRAVDA brewery. Location partner – Barvy Event Hall

Football partner – educational platform Play Vision. Official partner – Ukrainian Karate Federation. Social partner – Shakhtar Social foundation. Exclusive fitness partner – UNI FORCE.

Media partner – media service MEGOGO, Ukraine’s largest media service, which streams exclusive sport, TV channels, films from leading studios and educational courses.

Water partner – Karpatska Dzherelna. Coffee partner – Sky Coffee. Functional partner – DR WITT. Sweet partner – BISCOTTI.

Production partner – NAZHYVO Production. Grooming partners – Barbers, Medosan and Joko Blend. Official partner – restaurant group “Marymo svoieiu spravoiu”.

Technology partner – BotsBand. Style partner – YARMICH. Technical partner – PROOVE. General radio partner – Lvivska Khvylia.

Hospitality partner – IBIS hotel cluster. Digital partner – ROAS marketing agency Red5. Business partner – business park “Europasazh”.

Social partner – Veterans Institute “Architecture of Resilience” of KNUBA. Sports partner – Ukrainian Padel Federation.

Media partners of Sport&Business Club – Epicentr, Avtoradio, Kyivstar TV and Setanta Sports. Advertising partner – MS Outdoor.

Information partners – the TV channels “Mi – Ukraina” and “Mi – Ukraina+”, Marketer, Tribuna.com, Football Hub, Interfax, the websites Sport.ua, SportArena.com, UA.NEWS and XSPORT, the news portal “Korol Danylo”, the platform “Football 2.0”, “Egoist”, PEREHOVORKA and BET UA. Fashion partner – Fashion TV

Source: Sport Business Media (sportbusiness.media), https://sportbusiness.media/2026/10/30/anton-nikulin-my-musymo-vmity-zaluchaty-pozabyudzhetni-koshty/