Ukraine national team coach Myron Markevych resigned on Saturday in protest at the Ukrainian Football Federation’s decision to punish the club he coaches for fixing a league match in 2008.

Metalist Kharkiv and Karpaty Lviv were each deducted nine points and fined $25,000, and all Karpaty players had penalties of $5,000 to $10,000 imposed over an April 2008 game that ended 4-0 to Markevych’s Metalist side.

Markevych was not implicated in the case, but said he had “no moral right to work for an organization that is deliberately destroying Kharkiv football.”

“The Ukrainian Football Federation has completely discredited itself,” he said, adding he would remain with Metalist.

The federation also gave life bans to Metalist director Yevhen Krasnikov and Karpaty defender Sergei Lashchenkov, who was sent off in the 2008 match.

Metalist and Karpaty, who were involved in this week’s Europa League playoffs, are fifth and sixth respectively in the Ukrainian league, which is six rounds old. Both clubs have indicated they will appeal against the verdict, but if the points deduction stands, they will drop to the foot of the standings.

The 59-year-old Markevych took over from Oleksiy Mikhailichenko as coach of the national team in February after Ukraine failed to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa, losing to Greece in the playoffs.

August 21, 2010, AP