Football insider Igor Burbas, on his YouTube channel BurBuzz, revealed the details of the bonus system at Zhytomyr's Polissya, which has become a topic of discussion in Ukrainian football. According to him, since Ruslan Rotan took over the manager's role, the payments to players for individual matches have grown manifold and, in the insider's own assessment, have become the highest among all UPL clubs. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing Burbas's post. The most striking figure named by the insider was the bonus for the win over Donetsk's Shakhtar — according to his data, every player who started the match received 300,000 hryvnias, which in dollar terms amounts to almost 7,000 dollars.
Two bonus systems at the Zhytomyr club
Burbas explained that Polissya operates two types of bonuses at once. The first is seasonal: at the end of the championship the team receives a payout depending on its position in the standings, with a higher place yielding a larger sum. The second is per-match: a separate bonus is awarded for each game and, above all, for wins. It is this system, the insider says, that was radically revised after the change of manager and is now, in his words, “a record among all teams” in the league.
The Rotan effect: from $600–700 to $7,000
To make the point clear, Burbas offered a comparison with the previous managerial cycle. In 2024, during Imad Ashour's tenure, a win over Shakhtar brought each player an extra 600–700 dollars. With the arrival of Ruslan Rotan, the insider says, the sums changed dramatically: “The bonuses for each match have been raised a lot and they are the highest among all teams. If you take the match against Shakhtar, the win over which Hennadii Butkevych paid out the most, then as far as I know, every player received 300,000 hryvnias. At least those who started. I have never heard of such figures before, anywhere,” Burbas stated. Thus, in his assessment, the gap between the “Ashour-era” and the “Rotan-era” bonus grid amounts to roughly a tenfold increase.
Top of the table as the context for the payouts
The record bonuses, in the insider's words, coincide with a period of confident performances by the team. In seven matches of the current championship, Polissya has won six and sits top of the UPL table; the only defeat suffered by Rotan's side came against Luhansk's Zorya, 1:2. This sporting result is logically linked to a strengthening of the motivational component at the club. It is worth adding that in the previous season Polissya won the bronze medals — the first honors in the team's history from Zhytomyr in the UPL, having previously finished fifth and fourth. Against this backdrop, the rise in bonuses looks to the insider like a logical tool for retaining and boosting the club's ambitions.
Contradictory data
It is important to note that all the figures cited — $600–700 in 2024 and 300,000 hryvnias for the win over Shakhtar — come from a single source, insider Igor Burbas, and have not been officially confirmed by Polissya's management or its sponsors. Burbas himself hedges with phrases such as “as far as I know” and “at least those who started,” indicating the approximate nature of the data. Moreover, in open announcements and previews of the central Polissya–Shakhtar match, the date recorded is 18 October 2025, whereas in the insider's text this win is presented in the context of the “current championship” with six wins in seven rounds; the precise placement of this match in the season calendar requires additional verification. Until the club issues an official comment, both versions — the size of the bonuses and their link to a specific match — should be treated as an insider's assessment rather than a documented fact.
