At a special meeting in Kyiv, the NOCU Executive Committee unanimously accepted the resignations of Grigory Surkis, the ex-President of Football Federation of Ukraine, and Nestor Shufrych, a Ukrainian politician accused of spying for Russia.

Andriy Kozhemyakin, a former officer in the Soviet Union Navy, has also stood down from the Executive Committee.

Shevchenko had announced his resignation yesterday, only a day after the elections which saw Ukraine’s Sports Minister Vadym Guttsait chosen as the new President of the NOCU to replace the 1988 Olympic pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, who had stepped down after 17 years.

The 46-year-old former Chelsea and AC Milan footballer made the statement on Facebook and although he did not name the individuals, although they were widely believed to be Shufrych and Surkis, former head of Dynamo Kyiv, the club Shevchenko had started his career with.

“We talked with Andriy Shevchenko,” Guttsait, an Olympic gold medal in fencing, told Ukrainian television.

“He warned me that he had written and left.

“But I then called him when he had already published his thoughts.

“I told him that letters had already been written about leaving the NOC by Mr. Shufrich and Mr. Surkis.

“We agreed to meet next week.

“We will talk about how we can continue to work together.”

Shufrych is a member of the now-banned Opposition Platform - For Life party, a pro-Russian, Eurosceptic group and has been aligned with Russophile groups since entering politics.

On March 4, just a week after the invasion of Ukraine started, Shufrych was arrested for allegedly providing Russian Armed Forces with locations and other intel of Ukrainian soldiers.

Surkis was the President of Dynamo Kyiv from 1993 to 2002, before passing the responsibility onto his brother Ihor Surkis.

He was also the Football Federation of Ukraine President from 2000 to 2012 and a member of UEFA's Executive Committee.

Both had fled Ukraine in the early days of the invasion and now widely believed to be living in Monaco.

Shevchenko scored more than 300 goals during a career which included winning the UEFA Champions with AC Milan in 2003 and being voted winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2004.

Just before the NOCU election, Shevchenko had resigned as an executive director of MC Peat & Co, a capital market, consulting and co-investment services company based in the United Kingdom that he had helped found with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea Football Club and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.