from 1979 kanevskyi worked in the football federation of ukraine. that same year the football federation of the soviet union received a personal invitation for kanevskyi to coach algeria national football team. with him were supposed to depart stanislav zavidonov and evgeni rogov (the last two eventually did leave). with travel arrangements in place and a week to go, kanevskyi was told that he was not going anywhere without any explanation. that was a last straw for him. kanevskyi was appointed a senior coach for the ukraine republican junior football team for the pereprava tournament in sukhumi where his team placed first. yet when the federation still would not grant him the title of merited coach of ukraine (ukrainian ssr), kanevskyi decided to act. he made an official request at the party organization about emigrating from the country. after a big scandal, kanevskyi was excluded from the communist party of the soviet union. in about two weeks he was called to the chief of ovir (office for visas and registration) along with the deputy minister of internal affairs who announced that he wouldn't leave as he did not have sufficient degree of kinship. later the secretary of the city party organization asked kanevskyi to withdraw his request, promising to reverse all restrictions and reinstate him in the party, but kanevskyi refused.