Legendary Ukrainian football players and coaches addressed the players and coaching staff of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which on November 19 planned to play a match in Russia against the team of the aggressor country:
Photo: uaf.ua"Dear colleagues! Friends!
The match between the national team of Ukraine and the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which took place in your country on November 16, 2021, is for us a memory from a peaceful life. After all, this match was the last for our team before the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of our state, which began on February 24, 2022.
For more than six months, Ukrainian teams, including the main national team of Ukraine, have not had the opportunity to play a single international game in their country. And all this is due to the aggression of Russia.
Millions of our citizens were also forced to leave Ukraine. Mostly women and children. We are grateful to Bosnia and Herzegovina that it has become a welcoming home for some of them!
Tens of thousands of those who stayed or did not manage to leave were killed and wounded. Thousands of people were tortured in the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine. Now the residential quarters of our cities are under constant bombardment by the Russian army. The entire territory of our country is under constant rocket fire from the Russians, civilians and children die every day, and fierce battles are being fought at the front...
We are fighting a huge military armada that wants to banally destroy our country. And, what is important, we are fighting not only for Ukraine. We are fighting for the future of the entire democratic, civilized world, to which Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs.
Therefore, we were unpleasantly surprised and very saddened by the news that, after such tragic events that have already happened and are continuing in Ukraine, your team agreed to play a friendly match against the national team of Russia, the national team of the aggressor country, on November 19.
We believe that the decision of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina to play a match with the team of the aggressor country is an unfortunate mistake. A mistake that can still be fixed!
Therefore, we urge you to refuse to participate in a football match with the Russian national team! Refuse for the sake of stopping the military aggression against Ukraine and for the sake of the future of democratic Europe!
Sincerely yours,
Oleg Blokhin, winner of the "Golden Ball"-1975,
Ihor Belanov, winner of the "Golden Ball"-1986,
Andriy Shevchenko, winner of the "Golden Ball"-2004,
Anatoly Demyanenko, participant of the 1982 World Championship, 1986 World Championship, 1990 World Championship,
Oleksiy Mykhailichenko, Olympic champion in football-1988,
Oleg Protasov, winner of the "UEFA Silver Boot" -1986.
