Today, the national football team of Ukraine will play the first of three matches in the League of Nations tournament scheduled for September. Football fans already know, and non-fans will find out in the evening that this game, as well as the next two, will be shown instead of the telethon on four Ukrainian TV channels.
Andriy PavelkoAnd everything would be fine if the honorable head of the Ukrainian Football Association did not publicly rejoice on this occasion and thank the European Football Union for giving Ukrainians the opportunity to watch the matches of the Ukrainian national team for free. "Thankful for this to UEFA, which gave the rights to show the matches free of charge, to the Office of the President of Ukraine for assistance, and to the ICTV channel for organizing the broadcast!" Andriy Pavelko said publicly.
With this, he reminded individual deputies who tell their voters about how they "contributed" to this or that repair or construction, which was carried out at the expense of the budget, that is, at the expense of the same voters.
I don't know how voters, but football fans should know and remember forever - official matches of national football teams are always (!!!) shown absolutely free! An Italian in Italy can always watch the games of the Italian team for free, a Frenchman in France - the French team, and so on. It was, is and always will be! It's a cornerstone of the international soccer community that the national team's matches belong to the country they represent! And this country has no right to take money from viewers for showing these matches on its territory! Another thing is that the viewer will have to pay to watch the matches of other teams!
Therefore, it turns out that the head of the UAF is thanking the president's office for promoting what should not be promoted. One can understand Andriy Pavelek's unstoppable desire to once again bow to Zelenskyi and Yermak, but why fool people by "giving" us what is rightfully ours?
I immediately predict comments from those who do not know all the letters. They will begin to remind of Rynat Akhmetov's channels, which once bought the rights to show matches of the Ukrainian national team. And they will lie - you can buy the rights to show World Cup or European or League of Nations matches. With the exception of matches of the national team of Ukraine, which the buyer must show in his country for free!
That is why the games of the Ukrainian national team were always shown on the free channel "Ukraine", which covered the entire territory of our country and thus fulfilled international rules. When Akhmetov closed this channel, the rights to national team matches were automatically (!!!) received by the first national TV channel, which even before that could, if it wished, show national team games in parallel with Akhmetov's channel.
Didn't I make it very difficult to explain? Then it's easier - we have the inalienable right to watch the games of the national football team of Ukraine on TV absolutely free of charge. And no one should be thanked for this. Not to Zelenskyi, not to Pavelko, not to anyone else. Except for football players and coaches, for whom we will sincerely cheer today. But they don't seem to thank the office of the president. And they do it right. Because they will play today not for the office, but for all of us!
Mykola Nesenyuk
