At the beginning of last week, like the previous one, Russian rashists launched a massive air strike on Ukraine. Failing on the military fronts, the aggressor began to terrorize the civilian population, targeting residential areas and infrastructure and taking the lives of innocent people.
The capital of our country was no exception, rather, on the contrary. On Monday, several dozen kamikaze drones patrolled over Kyiv and the region, and there were some casualties. On Tuesday and Wednesday, rockets flew, thermal and electrical communications were damaged.
It is clear that in the current situation, the holding of sports competitions, including football ones, was under threat. Therefore, the commission of the regional military administration quickly decided to temporarily ban national championship matches in the capital.
Dynamo Kyiv, having lost to Shakhtar on October 16 in Lviv (1:3), the next day in the morning on the club bus went to their native land to play two home matches in a row for the first time in the season at their home stadium named after Valeriy Lobanovsky. However, harsh circumstances made adjustments to the plans of the team, which had previously traveled around Europe and spent a lot of physical and moral strength on constant traveling and changing locations.
Actually, this is one of the circumstances that directly affected the quality of the white-blue game and, accordingly, the results. Mircea Lucescu repeatedly referred to him.
Another important factor is the need to speed up preparations for the Champions League qualification, where Dynamo was frankly unlucky with the opponent at the final stage. Benfica is now clearly on the move, as evidenced by its two draws with one of the favorites of the tournament - PSG.
Finally, the injuries of the leading performers, which were permanently suffered by several players, and the loss of Bushchan and Shaparenko turned out to be almost irreparable.
In general, everything did not go according to plan. And bad days, as one of the great foreign coaches of the past said, every team has. Yes, even today - look at the performance of such giants of European club football as, say, Juventus or Liverpool. At the same time, their football players do not experience the hardships of war, train in comfortable conditions, and have a full recovery.
But we have hotheads who, just a little, yell - everything is gone. And they demand an answer from management, players, coaches. It would be nice if the fans didn’t make an adjustment for the situation, otherwise real and imaginary experts, former football players of the club, are calling for Lucescu’s resignation.
Probably, the words of Nikolai Shaparenko, who is recovering from the operation, will come to the place here: “Experts always know everything. When Dynamo got victories for two years, won trophies, when we played well, the team was praised and paid tribute to Lucescu. And now they seem to have forgotten about it, although you know how the situation in the country has changed” (Ua.tribuna.com, 10/20/22).
Goalkeeper Denis Boyko also spoke in support of his mentor: “Believe me, both Lucescu and his assistants are doing everything possible to get the team out of its current state, prepare as best as possible for each next game and return to the winning path. And I would like to assure the fans - real ones, and not those who turn away from the team in difficult times - that we will definitely do this. Because we don't have players who don't worry about the quality of the game and the result. We don’t have indifferent people who only serve a room or earn a salary. And that means that a little time will pass, and you will see the real Dynamo (Fcdynamo.com, 10/20/22).
At the same time, both Shaparenko and Boyko first of all referred to incredible fatigue. Therefore, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, the postponement of the match between Kiev and Metalist, scheduled for Thursday, October 20, turned out to be very useful. And, you see, in such a situation, the calls of individual well-wishers to force Dynamo to return to Lviv and still play with the Kharkiv team looked strange in such a situation.
Shakhtar's refusal to meet halfway between fellow rivals and hold a face-to-face match not on Sunday, but on Monday or even Tuesday also looked strange. After all, after the games in the European Cups, the miners had two more days of rest. In addition, the Donetsk team, due to their participation in the Champions League, managed to postpone two matches of the domestic championship to a later date.
As if anticipating what happened, the head of the Association of Football Players of Ukraine, Oleg Pechorny, noted the day before: “Just as the UPL and Shakhtar didn’t send Dynamo on the line, then the stench was inflicted badly. There are three wars in the country, and you need to come to your senses one by one. This is the top match, which is more important and more important for the players. But in us there are substandard standards: who can be given more than an hour for renewal, and who can not. Ask for whiskers, something from the "Shakhtar" is blowing in the gut. In the words of my friends, it is our responsibility to unite, and on the other side of the skin we pull a carpet in our bik ”(1927.kiev.ua, 15.10.22).
As for the fight itself, Fanday.net columnist Artur Valerko did not agree with Mircea Lucescu that his fate was predetermined by the individual mistakes of Vivcharenko and Zabarny: Dynamo created a certain number of chances in the class, at the beginning of the second half they even returned the intrigue somewhere , but in general lost entire game segments. Shakhtar won this match thanks to a well-applied game model that has already worked in Leipzig and with Real Madrid, and has not failed now" (10/17/22).
Paying tribute to the miners, the author tried to compare the Donetsk club of the time of Lucescu, when the emphasis was on the playing qualities of the Brazilians, with the current one: Lucescu's Shakhtar, like a swift or a swallow, quickly accelerated, but changed course and braked with difficulty. "The miner of Jovicevich is a bird of a different flight: he is much more flexible, adapts much more successfully to the opponent, and he uses game arrhythmia almost exemplarily."
However, according to Valerko, the lack of team experience may become a big problem for the Jovicic team in the future, when the time comes for decisive matches.
The broadcast of the match between Shakhtar and Dynamo was originally planned on one of the channels of the Setanta company, which was a contender for the right to own a single TV pool of the Ukrainian Premier League. What came out of it, or rather, what didn’t work out, we told in detail in previous media reviews. Now even the clubs that have remained under the wing of the mysterious broadcasters feel all the delights of the agreement with them.
Of course, if they don’t get what they want, Setanta’s representatives have the right to demand changes in the terms of the agreement with the UPL, and this is understandable. But how to understand the decision to show the central match not only of the tour, but, as is commonly believed, of the autumn part of the national championship, a historical derby that causes a lot of emotions among the participants in the fights, numerous fans of the two most titled clubs in Ukraine, servants of the pen and the microphone on a special paid platform? Moreover, the decision on this was made at the very last moment.
It is clear that it caused an extremely negative reaction in the football community.
"Setanta" - ce bandits. Thinking that you can watch the match on their channels, and then you need to go to the OTT platform and pay a penny for watching. Tse UPL is guilty, to the one who signed a contract with them. How can a group marvel at such an important hour of war, register on all sorts of platforms? Due to the lack of interests of the patients and the inconsistency of the situation, in which we live. A cunning European-Asian company came to work in Ukrainians,” the authoritative referee in the past, and now the judicial expert Miroslav Stupar (1927.kiev.ua, 16.10.22) was indignant.
Other TV users were no less eloquent. “I have all the channels, but I didn’t manage to watch the match between Shakhtar and Dynamo. I don’t understand how such a duel can be shown somewhere. I think that such games should be shown on public channels. There is a war going on in the country, and the match of two giants should be available all the more. And so people have to pay 109 hryvnias for watching it. I can’t call it anything other than corruption,” ex-footballer Oleksandr Aliev reacted emotionally (Dynamo.kiev.ua, 10/16/22).
And Andrey Burlakov, the former head of Shakhtar's PR service, claims that since the launch of the OTT platform, Setanta has been placing top broadcasts, and not only football ones, exclusively on it. "Do not show the match on an available channel, report it a day before the start, do not sell the broadcast abroad - Setanta, you are the bottom!" - delivered the verdict Burlakov (Ua.tribuna.com, 10/17/22).
And this is just a fraction of the indignation that suggests the idea that there is obviously a grain of truth in the words of well-known media professionals Igor Tsyganyk and Alexander Denisov. The first said that the official broadcaster plans to revise the terms of the agreement with the Premier League. And the second later added that Setanta could completely stop cooperation with the UPL.
Fanday.net made a formal request to the company if this was the case, and received an "exhaustive" answer: "We cannot comment on this topic. We continue to broadcast matches of the Ukrainian Premier League as usual” (10/17/22).
A few days later, another portal, Ua.tribuna.com, with a link to the TaToTake program, published the following information: “The company will not withdraw from the agreement and remain the official broadcaster of the championship, but the terms of the agreement will change. Setanta will not pay $3.2 million, and the teams will not receive $94,000 each, which was agreed before the season.
This is due to the fact that the company will show matches of only 11 out of 16 clubs. Now Setanta will only pay for production. At the end of the season, an estimate of income will be displayed based on the distribution of rights to the international market, subscribers by subscription and paid impressions on the OTT platform. Everything that exceeds the total expenses of the company will be divided among the representatives of the UPL” (10/21/22).
It remains only to believe, wait and hope.
In the meantime, the well-known master of witticism Mykola Nesenyuk called the match between Shakhtar and Dynamo an invisible match: “What did Ukrainian fans not see, who could not watch the broadcast of the game? They did not see that the crisis at Dynamo continues, and the failure of the team at the start of the season cannot be justified.
Therefore, it remains either to turn away from the team, which some “experts” call for, or continue to support Dynamo, expecting the club to correct the mistakes made, and the players to give the maximum return in the next matches.
Because failures go away, but Dynamo will always be” (Ua.tribuna.com, 10/17/22).
The Sunday meeting with Vorskla, which took place in Kyiv on the last Sunday at the Lobanovsky Stadium and was broadcast on the 2 + 2 channel, could inspire hope that the failures began to go away. At least the blue-and-whites had days to rest, recover, and prepare. But, obviously, they are still not enough to overcome the crisis. As a result, a faded draw (1:1).
No less, if not more, another match of the 7th round turned out to be resonant, in which Rukh and Dnipro-1 (2:3) met - with two suspensions from the hosts, which caused controversy penalty and a decisive goal scored after after injury time has ended.
“The surroundings have rallied against us. Grati vysmoh opposite to the warehouse of the team, like Ide at the tournament table in the first place, it’s important. After such a match, I don’t want to talk about anything. Just marvel at those that were seen on the field. I have been practicing football for a long time, I understand everything. I don’t have any more comments,” the Lviv head coach Leonid Kuchuk quite transparently hinted at the circumstances of the meeting (Sportarena.com, 10/17/22)
The House of Football promptly responded to the 11-meter kick. “The Gravets of FC Rukh does not want to lure the ball, but having tucked in with just one method - to create a mischief over the super player with a powerful corps. I didn’t win at the ball, but rather laced up the yoga, and at the same time I crossed the path of the Dnipro-1 gravel, sticking to the trajectory of the rest. The 11-meter bouv of assignments is correct, ”commented the chief expert of the UAF arbitration, Italian Nicola Rizzoli (Uaf.ua, 10/17/22).
With regard to both suspensions and timing of the match, in such situations, decisions are made, as a rule, at the discretion of the arbitrator. Nevertheless, the general director of Rukh, Igor Dedyshin, was very dissatisfied with the judicial decisions of Yuri Ivanov.
“The referee throughout the match showed sympathy for the opponent, and our players and coaches felt it,” the functionary said after the meeting. - The referee behaved as he was given instructions from the Dnepr-1 coaching shop. The guests' players also commented on the actions of the referee, and boldly and self-confidently. It was as if they understood that they would get nothing for it” (Fanday.net, 10/19/22).
As a result, according to Dedyshin, Ivanov lost control of the game, began to doubt his decisions, react to shouts, make rash verdicts and lose control over the fight.
In principle, it is not uncommon in football when one of the sides, usually the loser, is unhappy with the refereeing. And everything would have been fine if, after the final whistle, Dedyshyn hadn’t jumped onto the field and started proving something to his Dnipro counterpart Yevgeny Krasnikov. A skirmish broke out. The players and administrative staff who were on the lawn stood wall to wall.
“He ran up to me and started showing a video on his phone, where our football player allegedly pushed the Rukh player,” Krasnikov explained the situation in turn. - At first I thought that we were talking about a penalty, but there was some other episode. As a result, we had a fight, bumped into each other and parted ways. Later we talked again, but did not shake hands with each other. Although I have no complaints about him. He sees the episode in his own way, I see it in my own way. What happened is just emotions” (Fanday.net, 10/17/22).
However, some time later, Evgeny Krasnikov, after apologizing to the fans for reacting to the provocation, was more categorical: After some comments from the media and social media, I realized that the action was planned. I won’t get carried away, who knows the purpose of planning a conflict” (Sportarena.com, 10/18/22).
They did not calm down in Rukh either. First, the president of the club, Grigory Kozlovsky, announced some kind of grandiose press conference. And then the club website published a special statement, in which it analyzed the decisions of the arbitrator step by step. And here is what is curious: Yuri Ivanov is the same referee from Makiivka, who has already appeared in scandalous stories in recent years.
For the first time, when he was allegedly beaten by the president of Agribusiness Oleg Sobutsky, after which the latter was disqualified for life. In the second, when he canceled Olimpik's goal against Shakhtar, and the so-called "Gelzin case" arose, which practically led to the liquidation of a modest Donetsk team. It is clear that with such a background, attention to his decisions is increased.
Be that as it may, such scandals, to put it mildly, do not adorn domestic football. Or rather, on the contrary, they are a disgrace. Especially against the background of the war, in which both friends and enemies pay special attention to our country.
In the meantime, the autumn aggravation of relations between Dedyshin and Krasnikov will be the subject of proceedings at a meeting of the UAF Control and Disciplinary Committee, scheduled for October 27. The personal presence of both defendants is mandatory!
Last Tuesday, the information space was struck by another unpleasant incident. When crossing the state border at the Rava-Russkaya checkpoint, as part of the official UAF delegation heading to the UEFA headquarters, Secretary General and Vice President of the organization Yuriy Zapisotsky, representatives of the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, were handed a message of suspicion.
What the suspicion is about, the media only guessed. However, Honored Masters of Sports and Vice-Presidents of the UAF Anatoly Demyanenko and Oleg Protasov promptly responded to the incident.
According to the first, there is a planned attack by Russians on the Ukrainian Football Association. “I have already said that Russia will one day pay for everything it does in our country,” Demyanenko wrote on his Facebook page. - So it will be. But we ourselves must not allow Russia to achieve its goals here through the hands of its accomplices. The UAF became a target precisely when the Russian lobby in international football circles was defeated. I readily believe that the FSB set itself the goal of destabilizing the work of the UAF as much as possible” (Fakty.ua, 10/18/22).
For his part, Protasov suggested that the "fabrication of accusations" against UAF employees and "empty papers disguised as procedural documents" by the intent of "Russian customers should discourage the UAF from preparing for the 2030 World Cup."
“The Russians simply cannot forgive us for their complete sports isolation and exclusion from qualifying for Euro 2024,” Protasov believes. - This is precisely what is connected with the illegal detention of Yury Zapisotsky on the border of Ukraine.
Using their "Cossacks" in the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the Russian special services seek revenge, pressure and blocking the work of the UAF. Unfortunately, the National Police and the Office of the Prosecutor General have not yet learned how to counteract such "FSB cells" in time. Personally, I have no doubt that this is a Russian order, which is being carried out by our well-camouflaged pawns ”(Ua.tribuna.com, 10/18/22).
For all the seriousness of the situation and the direction of their assumptions, the awareness of the former masters of the leather ball about the "Cossacks" in the country's law enforcement agencies cannot but touch. As well as calls to open "cells" and cancel the "fabrication of charges."
They went even further in the UAF itself, which, through the mouths of its lawyers, hinted at the intrigues of the “operedniks”, and presented one of the points of the official commentary as follows:
“Today at 02.00, during the crossing of the Ukrainian-Polish border by Yuriy Zapisotsky, a provocation took place with an attempt to hand him an alleged “suspicion”. Yuriy Zapisotsky went on a visit to UEFA to work on Ukraine's application for participation in the 2030 World Cup. Unknown persons tried to hand Yury Zapisotsky instead of the prosecutor, the procedural leader, the papers called “suspicion”, while the “document” itself contained clear signs of falsification” (Ua-football.com, 10/18/22).
This is already a serious accusation that requires the most thorough investigation. Which, we have no doubt, will happen.
As for Ukraine's participation in the organization of the 2030 World Cup, this is, of course, a real breakthrough. Joining Spain and Portugal as a candidate for hosting the tournament looks quite encouraging. It is also known that the issue was agreed upon at the highest state level and aroused the approval of the partners, who, by the way, are the favorites of the upcoming tender race.
True, there are enough competitors who want to become the owners of the upcoming World Cup, and the elections will take place only in 2024. But dashing trouble is the beginning. Even though our country, if everything goes well, obviously, will have to be content with just one group matches.
UEFA President Oleksandr Ceferin also reacted to the Ukrainian initiative. While it is not cleared up, how many matches will be played, but the inclusion of Ukraine is important in symbolic terms. This tournament will be dedication to the world” (Theageoffootball.com, 10/21/22).
Meanwhile, in Bucharest, UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Youth Euro 2023. The rivals of Ruslan Rotan's team were the national teams of Romania, Spain and Croatia.
“There are no weak teams in the final tournament, it will not be easy with everyone,” said the head coach of our youth team. — But I am sure that it will not be easy for our rivals either. The strongest and most authoritative among them is Spain, the five-time champion of the continent. The status of hosts says a lot about Romania. The Croatian football school does not require additional recommendations either. So it won't be easy, but interesting. At least in every fight we will strive to reach the maximum” (Terrikon.com, 10/19/22).
Well, about the event that took place in Paris, where the 66th Ballon d'Or ceremony took place. This time, Frenchman Karim Benzema became the laureate of the France Football edition.
The legendary Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko took part in the ceremony at the Chatelet Theater in Paris, from whose hands the best football player of the year Spaniard Alexia Putellas received her prize.
Speaking to those present and to a huge television audience, Shevchenko called on Europe and the whole world to join forces in the fight against aggression: “I am proud of how my country is fighting for freedom. I do a lot of humanitarian and medical projects with the United24 platform, founded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It is very important to remember that the war continues. But even more important is to stand next to Ukraine and help” (Kp.ua, 10/18/22).
Golden words of the 2004 Ballon d'Or winner!
Victor ZHURAVLEV