The famous journalist Mykola Nesenyuk - about the perception of the World Cup 2022 during the war.
"I first got to the club museum of the Barcelona football club, located next to the famous Camp Nou stadium, a quarter of a century ago when the world did not yet know who Messi and Ronaldo were. Most of all, and for the rest of my life, I was impressed by one of the stands of that museum, where at that time the tables of all the Spanish championships in which the aforementioned Barcelona played were placed. Nice tables with statistics - goals, points, goals scored and goals conceded... For all years, including 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944...
It did not immediately occur to me then that at a time when almost all of Europe was washed in the blood of the Second World War, in Spain, which was not at war, they played football calmly! They went to stadiums, rejoiced at the victories of their teams and were saddened by their defeats. They discussed all this among themselves and read about it in the press. And at that time, cities and villages were burning, soldiers on the fronts and peaceful people who were affected by the war were dying and suffering. And what were those Spaniards to do - they did not fight!
With my mind, I accepted all this as normal, but my soul could not come to terms with it for a long time. To accept the fact that when somewhere they are killing and destroying, somewhere they are calmly playing football! That is why I am currently watching the World Cup in Qatar as if through a bloody film. On which the blood of another Ukrainian or Ukrainian woman is slowly spreading, who died at a time when a disconsolate Ronaldo was sobbing in Arab stadiums or a happy Mbappe was jumping for joy.
I agree, this is all nonsense - the world does not care about our trouble, just as we did not care about the trouble of others. All this will sooner or later end and it will not hurt so acutely. But in the history of "Dynamo", "Shakhtar" and other Ukrainian football clubs, which, I am sure, will revive after the war and become stronger, a record will forever remain - the championship of Ukraine 2021-22 has not ended. And we will never have the right to forget about it!" Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.
А весь цей час в Іспанії грали в футбол
На жаль, світ практично не існує без війн і нічого дивного, що хтось до війни в Україні відноситься так, як ми відносилися до війни в Судані чи Сомалі. Навіть під час війни між кацапами і Грузією не пам'ятаю, щоб у нас зупинили спортивні змагання...