Mykola Nesenyuk: "What is the urgent need to start the games in March?"

Well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk spoke on the topic of the timing of the start of the second half of the championship of Ukraine. We will remind you that in the current season, the national championship will resume in the first days of March (March 4 is the base day of the 16th round of the UPL).

"In March 1977, Dynamo Kyiv reached the semifinals of the European Champions Cup for the first time in its history, beating the famous Bayern Munich, which was the owner of the said cup, in two matches in March. This became the team's highest achievement in European cups, which Dinamo could not surpass, repeating only twice in 1987 and 1999.

I remembered this after I saw that the spring part of the current championship of Ukraine should start on March 4, and even earlier they are planning to hold matches of the Cup of Ukraine. You ask, what is the year 1977 for? Until then the championship started... April 2. Moreover, the matches of the first rounds were held in the stadiums of southern cities, and football came to our latitudes already in the middle of April. Why? Because it is in the middle of April that grass grows in our region. It grows by itself without outside help.

So, in 1977, the start of the championship in April did not prevent Kyiv "Dynamo" from beating "Bavaria" in March. At that time, no one thought of starting the championship at the end of February, driving the teams into the snow and mud for some unknown reason. Now not that! Now we play football both in December and February. However, it somehow does not lead our clubs to the semi-finals of the Champions League. However, we already have a lot of heated football fields, which please the eyes of those several hundred people who go to football in February and March.

Previously, all this could be attributed to the level of professionalism of our football managers, who either did not learn botany at school, or managed to forget it. Therefore, considerable additional funds were regularly spent on the maintenance of football fields for domestic "professionals", which did not give any return and could be used for something more necessary. This could also be attributed to the rich owners of our football teams. Let them spend a couple of extra millions, they have a lot of those millions!

Not now. Now the war. Now it's winter, which millions of Ukrainians are spending either completely or partially in darkness and cold due to the destruction of critical infrastructure by the aggressor. Every day, the authorities ask us to save electricity and heat, warning of possible difficulties or even a disaster!

But it somehow doesn't get to football managers. Do they not understand that in order to hold the football championship in March, football fields should be heated? To spend on this scarce heat, which millions of Ukrainians do not have enough for a normal life? What is the urgency to start games in March? What will happen when the football players take the field a month later when the fields have dried out and fresh grass has grown on them? Where to hurry?

I immediately anticipate the comments of numerous "experts" regarding the need for the successful performance of two Ukrainian teams in second-tier European cups. It is unlikely that these "experts" will be able to explain what is the connection between the performances of football teams that will prepare for international matches abroad and play them also outside Ukraine, and warming the ground in empty stadiums in Ukrainian cities?

That is why I thought back to the beginning of 1977, when our football was run by people who knew a little about botany. Not the same as the current ones...", Nesenyuk wrote on his page on the Facebook social network.