The coronavirus of our football

At the end of last week, Ukrainian football websites were full of headlines about something like the fact that on January 24 there will be a big press conference of the UAF President, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee Andriy Pavelko, or on Tuesday Pavelko will announce the name of the head coach of the national team and in such a spirit (I don’t specifically quote , because after all, these are not quotes, but a kind of generalization).

Frankly, I even regretted that I did not apply for accreditation for such a large-scale event, but I did not see any point in this after the accreditation was denied for several matches of the national team. In fact, it turned out that there was nothing much to regret. On the contrary, I saved two and a half, and with the road - all four hours of precious time, because, as usual with us, after loud headlines and announcements, the output turned out to be zilch.

The communication took place not in the conference room, but in the office, it was attended, in addition to the man with regalia, as many as 17 journalists, and three of them were full-time employees of the UAF! That is, there were only 14 people from the outside. This is the whole scale of the event. Before the coronavirus and the war, the post-match press conferences of the coaches of our, frankly speaking, unpopular teams like Olimpik gathered more journalists in the Olimpiisky conference hall.

Well, the press conference itself turned out to be as informative as the press conferences of Demyanenko or Mikhailichenko once were, who got off with general phrases, afraid to say something superfluous and informative. “This is football. Everything is possible in it”, “We have something to work on”, “We played well, created chances, but we need to improve the implementation”, “There are no weak teams left in the world”, and so on. And when they tried to lead Pavelko into a frank conversation, asked specific questions, he, with the technique and resourcefulness of a fish inherent in almost all politicians, evaded the answer. True, he added something of his own.

— Why was one of your main critics Konstantin Andriyuk denied accreditation for this meeting?

- I'm afraid of transferring the bi to the press office, because I didn't take such decisions.

— Why did the factory for the production of artificial grass for football fields move to Kramatorsk?

- We all remember that the very creation of the plant, and the transfer of the plant to Kramatorsk, was voted by the UAF Viskonkom and the UAF Congress. Congress - creation and everyday life, viscount committee - transference. This is a collegiate decision, as if it were wised up by itself with such economical furnishings.

- 8 million dollars were invested in this plant. A specific question: how much grass, how many fields from year 20 to year 22 did this plant produce?

- One more time. We seem to have moved the plant to Kramatorsk. They gave the representative office of Kramatorsk guilty.

- Did you pay money to Collina through the Emirates? Why not directly?

- Tse bula pleasing to the world, as if it was not all the salaries, but only a part, as we were in long-term disputes ...

- Have you earned a million in riq?

- I won't comment.

- Why was the contract with Collina extended in 2015?

— Signed by Geninson. Before that, Collin had not won from the UAF.

- FIFA returns the Russian referee Karasev to referee, and there is absolutely no reaction from your side

- I can't tell, I'm not in the know.

- Do you confirm that the coaching staff of the youth team has had their salary cut by 70% every month when the team is not at the training camp?

- First of all, I can smell it. I don't feel like that. I can hear it.

That is, no matter what slippery you ask, Pavelko is not in business everywhere. Geninson, executive committee, congress, press service... But not Pavelko himself...

Plus two more passages I really liked.

1. I quote Pavelko: “Everyone who knows me, but doesn’t know a lot of people for a long time already, knows that I’m no longer a poor person from 1993-1994. There are great statues in me... You had three fates, but in me there was already a car, and a house. So - I'm already a rich person.

I quote Wikipedia: "In 1993-1994, he worked as a technician at the Dnepropetrovsk Information Center."

As they say, "no comments".

2. — Shakhtar sued FIFA. Voni lost a lot of players who left the club behind the FIFA rule. You did not react in any way - neither on Facebook, nor declared.

- If the terms were accepted, we had communication with us. Only Shakhtar and 7 Russian clubs submitted skarga to FIFA. For the whole hour I was in contact with Shakhtar and FIFA representatives. The stench tried to accept a neutral solution, like a bulo bi for everyone to accept.

It's a pity, according to the rules of FIFA, there is a line-by-line exchange. Our club, after prolonging the lines of negotiations for a month, gave two stinks. In this distance there was a difference. For qі two tyzhnі it was necessary to pay all the food. They couldn't, there were too many legionnaires. Other clubs could and they did not face FIFA's decisions.

It's a working moment, and I helped Shakhtar to find a compromise with FIFA representatives. Unfortunately, without compromising, the decisions of CAS 7 Russian clubs and Shakhtar were encouraged. It’s not enough for me to get food, but I’ll tell the club about agents, football players, so for 2 more times I’ll win the chain. The stinks couldn't.

Yeah, he helped so much that the next day after this meeting, Shakhtar's strategic development director Yuriy Sviridov wrote the following: "I believe that over the course of all 8 years of his leadership, football in the country has not developed, but degraded. Football has no transparency, no strategic vision, no projects, no leadership.Football is used as a tool to underline the status, self-PR and resolve political issues.

We do not see the dynamics of development: how many venues are built per year, how many people play football in our country and how the indicators have changed in recent years, how many coaches are in the country, how many stadiums have been built, how many amateur clubs, what are the TV ratings?

We do not know how much UAF received funds from UEFA and FIFA and where it spent them. There is not a single annual development report in the public domain on the UAF website. There is also no development strategy. In general, no numbers and statistics that would show where and where we are going. By the way, there is no coach for the men's team yet.

But we actually know that the last time the national men's team played at the World Cup was 16 years ago - in 2006, we know that Ukraine has significantly worsened its position in the UEFA club rankings in recent years, we know that there is no centralized marketing in club football and high-quality fields for playing in winter. We know that the women's team has never participated in the final stage of the world championship. That our referees do not referee important matches in Europe. We also know that FIFA does not respect us and we do not have any leverage to somehow change this state of affairs. During the entire period of independence, representatives of Ukraine have never been in the FIFA Executive Committee or in the position of vice president. We give nothing to world football in terms of administration, and frankly, no one expects anything from us.

Of course, there have been successes and changes in the last 8 years. Success is the victory of the youth team at the World Cup and the team's entry into the 1/4 finals of the European Championship. And the changes are the change of the name from the federation to the association and the change of the official logo. But. There is no strategy, no dynamics and transparency. There is a drop in rating next to a bunch of different kinds of scandals. This is a statement of facts without unnecessary emotions, accusations and offensive epithets against Pavelko.

If someone thinks that he owns football in the country, he is very mistaken. We must take care of the development of the game for the next generations, pass on the love of football to our children. And I sincerely believe that Mr. Pavelko and his team are people who do not care about football and cannot convey anything useful.

Eight years of government have shown the capabilities of the current head of the UAF. These possibilities are very limited, so I think there is no point in continuing. The best thing Pavelko can do for Ukrainian football is to leave it, taking the whole team and entourage. For a better future."

For my part, I would add two more questions:

1. Covid fund... I don’t remember the information and the report that the clubs were given covid money?

2. Similarly: where is the money that was given to the UAF in connection with the war?

And, by the way, about the national team coach. All those who believed that Pavelko would announce his name at the meeting were mistaken.

- I'm sure that it's more strategic, more far-sighted, but at the same time Rebrov has a viable contract. So I ask everyone to bud. We would have liked to have voiced the decision already, but there are rules that need to be broken. Crying out that I'm sorry about the robots at my club. To that, after a certain hour, I sing, that everything is voiced by me.

That is, it is less than two months before the match at Wembley, and the coach is still gone. Well, since there is no coach, then, as I understand it, no one is looking at candidates from Shakhtar, Dynamo, Dnipro-1 and other teams, no one follows the sparring of these clubs in Turkey, no one communicates with candidates to the national team and their club coaches.

The qualifying match is less than two months away...

And the last and for me personally the most shocking. When an adult deliberately distorts the name of another person, especially if he is old enough to be his father, doing it solely for the purpose of insulting, this speaks of his high culture and downright Einsteinian intellect. I feel sorry for our country and our football that I was the first to lead the budget committee, and football is still managed by such a misunderstanding.

For me, Pavelko remains the coronavirus of our football - because the crown on his head is not large in size, and how much harm he did - not a single virus can do it!

Andrey Shakhov