PFL President Oleksandr Kadenko spoke about holding a new football tournament in Ukraine, which was called the PFL Winter Cup. Clubs of the first and second leagues, as well as two amateur teams will take part in the competition.
“Teams turned to us to organize competitions, with the help of which, during the winter break, they could prepare for the season and play with equal teams. We decided to make this cup open and, in addition to professional clubs, two more amateur ones submitted applications. Some of the teams took the initiative, and we went to meet them, approved the format and gave information that the tournament would be held.
We considered several formats for holding these competitions. At first, we had more applications from clubs, there were 12 teams in total. We thought that there would be two groups of six teams and then a playoff round. However, over time, we have seven teams left, so there will just be one group of seven participants.
Given that we now have 24 clubs playing in the PFL, it means that almost a third of the clubs take part in this tournament. The participants of the Cup are five teams from the PFL (Left Bank, Chaika, Niva Buzova, Niva Vinnytsia, Flint) and two amateur teams (Druzhba Mirovka and Okko Kharkiv). There was supposed to be an eighth team - "Storm" from Ivankov, but she refused to participate.
The competition will be held in one round, each team will play with each. The tournament will be held from February 4 to March 18. Whoever takes first place in the group will become the winner of the tournament. Matches will be held at the stadiums of football clubs, but in accordance with the requirements that currently exist in Ukraine.
I think it will be an interesting tournament, because there are many teams that are equal in strength. Therefore, an interesting struggle for victory in the competition awaits us. These competitions will be good for preparing the season,” Kadenko said.