Last weekend in the Ukrainian Premier League was remembered primarily for two key events - the defeat of "Dnipro-1" against "Dynamo" (0:1) and the victory of "Shakhtar" away from "Kryvbas" (3:0). The results of both of these matches were by no means predetermined, and therefore such a final schedule allowed the "miners" to take clear first place, and now have a full three-point advantage over the "Sports Clubs" who were in a clear crisis (0 wins in the last 3 matches in within the UPR).
Dario SrnaShakhtar's match against Kryvbas even before its start acquired a certain flavor of scandal. At least the degree of confrontation was heated to the maximum by the fact that the leadership of the Kryvyi Rih club refused to satisfy the request of their colleagues from the "miners" on the grounds of moving the game from Kryvyi Rih to Lviv, which would significantly facilitate the logistics of "Shakhtar" on the eve of the match in the 1/8 match the final of the Europa League against the Dutch "Feyenoord".
As a result, "Shakhtar" had to spend more than 15 hours on the road from Poland to Kryvyi Rih, and the route lay through Chisinau, where the "miners" flew from Warsaw by plane, and then covered a huge distance on the roads of their native country by bus. It is obvious that in such conditions it was simply impossible to talk about any preparatory training, and the players of the Donetsk team were deprived of even a full recovery.
Be that as it may, Shakhtar not only came to the match in Kryvyi Rih against Kryvbas with all the key performers in the squad, but also managed to break the opponent's resistance in an extremely fierce fight, pressing him at the end and emerging as the winner with a big score - 3:0. After the final whistle, the "magic circle" looked extremely symbolic, in which the entire Donetsk team gathered, including football players and coaches, and the main element of which was Ihor Jovichevich, who spoke something extremely enthusiastic and emotional to his wards. Evidently, the Croatian thanked all football players and assistants for the work done and the character shown, because the three points in Kryvyi Rih really did not come easily to Shakhtar, but they can be decisive in the fight for the championship.
And it was this "magic circle" that was to become the main and only, apart from the score on the scoreboard, Shakhtar's answer to Kryvbas. Everything was decided on the football field, in a fair sports fight, as it should be.
But after the game, Kryvbas sports director Dario Srna decided to additionally focus on the topic of refusing to postpone the game. Horvath, probably on emotions, released several extremely eloquent lines on this occasion. For example, he said that the Kryvyi Rih players "didn't want to postpone the game in order to help themselves and all of Ukrainian football," and he further emphasized the fact that "they said they were rooting for us in Europe, but as a result, they didn't agree to postpone the game ". In the end, Srna came to a highly dubious and completely illogical conclusion: "I think it's a bad football decision. In today's situation, the law should be the same for everyone, and it's called helping each other."
No, in fact, all Ukrainian football clubs, as well as all citizens of our country, in a situation where the Russian occupiers have been continuing a barbaric and unprovoked war against Ukraine for more than a year, should really help each other as much as possible. Here's the only question: what should be considered help, and what should be considered a sacrifice of one's interests for the benefit of the interests of another?
It is clear that Srna, as one of the managers of Shakhtar, tries to defend the interests of his club, and he succeeds in this very well. But there are certain inconsistencies in the words of the sports director of the "miners" and the actions of his club, and that is why, after the match in Kryvyi Roz, the people of Donetsk should stop at a beautiful and symbolic gesture with the "magic circle" already mentioned above, but not with an additional chewing over the situation, which ended very favorably for Shakhtar.
The fact is that last autumn Shakhtar itself, in a practically similar situation, refused Dynamo's request to postpone the face-to-face match, in which the Miners were the nominal hosts. Then the people of Donetsk insisted that their match against the "white and blue" be held on the calendar date - October 16, although the people of Kyiv really wanted to move this match at least a day later. And Dynamo's wish looked no less logical than Shakhtar's recent request to Kryvbas. The fact is that Lucescu's wards in October, just three days before the game with the "Miners", played an extremely difficult European Cup match against "Rennes" (0:1), and had problems with making at least some semblance of a full recovery, not to mention already about the notorious issues with logistics.
In other words, in October, as Srna now formulates this phenomenon, Shakhtar did not show a desire to help Dynamo, but is now focusing on what someone (more precisely, Kryvbas) did almost the same, but now in terms of to the very "miners". In October, everything was "ok", but five months later, it turns out that it is not? An extremely illogical position, with which Srni should hardly have entered the public sphere...
And the question is not that Shakhtar was wrong in October, and Kryvbas is wrong now. In fact, professional football, which is a part of sports, is far from always being a model of justice. At least each party has its own, and that is absolutely certain. The only thing that matters in sports is the result and the way to achieve it. The latter must be exclusively legal, that is, one that does not violate rules and regulations (regulations, regulations, etc.).
The fact that in October the game calendar at Dynamo turned out to be less favorable than at Shakhtar at some point was not a problem for the Miners. As it is now, Kryvbas is not at all to blame for the fact that the Donetsk club has such a complicated game rhythm and schedule. Kryvyi Rih simply, like Shakhtar itself last fall, wanted to try to take advantage of the opponent's difficulties, and for football this is an absolutely normal circumstance. Nowhere in the top European championships will you find even a hint of the postponement of matches due to logistical problems of one of the competing teams. These are the difficulties that must be overcome on the way to triumph, and blaming your opponents for this in England, Germany or Spain has not been accepted for a long time.
Perhaps someone will object that the comparison with the top leagues is not correct, because in these countries, fortunately for them, there is no war, however... In fact, it is worth considering and evaluating all the difficulties that "Kryvbas" itself experienced in the process of organizing the match After all, according to Article 12 of the UPL-2022/23 regulations, the host club is responsible for the safety of the guests during their entire stay in the city. And in the current conditions, security issues are so serious and critical from the point of view of working out all kinds of "little things" that it is absolutely impossible to write off this work from the accounts.
Therefore, it is hardly correct and appropriate to speculate on the topic of mutual assistance in the aspect of choosing a venue for this or that match in the realities that have developed. And Srna's phrase that "when "Kryvbas" plays in the European Cups, we will definitely go to meet and postpone the match" looks like nothing more than an attempt to imagine ourselves in a better tone, but not a logical argument. At least because "Dynamo", which took part in the European Cup in October, "Shakhtar" has already refused a similar request.
And it is unlikely that now, in this aspect, it is worth raising questions with possible transfers of matches to the category of concepts "wrong" or "ugly". Everything is extremely relative. If the clubs themselves and the Ukrainian Premier League could not agree on preferences for European Cup participants before the start of the season, now from the point of view of the regulations, the current decision of Kryvbas, as well as the October decision of Shakhtar, look absolutely correct. And only victories and, obviously, "magic circles" on the field after them can be beautiful, but by no means try to expose someone in what was previously attributed to you...
Oleksiy SLIVCHENKO
