Valeriy Mirsky passed away at the age of 85...

UEFA Honorary Member Hryhoriy Surkis expressed his condolences.

To the family and friends of Valeriy Mirsky

I express my sincere condolences on the passing of Valeriy Isayevich and share the pain of your irreparable loss to the depths of my soul.

It is difficult to find words of comfort when we lose people dear to our hearts. Wise, ironic, highly educated, he was a loving husband, a true source of courage, a sensitive and reliable friend.

A man of encyclopaedic knowledge and philosophical thinking, a master of precise thought and sharp words, for many decades Mirsky, a recognised master of national sports journalism, remained an example of dedication to football for his colleagues, a model of professionalism and creative approach to his life's work.

How few people are able to understand sport as deeply and comprehensively as Valery Mirsky! Yes, he had great teachers in this field, but then, having retrained as a mentor himself, he nurtured and blessed more than one combat team of great reporters - football experts and ardent patriots of Ukraine.

During the Soviet era, Valerii Isaiovych consistently and extremely skilfully defended the interests of Dynamo Kyiv, the flagship of national sport, in the fight against Moscow's arrogance and hard-headedness.

He was also a conductor of the advanced ideas of the great masters of our coaching workshop, in particular Oleh Bazylevych and Valeriy Lobanovsky, and together with them he brought up new generations of fans, to whom our clubs and national teams - now in independent Ukraine - owe their greatest successes.

I grieve with everyone who, like me, cared about this bright and extremely talented man. The good memory of Valeriy Mirsky will remain with us forever.

Grigory SURKIS