The Restorator. The Potato Army" is not the first time that it has organised events at national team matches. Performances have taken place at Wembley, Westfalenstadion and Wroclaw Arena.
This time in Prague, volunteers Dmitry Dubas and Nikolai Vasilkov organised an action called "54" - the number of years that passed from the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 to the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
NIKOLAI VASILKOV:
"Our goal is to raise funds for turnstiles for the Tokmak direction. To do this, we organised a Czech Republic-Ukraine veterans' match right on the pitch of the NH Hotel, where our team lives in Prague. Rebrov was able to meet his West Ham teammate Tomas Rzebka, Oleksandr Hatskevych with his UPL opponent Tomas Hübschmann, Andriy Voronin with his Bundesliga acquaintance Jan Kohler."
Karel Poborzski, Rustam Khudzhamov, Antonin Panenka, Oleksandr Zavarov, Horst Siegl and others also took part in the game. The match ended in a 5-5 draw.
DMYTRO DUBAS:
"After the whistle blew, Kohler came up to me and said on behalf of all the players that they were honoured to help Ukraine and asked me to change shirts. For the first time in my life, I was so excited that I couldn't find the words to respond."
During the Ukraine vs. Macedonia game, the Potato Troops plan to hold a flash mob in the stands of the Generali Arena stadium, when, at the 54th minute of the game, fans will raise the number 54 above their heads as a sign of solidarity between the Czech and Ukrainian peoples in this difficult historical time.
