Shakhtar U-19 head coach Oleksiy Belik explained for the TaToTake telegram channel the reason why Metalist 1925 refused to postpone the match of the penultimate round of the autumn part of the Ukrainian Youth Championship.
Oleksiy Belik (photo: shakhtar.com)"I respect my colleagues and rivals. But first and foremost, I have to protect my team in order to achieve my goals. This season, due to logistical and weather difficulties, we have asked other clubs three times to move or postpone head-to-head matches. And three times we were refused. I have no complaints: all parties referred to the regulations.
But how would my players look at me if I let the opponent's two best players (we are talking about Panchenko and Nogueira from Metalist 1925 - ed.) miss not our game but the next match against Dynamo due to disqualification, playing us in the spring - after Kyiv in the strongest team?
I understand the personnel problems of the Kharkiv team, but when I had the same thing on the eve of the match against Barcelona, I included a boy from the U-17 team without any training. The rules should be the same for everyone, shouldn't they?" said Belik.
The SCC will make a decision on the match between Shakhtar and Metalist 1925 this week. "Shakhtar is the leader in terms of points lost, having -2 points from Dynamo, but +2 unplayed matches.
