Dynamo Kyiv Deputy General Director Serhiy Mokhnyk commented to the club's media on the situation with the match against Minaya. As a reminder, the game was postponed due to the lack of artificial lighting at the Minaj Arena, after which the media began to report manipulative comments by representatives of the host club.
Photo: fcdynamo.com- We are sympathetic to any force majeure of other UPL clubs in the past and this season. There is a war going on in our country, the very fact that the Ukrainian championship is taking place, that we have not lost football as a phenomenon, is an achievement of the clubs and the state.
But there are certain things that do not hope for force majeure. Representatives of Minaj, Dynamo, the referees and the delegate agreed that the game would be cancelled if the air raid is called before 14:30, and this is documented. At exactly 14:30, our players went to the shower, and the team administrators began to take their things to the bus.
From the very beginning, we stressed that we were ready to play later that day, but representatives of Minaj said that this would be impossible due to the lack of artificial lighting at the stadium. The air raid is force majeure. The lack of light at the stadium is not force majeure. This is unprofessionalism and lack of respect for other participants in the championship. Every team has to play in an arena that has this lighting.
We could not stay another day and play on Monday. Firstly, there were no guarantees that the situation would be repeated, and secondly, we had a match in Kyiv on Thursday. Given the complicated logistics, it jeopardised the entire planned process of preparing for the next matches. Why should we compromise our interests because of infantilism and the lack of basic things in the infrastructure of the opposing team?
This issue needs to be addressed. This time, this situation happened to us, and next time, any UPL team can be in our place. And what now? Do we all have to travel to Uzhhorod twice to make Minaj happy? No, this will not happen.
As far as I know, the UAF has already sent an official letter to all the clubs that play in Uzhhorod and Minaj demanding that the issue of artificial lighting be resolved immediately (by 1 February 2024). But for us, this is history in the past, we have to take care of Dynamo's interests.
Our club did not demand the technical defeat of Minaya. We did not write letters of demand, did not collect evidence (and this is very easy to do, there are plenty of precedents for technical defeats due to infrastructure problems in our football), but we expect Minaj to act like a human being. We spent a lot of money on logistics, it's an 800+ kilometre road. We respect our players and club staff and will not send them to Minaj again.
Our position is very simple: it was not force majeure, but the irresponsibility of the local club. We don't want to get into legal and regulatory quarrels, but are waiting for a normal reaction from the opponent and their decency. "Dynamo will play this match without any problems (we don't need 3 points for the sake of it), but Minaj should come to Kyiv and play on our pitch. This will be their measure of responsibility for what happened last Sunday," Mokhnyk said.
