Zorya manager Ihor Huz commented on the idea of UAF Vice President and head coach of the Ukrainian national team Serhiy Rebrov to resume the U-21 championship.
- We are against it. There are several reasons. We have a feeling that nothing has changed in the country at all. As it was before the war, so it is. We talk about the development of football, but we need to talk more about its preservation. At least in the form it has now.
When the U-21 structure was in place, we were against it being taken away. Why? Because then it was forcibly cut off and said: No, we don't need this, let's have women's football. It was eliminated so that teams could play women's football. Now the situation is as follows: women's football hasn't gone anywhere, and they are adding U-21.
Tell me, please, how can we sustain this financially? We need to increase the clubs' budgets. Or maybe let's use this money to help the country win this damn war. Is football cut off from the country? This is the question we have. Remove the obligation on women's clubs from the regulations and we will return the U-21.
We offered a different model - if clubs have the opportunity and desire, no one prevents them from having a second team. Let it play in the first or second leagues, as Metalurh Zaporizhzhia and Rukh do. Like Shakhtar-2, Shakhtar-3, Dynamo-2, Dynamo-3. And let the boys play there. Men's football, not children's football.
If a man hasn't played at a high level by the age of 19, he has no business playing with children. He needs to play as an adult, so that he grows into a master. And he's still in his swamp, still a child. At 21, he's still a child. At 20, people from the army come, and he's still a child! This was our proposal. If the clubs have the financial means, for God's sake, there is the PFL championship," said the Luhansk club representative.