Vitaliy Volochay: "I would like the UAF to start working with the media and the public under Shevchenko"

Sports commentator Vitaliy Volochay told us what he expects from Andriy Shevchenko's work as UAF president.

Віталій Волочай

- I will probably be trite, but I expect the programme he presented at the congress to be implemented. Starting with the point that he has written down as transparency. Because the Ukrainian Football Association has been doing something for the past many years, but we don't know what it is. No one knows what the vice presidents did, what the president did, what moves were made, what things happened. This has always been a big mystery to me, just like to everyone else.

I would take the example of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, which produces certain products, and we clearly know what these products are, who is working on them, and what the final result should be. This is what I would like from Shevchenko and his team.

For example, it's great to present that we are going to develop women's football. But I would like to see how you will develop women's football, what exactly is meant by the development of women's football. Will clubs be obliged to start women's teams, or will there be some kind of children's and youth women's football? This is what I would like to see in great detail - the first.

The second thing is to clean out the stables of Augustus, to clean out the Football Association of people who have been parasitising football, receiving huge salaries over the past many years. This whole bunch of hearts of Ukrainian football, the hopes of Ukrainian football and people like Demyanenko, who, when asked: "What do you do in the Ukrainian association?", they said: "Well, I play football". These are the people I would like to see Shevchenko's team clean up, because we can see who is 'doing what'.

Thirdly, the last and most important thing for me, as a sports commentator, journalist, and a person who works in the studio at national and youth team matches. I would like the Ukrainian Football Association to start working with the media and the public.

We have not seen any work with the press. We have not seen any quality work with youth teams. We don't know who plays in our youth teams. We do not pay attention to the women's national team of Ukraine. Very little attention is paid to other types of football. Yes, we do see some video content about the national team, but it is still done very, very poorly, it is done very poorly.

Both working with the media and bringing information to ordinary people. Over the past few years, it has been one of the weakest sports federations in Ukraine in this regard. I have worked with many people. And the Ukrainian Football Association has been a total nightmare in recent years," Volochai said.