The resumption of the European Cup competition could not push the rest of the weekly top topics in the domestic football information field into the background. In particular, the next steps of the new head of the UAF, Andriy Shevchenko, and the announcement of the creation of a Ukrainian Premier League television channel.
The time is fast running out for the Euro 2024 play-offs, in which the Ukrainian national team is one of the participants. A little over a month is left before the semi-final head-to-head with Bosnia-Herzegovina. While players and coaches are preparing for the trials with their clubs, bookmakers are releasing their first forecasts. It is pleasant to note that the chances of Serhii Rebrov's team to reach the final tournament are estimated to be the highest among the others.
"Ukraine's national team is considered a clear favourite in the Nations League's B group stage matches for the right to play at next year's European Championship," reads Oleksandr Chekanov's article (Obozrevatel.com, 13.02.24 ). " Bets on the Blue and Yellows winning a ticket to the championship in Germany are accepted with odds of 2.1. The Bosnians are next with a large margin, with odds of 4.0 on their entry into the Euros.
The Ukrainians have the biggest advantage over their rivals of all three favourites. The other most likely participants in the Euro are Poland and Greece".
However, predictions are predictions, and the right to play among the 24 best teams in the Old World in the summer will have to be proved in difficult battles with ambitious rivals. If our compatriots are lucky enough to overcome the Bosnians, the winner of the Israel-Iceland match will be the last barrier to the final stage.
Of course, the success of each of the candidates for the national team adds to the optimism amidst the worries and expectations. In the reporting week, Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin was particularly pleasing. Having made a "zero" save in the 4-0 win over Girona, where the Royal Club secured the lead in the championship race, the Ukrainian then played a spectacular game in the opening match of the Champions League play-offs.
"The first match of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League of the 2023/2024 season against Leipzig is a benefit for the Ukrainian goalkeeper of Real Madrid Andriy Lunin ," stated Sportarena.com (14.02.2024 ). "Largely thanks to the fantastic performance of the goalkeeper, the Creamy won a minimal victory (1-0). And although UEFA awarded the man of the match award to the goal scorer Braim Diaz, teammates and Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti praised Lunin's contribution to the victory."
"The match could have ended in a draw, let's be honest ," Sport.ua quoted the Madrid head coach as saying (14.02.2024 ). " It was Lunin's best game since I first met him. He played great today."
The 25-year-old Lunin became only the third goalkeeper to make nine saves in a Champions League match without conceding a single goal. Previously, this achievement was made by his teammate Thibaut Courtois (Champions League final 2021/22 against Liverpool) and Gianluigi Buffon (2013/14 draw, Juventus vs Celtic).
It is not surprising that following his debut match in the CL play-offs, Lunin was included in the symbolic team of the week of the most prestigious of tournaments.
"God willing, our goalkeepers will continue to play regularly for their clubs until the national team's qualifiers for the Euros ," commented former Ukraine goalkeeper Yuriy Virt in an interview with Sport-express.ua (14.02.24 ) . But it's a pleasant headache.
We have two top goalkeepers who play in top teams - Lunin and Trubin. I think that only before the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina will Rebrov decide who will be the main goalkeeper in our national team."
On Thursday, Shakhtar Donetsk played their first match of the Europa League last 16, drawing with French side Marseille (2-2).
As the duels of this round have shown, the draw was not too harsh for the miners. A worse fate could have been a date with Italian side AC Milan, Portuguese side Sporting or even Turkish side Galatasaray.
"Marseille are currently experiencing a significant crisis, as mentioned by everyone who tried to predict the course of events in their clash with Shakhtar.
"Gennaro Gattuso's team hasn't won in five matches in all competitions, despite the fact that some of these matches were not with the giants: "Strasbourg (1-1), Rennes (1-1, penalties - 8-9), Monaco (2-2), Lyon (0-1), Metz (1-1). In the league, the Provencals have already dropped to eighth place and are five points behind the European Cup zone and seven points behind the Champions League. Marseille also dropped out of the French Cup early, losing to Rennes in the last 16," Mykhailo Tsiruk analysed the state of Donetsk's opponent (Xsport.ua, 15.02.24).
However, Shakhtar also failed to impress in the confrontation with an opponent far from optimal condition. On the one hand, the Orange and Blacks demonstrated a fairly decent physical fitness for winter. On the other hand, it was clear that the team failed to achieve balance and coherence in the team's work, and that the problems in defence have not gone away.
The Miners were unable to counteract the French club's brightest star, Gabonese Aubameyang. Having scored his sixth goal, he is currently the most accurate sniper in the current Europa League draw.
Pushich was not helped much by the very unexpected appearance in the centre of the pitch of the experienced Taras Stepanenko, who actually missed the entire preparatory process due to injury. Moreover, in the 70th minute, the centre-half was forced to leave the field due to a new injury. For some time, his participation in the return leg was in doubt. There is also one "iron" loss: Bondar will not play in Marseille because of another yellow card, which automatically resulted in a disqualification.
Of course, Marseille will undoubtedly be even more convincing at home. Even after the dismissal of Gattuso, who was sacked after Sunday's 0-1 defeat to Brest. The hosts expect that Fortune will finally turn to face them, which this time was more favourable to Shakhtar.
Of course, it will be appropriate to sum up the results of this duel after the match on 22 February. However, Shakhtar's coach has already had to listen to reproaches that he has no idea what to do with the team building strategy.
"It is unlikely that Marseille can add much in the return game. However, the French team can decide the outcome of the game in their favour through the individual skills of some of their players. And by taking advantage of other people's mistakes. "Shakhtar, in turn, need to adjust their match-up in a short time. And Pushich needs to finally decide what to put first: the game or the result," emphasises V. Vasylenko (Sport.ua, 16.02.24).
This week, the spring part of the Ukrainian national championship will begin. And the match between Cherkasy's LNZ and Kryvbas of Kryvyi Rih will be the start of a new media project - UPL TV. The Premier League management told the media about the details of the channel launch at a special briefing on Thursday.
"Thecreation of UPL TV is a historic event for Ukrainian football, as it is an objective and equidistant television broadcaster," reads the UPL press release (Upl.ua, 16.02.24 ). "The Ukrainian Premier League team, together with its partners, has worked out all the details to launch the TV channel from scratch. The time slots, commentators, journalists and presenters have already been identified. Also, the Ukrainian Premier League is actively cooperating with the top European championships to adopt and implement the best international practices in the new project."
Thus, a new linear channel (cable, satellite, IPTV) has been created. The matches will be available to fans who subscribe to the following OTT platforms/providers: "Kyivstar TV, Datagroup-Volia, Viasat. There is no need to pay extra for basic packages. Negotiations are also underway with Setanta, Megogo, SWEET.TV, Triolan and regional cable providers.
Three slots have been allocated for the broadcast of matches - 13.00, 15.30 and 18.00. At the initial stage of broadcasting, we plan to have studio discussions of the matches before, during and after the matches, reviews of individual games and the best moments of all the matches of the tour, retro content and author's programmes.
In the future, there is an idea to create additional products, such as historical films, retro matches with "decoration", and airtime for each club (equally). In addition, it is likely that the U-19 championship and matches of UPL clubs in the European Cup qualifiers will be shown.
Another interesting innovation is the cooperation of UPL TV with the football Themis. The Premier League will send an official request to the UAF Referees Committee to have the referees officiating matches comment on their decisions live. It is also planned to create a programme dedicated to reviewing the work of the referees.
"In the process of creating, launching and operating UPL TV, the UPL cooperates with three companies, one of them is 1+1 media," Ua-football.com shares the details (15.02.24) . The League pays for everything. Filming one match costs about 350 thousand hryvnias."
"In the autumn part of the season, the matches were broadcast at the expense of the clubs ," Yevhen Dykyi, the head of the Ukrainian Premier League, developed the topic . Now the clubs will not pay. The UPL will cover all expenses on its own, including funds raised from sponsors and partners, and assistance from European leagues" (Ukrfootball.ua, 16.02.24).
According to the organisers, the UPL TV project already has a financial backing of €1.5 million from friendly European leagues, which, however, have decided to remain incognito for the time being.
After the launch of the new channel, UPL matches will be broadcast on international media platforms. The organisers have agreed to distribute the product with LaLiga+ OTT, Panda Interactive, Setanta Sports, Lanet, as well as media platforms that broadcast football in the United States. One of the conditions for selling the product abroad was blocking the signal from Ukrainian teams' matches in Russia and Belarus.
"Starting from the 2025/26 season, we will hold a tender for the consolidated sale of international rights. Since then, the League plans to become a profitable product. Before that, the next year and a half is the period to fully reach self-sufficiency," Sport.ua reported (15.02.24).
"Becoming self-sufficient includes three main components - sponsorship, PayTV distribution and all the funds we can raise in addition to these. We would not want to take a single penny from the clubs. On the contrary, we want to bring them money. We hope that by the end of the financial year we will report on what we have earned and are ready to share something," said Maxim Radchenko, head of the UPL TV (Ua.tribuna.com, 16.02.24).
It is worth noting that the launch of a new channel does not mean the creation of a single television pool.
"It can be considered a single pool when all UPL members - 16 clubs - join. But now we have confirmation from 13 clubs that they are with us on this path," said Yevhen Dykyi (Ukrfootball.ua, 16.02.24).
According to the head of the UPL, the managers of three other elite teams are carefully studying the details of the new project.
"I wouldn't say that the position of Dynamo, Dnipro-1 and Zorya is 'no and that 's it'," Yevhen Dykyi was quoted as saying by Ua.tribuna.com (15.02.24 ) . So far, we are talking about the parallel broadcast of these clubs' matches - on the channels of their broadcasters and on UPL TV."
"Cooperation with Dynamo, Dnipro-1 and Zorya promises to be one of the main challenges for UPL TV, and if we manage to reach an agreement, it will be a huge victory for everyone involved in the project and a kind of quality mark that will allow the creators to proudly say: 'We are the first and only ones who did it'. Time will tell whether they will succeed, but UPL TV needs to show its quality in a week and convince the audience that all the promises were not empty words," Mykhailo Tsiruk summed up the first wave of assessments and assumptions (Khsport.ua, 16.02.24).
The reporting week turned out to be busy again for Andriy Shevchenko, who was recently elected president of the UAF. He paid a working visit to Zakarpattia, where he met with the leadership of the regional military administration and the regional football federation, talked to the country's leading referees who are attending a training camp there, and visited the main sports arena of the region - Uzhhorod's Avangard Stadium.
"I thanked Mr Andriy for the decision to continue holding Premier League matches at the stadiums of Transcarpathia. This is an extremely important issue for hundreds of thousands of countrymen who live for football and are involved in its development ," shared his impressions of the meeting the head of the OVA Viktor Mykyta (Zahid.espreso.tv, 13.02.27 ). "The UAF will establish an Assembly of Regions, which will become a platform for communication between regional associations and the UAF and will prepare proposals on issues related to the development of football in the regions. For us, this is an opportunity to present promising proposals and solutions for the development of Transcarpathian football. I am sure we will be active in this matter."
Andriy Mykolayovych himself revealed some details of his meetings at the highest football level, which took place within the framework of the UEFA Congress in Paris on 8 February. In particular, he had direct contacts with the heads of the national associations of Germany, Italy, France and Croatia.
"We met with the delegations of Germany and Italy. We discussed the possibility of studying the experience of training and educating coaches and organising summer football camps for Ukrainian children," A. Shevchenko's post on his Facebook page was retransmitted by the UAF's official website (Uaf.ua, Footclub.com.ua, Pressing.net.ua, Dynamo.kiev.ua, Xsport.ua, Sport.ua, Ua-football.com, Football.ua and others, 12.02.24).
"At the meetings with the French and Croatian delegations, I had the opportunity to thank them for their support of Ukrainians and agreed to carry out joint projects for the development of football.
HFS President Marjan Kustić noted the talent of Ukrainians in football and stressed the important role of football in supporting society in difficult times. "Croatia faced similar challenges during the war for independence in the 90s, but the country managed to bring back talented young people and achieve impressive results in football," the UAF president commented on the Paris meetings (Uaf.ua, Footclub.com.ua, Pressing.net.ua, Dynamo.kiev.ua, Xsport.ua, Sport.ua, Ua-football.com, Football.ua and others, 12.02.24).
The UAF and the Italian Federation have a long history of cooperation, confirmed by the implementation of numerous joint initiatives to support Ukrainian citizens, including young football players, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine. The partner associations are now launching a new project. It involves the implementation of joint technical training activities involving young Ukrainian players and coaches at the world-famous Coverciano Sports Centre in Florence.
"I am proud that Ukraine has chosen Italy to launch this important cooperation, both in terms of football and values," said IFA President Gabriele Gravina, "We have always been at the side of our Ukrainian friends through solidarity initiatives to help improve the living conditions of ordinary people, as well as sports projects, providing registration opportunities for thousands of young people who have fled war. We will now provide an even more structured pathway for technical cooperation that aims to secure the future of Ukrainian football. Andriy and I have been friends for a long time, and I wish him every success in his new position."
"Italy has always been a second home for me, filled with unforgettable memories," said Shevchenko, "I am grateful to every Italian for their constant support since the first day of the full-scale war in Ukraine. I am looking forward to implementing joint projects for the development of Ukrainian football" (Uaf.ua, Footclub.com.ua, Pressing.net.ua, Dynamo.kiev.ua, Xsport.ua, Sport.ua, Ua-football.com, Football.ua and others, 13.02.24).
The Croats consider the meeting with the Ukrainian legend to be a significant event in the life of their national association.
"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Andriy Shevchenko on his election as president of the Ukrainian Football Association," said Croatian Football Association President Marjan Kustić in a commentary for the official website of the Croatian Football Association . Understanding the current extremely difficult situation in Ukraine, we wished peace to the Ukrainian people and shared our experience that football in such times can be surprisingly useful and important for the people and society. Ukraine is a very talented football nation, and I am convinced that under Shevchenko's leadership it will continue to progress. I look forward to further cooperation, especially in working with young people" (Hns.family, 8.02.2024).
In turn, Shevchenko expressed his admiration for the achievements of Croatian football over the years of independence and thanked him in return.
"Croatia has achieved truly exceptional results in recent years, and I have great respect for the work of HNS and Croatian coaches who train world-class footballers. We are grateful to Croatia for supporting our people in these difficult times for Ukraine, and I am glad to have the opportunity to cooperate with the two associations, especially when we talk about working with younger players, in which Croatia is simply unsurpassed! " Hns.family quoted the Ukrainian (8.02.2024).
Thus, for less than a month as head of the UAF, Shevchenko has been fruitfully implementing the "leather ball diplomacy" in practice, fulfilling the mission of Ukraine's football ambassador to the world. The return of strong international authority to the Ukrainian association was associated with the arrival at the helm of the UAF of a man whose name is associated with our country in different parts of the world.
Among the priorities set for the new UAF management team is the status of football as a means of rehabilitation from the horrors of Russian aggression. "Millions of people in Ukraine are suffering from the war. Football is a powerful tool for post-traumatic recovery for both our veterans and children. Together with experts, we will create a programme for the recovery of Ukrainians, and this can become a unique case for the whole world," Shevchenko said in his keynote speech at the Federation's Congress in January.
It is reasonable to assume that the UAF will do its utmost to promote projects similar to the Ukrainian Military League, one of whose organisers is FC Dynamo Kyiv.
"The UWL is a leading organisation in the psychological and sports rehabilitation of military personnel. Thefirst playing season, in which 640 servicemen took part, confirmed the effectiveness of this programme ," reads the official website of the Kyiv club (Fcdynamo.com, 13.02.24 ). " Now the organisers are striving to develop and hold international tournaments and competitions for servicemen to cooperate with other countries and expand partnerships. The aim of such activities is to support and integrate the military into civilian life. The project is aimed at overcoming post-traumatic stress disorders among military personnel and their adaptation."
Experts estimate that about 1.8 million military personnel need psychological assistance. The UVL initiated the opening of 100 centres for psychological, physical and sports rehabilitation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine throughout the country. The Ukrainian Football League not only promotes physical activity, but is a powerful tool for overcoming trauma and stimulating the social integration of the military into civilian life. Such initiatives are undoubtedly worthy of replication and respect.
Orest LELEKA