Vadym Hutzeit, Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, shared his impressions of the Ukrainian Olympic team's performance at the football tournament of the Paris Games.
- "Together with Andriy Shevchenko, we worked with the entire association to ensure that we had a strong team. I really wanted and believed that the clubs would provide the best players. Unfortunately, as our first president of Ukraine said, we have what we have. Unfortunately, we didn't have the strongest squad, unfortunately, they didn't make it out of the group, but I still want to thank Ruslan Rotan, Vasyl Kardash and all the other coaches who worked with the team, and those guys who came to the Olympic Games and played.
I am grateful to the club presidents who did let their players go. I understand that in many cases they had contracts with foreign clubs where they could not participate. I know they wanted to, but they were told to prepare for the next season. But it is what it is.
This is painful for me, it is patriotic for me, because I understand that "Ukraine is above all" is not just words, not just things. There are athletes for whom this is "everything," and there are athletes for whom, unfortunately, the commercial component is the most important," Gutzeit said.