Kryvbas vice president Artem Gagarin spoke about the fans' attitude towards the club.
Artem Gagarin- We have just spoken to the fans and they said that they have accepted the club. They understand that this is not someone else's fault, we don't have the old leaders now. We are not fooling anyone.
- Recently, Dnipro hosted a roundtable discussion on the disappearance of big football in the city, inviting sports journalists and football personalities. Are you ready to support the idea of creating a new Dnipro or reviving the old one?
- If you take that Dnipro team, there are a lot of guys there with whom we were friends. I was a presenter in Warsaw at the Europa League final. It's great to have two clubs in the region. There is no need to be afraid of competition.
If you need support, tell me how, I will support you. I think Kryvbas will support us as well. We often get letters: "You killed Shakhtar to create Kryvbas," and we always laughed at that. But everyone understands that the rebranding has taken place. The Kryvbas brand is more popular, everyone remembers and loves Kryvbas, and everyone has benefited from it.
- Are there any problems with the debts of the former Kryvbas? Has UEFA sent you anything?
- There can be no more lawsuits due to the statute of limitations. The deadline for filing lawsuits has already passed.
- Then what prevents you from taking the history of that Kryvbas?
- We took more than that. We took the history of Kryvyi Rih football. Why did we do this? Because if you dig into history, in 1959 the newspapers say that a team called "Girnyk" appeared. We are going to publish a book. We want to find out when football started in Kryvyi Rih.
The last thing that surprised me about the history of Ukrainian football was the new "Glory to Ukraine" stickers for the uniforms. It says we have been developing Ukrainian football since some year. I didn't understand what year it was at all, so I started googling and found out that the first match took place in Lviv. There is also a monument there. Well, it's history, someone wrote it, and it started.
Oleh Didukh
