Famous Ukrainian coach Vyacheslav Grozny shared his opinion on the postponement of UPL matches involving teams representing Ukraine in European competitions.
- Our teams are not in the same conditions as their foreign rivals. You need to understand that we are playing football during the war with all its components, including air raids. We play all our home matches outside Ukraine.
There is constant logistics: buses, trains, and electric trains. With this logistics, the schedule of all matches is very tight - two days later on the third. Players do not have time to recover.
My vision is that all European Cup teams from Ukraine need to create appropriate conditions for players to recover and prepare for matches. For example, in my opinion, Kryvbas's match against Ingulets on August 25 should be postponed to a reserve day. The goal is to allow Kryvbas, which plays against Betis in Kosice, Slovakia, on August 22, not to travel across the country.
They will play Betis, and then have a week to prepare, they will not come to Ukraine, and there, outside of Ukraine, they will prepare for the return match in Seville. Our players will be fresher, faster, it will be easier to press, they will do a better job.
I think that such moments must be foreseen. This is true for all European Cup teams.
Look, on August 18, Kryvbas played away to Veres. It was clear that they were going to travel to Kosice by bus and play on the 22nd. Imagine playing on the 22nd, and then getting on a bus and going back to take on Ingulets in Kryvyi Rih? But they will arrive only the day before the game, they will not recover. Then, after the match on the 25th in the evening, they get on the bus. There's a curfew, you can't go everywhere by bus. You go to Poland, you have to connect to a plane, fly to Seville. And there, on the 31st, they will probably postpone the game with Shakhtar (the match will take place on September 1 at 18:00 Kyiv time - approx.) in Kryvyi Rih.
It will be the same for Dynamo and Shakhtar when they play. It would be the same for Polissia and Dnipro-1 - I'm sorry they don't have a team. I believe that these are not trifles, these are very serious things that need to be done in the interests of European Cup teams because they represent Ukraine.
Maybe it is precisely because of the logistics that they lack the points. How are you going to recover in that bus? You can't even lie down.
I hope that both the Premier League and the UAF will read this. No one asked me to do this, it was my initiative. I always put myself in the shoes of a coach, what would I do. I would address the Ukrainian Premier League: "Listen, we will travel. We are more on buses than on football fields. As a coach, I don't have time to train, to play some options. Give me the opportunity to work for a week between games," eurofootball.com.ua quoted Grozny as saying.