On July 2 in Kyiv at the House of Football, an open press meeting was held dedicated to the topic of the certification of football clubs in Ukraine.
Representatives of Ukrainian Premier League clubs and the Professional Football League of Ukraine, the women’s and girls’ football department of UAF, and domestic media attended the event. The General Secretary of UAF Igor Grishchenko, the Technical Director of UAF Igor Dedishin, and the Head of the Department of Certification of Football Clubs of UAF Sergey Yelshov also participated in it.
“Until this season, the certification procedure was carried out within the framework of the subsidiary organization ‘Licensing Center’, which today has been restructured into the Football Education and Leadership Center. It now focuses exclusively on the issues of training coaches and football specialists in various areas. The Licensing Center that will deal with certification will now be within the UAF. A corresponding department has been created, led by Sergey Yelshov.
The second change is that representatives of the UPL and PFL have been included in the certification committee, including UPL President Yevgeny Dyky and PFL President Oleksandr Kadenko. They cannot directly participate in the voting since they are members of the Executive Committee of UAF, but they will act as observers in this committee. They can monitor its activities, ask questions, and provide additional information at the request of committee members about a particular club. This is especially important in terms of transfers of clubs between leagues. To make decisions on whether a club meets certain UPL conditions, it will be useful to hear information from the head of the PFL in which the club performed before.
Many clubs also raised the issue of funding for this direction. For many years, funds for the certification procedure were collected from the clubs, although UEFA financed this activity for UAF directly. Despite this, funds were parallelly collected from the clubs. The clubs raised this issue, we analyzed it and concluded that we can fully cover the certification procedure with UEFA funds. Already from this season, the club contribution has been reduced, and starting from the 2026/2027 season, clubs will be completely exempt from the obligation to pay any funds for certification. This is also one of the reforms. We are trying to make the certification procedure more transparent and equitable for all clubs.
UAF is the regulator of these processes. We are not a controlling body, and our task is to assist clubs in raising their level to meet the requirements for both PFL and UPL competitions. Ideally, we should not allow cases where the certification procedure is used as a lever or tool to substitute the sporting principle. Earlier, this sometimes occurred in Ukrainian football, and our task is to correctly build the certification procedure so that a club setting a certain sporting goal for the future clearly understands how it should plan its activities to meet increased requirements for the next season. We very much want to base this on UEFA’s experience, which tries to apply such an approach so that all clubs that have earned the right to participate in competitions under its aegis based on sporting principles are admitted to these competitions. Of course, unless there are any glaring moments such as debts, bans, etc. This approach—promoting the integrity of competitions—will be our main focus,” said Igor Grishchenko.
...“As for the certification itself, I would like to convey to both clubs and media representatives the main principles that we apply as the leading football institution in the country on this issue. For us, the main and defining principle is the sporting principle since football is a competition, and this principle is paramount. The team that finished in a higher place and earned the right to move up to the higher division will always be prioritized.
Our next task is to balance the sporting principle with other components of the certification procedure as much as possible. However, the sporting principle will still be the most important, and I believe that in this regard, UAF has been absolutely consistent over the last two seasons. In particular, in the situation with the playoff matches for promotion to the Premier League, where it was decided that everything must be resolved on the football field, and the sporting principle would determine the team that would occupy a place in the UPL. The same was the case recently in the situation in the second league when the ‘Rukh-2’ team withdrew from the competition. We did not want to interpret the provisions of the regulations and football legislation. We used the sporting principle, and the Executive Committee of UAF made the decision that everything would be determined on the football field. The sporting principle must prevail in Ukrainian football.
The next principle that we promote and apply when certifying clubs is equality of conditions. We definitely do not have the task of not certifying someone. UAF’s task as a whole and the Department of Certification of Football Clubs in particular is to ensure that clubs meet the certification requirements specified in the regulations. We must help all teams, and for this, a lot of work is done, such as various seminars with club representatives. Moreover, both members from financial and legal departments participate—different areas according to the certification criteria. Our principle is equality and equity. Equal conditions must apply to everyone. We have no intention of using the certification of clubs as a punitive element. If we make any exceptions to the regulations, they will be the same for all teams. It doesn’t matter whether top clubs or clubs that, for example, come to the UPL from the first league.
Another principle that we would like to apply is that the certification regulations should be live and effective. We want changes and adjustments to be made that are as maximally adapted to the realities of our life. And we definitely do not want the provisions of the certification regulations to be perceived as mandatory. Many clubs do not like when there is a requirement for the presence of a women’s team in their structure. We must approach this balanced, considering UEFA’s certification procedure. We are interested in initiatives from clubs to create conditions for their development, using the regulations on certification,” added Igor Dedishin.
“This season is historic because, for the first time, four clubs have left the UPL and four new clubs are coming in to take their place. Regarding funding, we clearly understand that First League clubs do not have as many staff compared to UPL clubs. A maximum of 50 employees. Accordingly, the expenses of clubs are significantly lower than those of UPL clubs.
A club that is a contender for promotion spends only the money it needs to demonstrate sporting results. Comparing the salaries of footballers from those clubs that have risen to the UPL and those that have been relegated from the UPL is incompatible.
But you also emphasized whether there is a minimum threshold. The criteria of UAF do not stipulate minimum or maximum thresholds. If we return to the certification criteria, the first one is of course the financial report. We do see these reports—they are provided by the clubs.
If we see that there is an unverified opinion, we have the option of forecast financial reporting, and one of the contenders for promotion has used this option to convince the auditor of its solvency. Clubs provide additional documents—these may include sponsorship contracts, documents confirming an increase in authorized capital, and other materials, considering all these materials, the auditor makes a final conclusion, referring to additional materials,” noted Sergey Yelshov.
The meeting lasted almost two hours in a dialogue mode. All participants were able to express themselves. Clubs presented their proposals regarding the certification process and related issues. Journalists received all answers to their questions.