By Larysa RUDENKO, The Day
Last Wednesday a bus took 37 passengers from Kyiv to Paris to attend a
soccer match (tied 0:0)between the national teams of Ukraine and France.
Soccer is a collective passion requiring an audience, like-minded people,
instantaneous reactions, heated debates, mutual understanding, feedback,
and active assessments. Modern telecommunications present new opportunities
for the unlimited expansion of circles of like-minded people. A keen supporter
of Ukrainian soccer, 25-year-old Kyivan Oleksandr Popov, has made a deft
use of this: almost a year ago he opened an Internet web-site for Dynamo
fans (www.dynamo.kiev.ua). According to long time fan Dmytro Ivanov,
this site has become a virtual "rendezvous" for team supporters. The site
is daily visited by about 3000 users from Ukraine, Russia, Canada, the
US, Indonesia, Austria, Lithuania, Australia, and Belgium - from everywhere
there are our fans. The total number of those who have visited the site
in less than a year is over 200,000. Site users have in fact formed an
informal club for Dynamo and national team fans. The main communication
place is the "Guest Book" chapter (known as the WALL among Internet fans)
that allows all to express their opinion about key soccer events.
All the bus passengers are Internet fans. They got to know each other
thanks to the site. They also organized the trip themselves from beginning
to end: passports, visas, match tickets plus the necessary paraphernalia
- 2 huge home-made yellow-blue national flags (2 m x 3m and 2.5m x 1.5m)
reading "Forward, Ukraine!" and "UKR.INTERNET fans," theme T-shirts, scarves,
woolen-hats, and horns... There were not only Kyivans on the bus: several
people came from other Ukrainian cities and even Moscow... They met each
other "live" in Paris, though they had been in virtual acquaintance for
almost a year. Of course, the trip was expensive. And although they tried
to choose the cheapest transportation and lodging, the cost is still high
for the average Ukrainian. Some of them preferred to forsake their summer
vacations in order to attend the match. They went there not only and not
so much for their own personal satisfaction but also to make our players
feel that they are not alone, rather that they are cheered and loved. They
are sincere and selfless fans: to get to the match, they did not try to
combine business and pleasure, i.e., they did not time their business trips
to coincide with the event, and unlike some of our high-ranking soccer
fans, they did not go at the expense of the state or the companies they
work for.
On March 27, at a new huge and gorgeous 80,000-seat Stade de France,
constructed, by the way, to host the 1998 world championship finals, the
37 ardent and loyal Ukrainian fans did their best to contribute to the
victory of our national team.







