Notes professional attitude toward developing soccer in Ukraine

This time Lennart Johansson, European soccer federation president and FIFA vice president, could compare his impressions with what he saw seven years ago, when he last visited Ukraine. The schedule of the latest visit of a UEFA delegation, which also included this organization’s chief executive Gerhardt Aigner, was tight enough to make the most of every minute.

Noteworthy is the meeting between the Union of European Soccer Associations leaders and Ukraine’s Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh and Minister of Education Vasyl Kremen. As Mr. Johansson noted at the final press conference, he was greatly impressed by the attention the Ukrainian government pays to the development of soccer especially in schools, where soccer lessons have been included in the curriculum thanks to the initiative of Ukraine’s soccer federation. The distinguished guests also visited Dynamo Kyiv’s and the Ukrainian national team’s training facilities in Koncha-Zaspa, the site where the Soccer Federation of Ukraine (FFU) office is under construction, Dynamo Stadium, and the headquarters of this country’s leading soccer club. They also became acquainted with the Ukrainian soccer development plans submitted by FFU President Hryhory Surkis.

Both sides expressed the hope that the UEFA leaders’ sojourn in Kyiv would promote the further integration of our soccer into the world and European soccer market. It only remains to prove this integration on the pitch, where Ukrainian teams must preserve and enhance the prestige won by previous generations of our players and coaches. That this prestige is still alive was shown by Messrs. Johansson’s and Aigner’s positive response to the FFU petition to award Valery Lobanovsky the UEFA Order of Merit.