Artem Chobanian
Ukrainian football has been under serious pressure recently. First, Michel Platini gave what is termed as the last warning to Poland and Ukraine about the future of Euro 2012, then two of the four major sponsors that previously agreed to inject money into the Euro withdrew their representatives from the construction arena, and finally during the last six months there have been attempts to remake the Ukrainian Vyscha Liga (Ukrainian League) into the Ukrainian Premier League. What it is all about?
I hope you read one of the articles here describing the refereeing problems in Ukraine. The matches in the second half of the season 2007-2008 worsened the situation and all sport executives gathered to discuss the matters of football.
First of all, you should learn that there are two organizations working for Ukrainian football: Federation of Football of Ukraine and Professional Football League. FFU is a governmental body dealing with all aspects of football at all levels and ages. PFL opposes the FFU trying to control it and help the players and the clubs in difficult situations, some sort of independent trade union for footballers. Both organizations consist of former players, referees, and politicians.
For the last six months they have been quarreling a lot about almost anything, especially the number of foreign players at the clubs, but the quarrels led to nothing. Then one smart man suggested a brilliant idea: if there’s nothing they can do to help Ukrainian football, then they should dismiss both organizations and make new one(s). Moreover, the Ukrainian Vyscha Liga should be remade into the Premier League with only 14 or even 12 teams, stricter rules and obligations, qualified refereeing and oriented mostly towards native players to help Ukrainian football grow internationally. While the idea of dismissal seemed a bit too radical, the reformation of Ukrainian football administration and the new attitude to the game attracted many of the representatives both from FFU and PFL.
So, what is the Premier League? The major dispute here was about the name itself. How much does it differ from the Vyscha Liga? Doesn’t it mean the same as Vyscha Liga? Some people in football tried to provide an example of Ukrainian Institutes that have become Universities or Academies for the last 10 years. The Ministry of Education in Ukraine stated that the change of the status would lead to the change of attitude towards the educational establishments in Ukraine and to the diplomas issued here. Time proved those people were and are wrong. Only two university diplomas are accepted in Europe and Canada, but anyway, our specialists need to spend a year at the training courses to prove their qualification.
Won’t the situation be the same with the Premier League, many footballers wonder. No, the status will be different, answer the fathers/ideologists of the project, because beside the change of name the Ukrainian League will undergo serious reform, namely there will be 14 or 12 clubs in the league… Stop! This is the first crucial moment: which teams will have to leave the existing 16 and why? Who will decide on that? A new executive body? What kind of body? Who will head it? Or will there be a committee to solve any problem that arise?… Seems like there are more questions than answers, doesn’t it?
Frankly, this is the situation now. Grygoriy Surkis, the president of FFU does not want to abdicate the responsibility of his post to somebody else, though there are people who would like to substitute Surkis. It all gets on people’s and footballers’ nerves, because nobody wants to give up or find ways to compromise. Without sounding too political, the football administration behaves very much like Ukrainian politicians. Arguments, quarrels, disputes, lies, and hatred reign in Ukrainian football and there’s nothing the ordinary football fan can do.
But can UEFA help? UEFA and even FIFA have influence on all football championships in the world, so why don’t they do anything? UEFA representatives were addressed with this question, but their reaction was quite predictable. They can control and rule, but the home affairs of every championship should be under the control of the local sport authorities. Quite fair, but not a help in this situation.
In the end I’d like to add that the latest session of the Ukrainian football associations, FFU and PFL, held recently led to nothing. The questions discussed were the same and only one offer was almost accepted, but postponed. Denis Kirichenko, one of the football journalists, suggested waiting until the end of this season and demoting the four teams that finish at the bottom of the table, thus making this championship the final and decisive one. But again, this seems easier said than done. If they move four teams down to the First League, they will either have to increase the number of the clubs in the First League or move four more teams even further down! That means a serious reformation of the whole football system in Ukraine.
We can just wait and see what will happen, though there’s several questions that arise at this point: Why can’t FFU and PFL leave everything the way it is and just make the rules stricter and the referees more qualified? Why don’t they pay enough attention to the growing youth and invest in them, so that another Shevchenko and Voronin will appear? However, a Slavic tradition to plan something huge but make something minor and be satisfied resulted in the only thing that was accepted by the majority of the votes — since the beginning of this summer the Ukrainian Vyscha Liga has been renamed Premier League, and that’s final! Well, the world football community has received another Premiership, but this time there’s only the name, nothing special yet.
Frankly, for a person living in Ukraine and knowing all possible details of the issue, I can feel that both FFU and PFL seem to be more corrupted that anything else in Ukraine, and their actions or it’s better to say lack of action is just a pose to give an impression of hard work and involvement.
