Just now, UEFA announced that the venue for this season's Champions League final will be moved from St. Petersburg to the Stade de France in Paris. In addition, the national teams and clubs of Russia and Ukraine are all played in the middle position.
There is no doubt that this is not unrelated to the sharp deterioration of the situation in Ukraine. After a short winter break, the Ukrainian Premier League (referred to as the Ukrainian Super League) was supposed to reopen this weekend, but due to the situation, the Ukrainian Premier League issued an official announcement last night: the domestic league was suspended.
Putting aside the five major leagues, there must be a place for Eastern European football in the second echelon of Europe, and Ukrainian football and Russian football are also among the best, in the distant Soviet Premier League period, the team that won the most championships was not from Moscow, nor was It St. Petersburg Zenit, who has just completed three consecutive championships, but Dynamo Kiev.
Dynamo Kiev has produced two European Ballon d'Or winners, "Lightning" Belanov and "Golden Arrow" Blohim, and of course, Shevchenko, who is now more familiar to fans, also came out of Dynamo Kiev, and he also became a Ballon d'Or winner in Milan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk almost won the Ukrainian Premier League, Kiev won the European Cup Winners' Cup twice and the European Super Cup once. Shakhtar Donetsk beat Werder Bremen to the top of Europe in the final of the last UEFA Cup in 2009. In the first round of the Champions League group stage last season, this team beat Real Madrid even more upset.
Now they are stranded in Kiev hotels seeking refuge
But now that the league is suspended and flights are canceled, the entire Team of Donetsk Miners is stranded in a hotel in Kiev. The team has not played on its home field for 8 years due to the turmoil.
The Donbass Arena is devastated
The Main Stadium of the Miners Club, Donbass Athletic Stadium, was destroyed in the fighting, making it impossible for miners to conduct daily training in their stadium and ensure the safety of home games. Coincidentally, Olerna in the Luhansk region has suffered the same thing, and now they have relocated to the Slavtic Arena, while the miners share the Kiev Olympic Stadium with Dynamo Kiev.
The two teams met in Uchao
The team's wanderings are also difficult for some players from the Donbas region to accept, and Rakitsky, who has made 54 appearances for the Ukrainian national team, left after four years of wandering with the team to join Zenit St. Petersburg, because for Rakitsky, who grew up speaking Russian in the east of Donetsk, he is closer to Russia. He also offended Ukrainian fans, and he was never selected for the Ukrainian national team again. Coincidentally, Schalke 04 also officially announced that it has drawn a clear line with Russian sponsors, and the Polish Football Association, the Czech Football Association and the Swedish Football Association issued a joint statement saying that they refused to travel to Russia to participate in the 2022 Qatar World Cup European Qualifier Play-off.
Zenit missed qualifying for the Europa League knockout round this morning
Coach Shemark is a former captain of the Russian national team
A Ukrainian with Russian citizenship
In less than 48 hours, suspensions and boycotts have poured in, and Eastern European football, which once star-studded Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, has now become more "fragmented" because of the turmoil. Although sports are not about politics, in football, they are always inextricably linked. Whether it's Malinovsky's self-receiving yellow card celebration tonight or the pre-match banners for Barca and Napoli, it's a wish.