President of Dawn – about the future of the club and the future of the championship of Ukraine
In an interview with Marina Mashkina for SportArena TV, the owner and president of Luhansk Zarya Evgeny Geller spoke about the future of the club, and also shared his thoughts on the venue for the 2022/2023 Ukrainian Championship in the Premier League.
According to Geller, Zorya is preparing to start in European competition. Recall that, according to the results of the 2021/2022 championship, which was underplayed due to Russia’s large-scale military aggression, Zorya received the right to play in the Conference League, where she will start her journey from the qualifying round.
“The club is preparing for European competition. The mood of the players is, first of all, to represent our country in European competitions, as we have done for the last eight years. Help, from Shakhtar at the expense of prize money from participation in the Champions League? If Shakhtar shares, we will not refuse. But I doubt anyone will share. But if he comes up with a proposal to distribute prize money from UEFA to all clubs, we will not refuse, ”said Geller.
As President Zarya said, he is in favor of holding the next championship of Ukraine in Poland. According to him, there are several arguments for this. Recall that following the meeting of the leaders of the UPL clubs, the League decided to decide on the final format, host country and calendar for the next season after consultations with the Ukrainian authorities and military administrations. The same applies to youth competitions.
“The decision to hold the championship in Ukraine, on the one hand, is correct. But you need to understand what football is. Football is needed for the fans, for the country. And if everything lies only in the ambitions of club presidents, then let’s draw on matches: who is the champion, who took second place, who flies out. Our task is to show the whole world that Ukraine is alive, that football is alive. And for this, my opinion and many colleagues support me, we need to hold the championship in Poland. In this case, all European and world media will show the tournament and talk about our country. Plus, if we collect stadiums, then any club will continue to make deductions from the funds received to our country.
If we hold the championship in Ukraine, on the one hand, it is very patriotic. On the other hand, it is very unsafe. On the third, we will hold it without spectators, and no one will talk about football Ukraine.
Departure of delegations of clubs abroad? I have already explained it: the question is where they (the player) will bring more value. If they glorify our country, and the world media say every day that “Ukraine is alive, Ukraine plays football, Ukraine thinks about its future and about its children”, then this is very good. And the fact that one and a half to two thousand football players will be taken abroad? So they are small warriors. I think they will be more useful on the football field than on the training ground.”
It was reported that 16 teams will still play in the Premier League, but instead of Desna and Mariupol, Metalist and Kryvbas should rise to the elite. The President of the Chernihiv club confirmed that the leadership needs time to restore the infrastructure.
At the moment, the approximate date for the start of the new season of the Ukrainian Premier League is mid-August.
Source: Sportarena
