M etalist Kharkiv striker Edmar couldn’t believe what he was seeing when he opened the mailbox. In it was a letter by the Ukrainian Army calling him up for service to fight against Russian separatists in the Donbass.

Edmar was born in Brazil but has played for Kharkiv since 2007 and is a naturalized Ukrainian citizen, who even changed his name from de Lacerda Aparecida to Halovskyi de Lacerda to conform to Ukrainian tradition. It seems unlikely that Edmar will see any military action in Ukraine soon, but his story is compelling as it shows the current political reality of Ukraine.

Ukraine in Turmoil

The country has been in turmoil ever since Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union in November 2013. What followed was the forceful removal of Yanukovich from office by the Maidan protesters, the annexation of the Crimea by Russia, and separatist movements in several regions of Eastern Ukraine, including the Donbass.

Then, just ten days before the kick-off of the new Ukrainian football season, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over the Donbass.

As if the socio-political unrest was not enough, Ukrainian football was already suffering, with many clubs struggling financially.

The league struggled to find 16 starting teams before the start of the 2013-14 season that could match the financial regulations imposed by the league and had access to the necessary infrastructure, such as stadiums. With the bankruptcy of Arsenal Kiev in November 2013 the league had already finished with only 15 teams.

The annexation of the Crimea by Russia also saw the departure of the two big Crimean based clubs FK Sevastopol and Tavriya Simferopol from Ukrainian football. Simferopol, the first champion of independent Ukraine in 1992 and a team who had been relegated at the end of last season, was dissolved as a result. Sevastopol had been a competitive member in last years UPL edition, and will surely be missed.

On August 1st Russian clubs voted to include three clubs based in the Crimea, Zhemchuzhina Yalta, FK Sevastopol, and the newly founded FK Skif Simferopol in the Russian Second League (Third Division). To circumnavigate UEFA regulations all three clubs are officially registered in Russian cities.

Total league upheaval as clubs move home



The clubs of the Ukrainian Premier League accepted a proposal by the management of Shakhtar Donetsk to reduce the league to 14 clubs. All clubs will play each other twice, after which the league will be separated into a championship group, and a relegation group. The hope is that the reduction of the league will increase its competitiveness. Yet the restructuring of the league will do very little to solve the problems that football faces due to the conflict in the Donbass.

The three Donetsk based clubs, Shakhtar, Metalurh, and Olimpik, as well as the Luhansk based club Metalurh are all forced to play their home fixtures in other cities. UEFA and FIFA have issued a list of stadiums in Ukraine that are considered safe for football.

Shakhtar have chosen to play their home-matches in the Arena Lviv, which is 1200 kilometres away from Donetsk. The Arena Lviv has been seldom used since the 2012 Euro tournament as local team Karpaty cannot afford the exuberant rent that the city council asked the club to pay to play in the stadium.

Lviv is located in the very west of the country, and is often considered the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism. But Shakhtar’s move could have political motivations, as Rinat Akhmetov, the owner of Shakhtar, has been very outspoken against the Russian separatists.

Furthermore, Shakhtar in recent years has also changed its marketing strategy, adjusting the club’s image from representing the Donbass Region to a club considered to represent all of Ukraine. This includes the introduction of a new logo, which used Ukrainian, rather than Russian spelling.

Yet only 4,800 people came to see Shakhtar’s first game at their home away from home, a lacklustre 2-0 win against Metalurh Zaporizhya. Even their rival Metalurh Donetsk drew more spectators at their first home game in the same stadium, a game that they lost to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.

Metalurh and Olimpik Donetsk will play out their remaining home-games at the Obolon Stadium in Kiev, while Luhansk will share a stadium with Zaporizhya. All four clubs face an uncertain future, as the conflict seems to escalate ever more.

If the civil war intensifies, other clubs may be forced to depart their home grounds. Shakhtar for example originally wanted to play their home-games in Kharkiv, which is located only 200 kilometres to the north of Donetsk, the city had been the centre of political turmoil in the past, and although it is quiet in Kharkiv right now, things could change quickly and Metalist Kharkiv might be forced to play their home games in other cities as well.

Player exodus

Foreign players have also reacted to the political situation in the country. On July 21 six Shakhtar players, the Brazilians Douglas Costa, Fred, Dentinho, Alex Teixiera and Ismaily along with the Argentine striker Facundo Ferreyra remained in France following a friendly. Akhmetov and Shakhtar manager Mircea Lucescu blamed the player agent Kia Joorabchian, who manages all six players, for abusing the political situation in Ukraine as a method to force the transfers of players to clubs in the west. Akhmetov stated that he would not sell the players, and if need be would force them to sit out their contracts.

Akhmetov’s financial power prevailed and all six players returned to Shakhtar, before Ferreyra was loaned to Newcastle United. Persistent rumours continute to link Douglas Costa and Alex Teixiera to AS Monaco as replacements for Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez.

Other clubs that do not have the financial backing of the richest man of the former Soviet Union have seen the departure of keystone players. Metalist Kharkiv, whose owner Serhiy Kurchenko had fled the country due to his close political connection to the former President of Ukraine Yanukovich, was forced to let Sebastian Blanco, Alejandro Gomez, Jose Sosa and Jonathan Cristaldo depart the club.

All of those players stated that they would refuse to play in Ukraine, and the club will have to sell them albeit below their respective market prices.

Ukraine facing an Egypt scenario

These players will not be the last to depart Ukraine and Ukrainian football, as the country is in a state of civil war. It is indeed a miracle that the Ukrainian Premier League is kicking off at all. Many observers expected the league to be halted, with UEFA and FIFA stepping in to relocate the international fixtures, and perhaps even the domestic fixtures of the competition.

O n Wednesday July 31st there was crowd trouble at Dnipro’s Champions League qualifier against FC Copenhagen after some fans had supposedly spotted a Russian flag in the visiting section of the stadium.

This incident has prompted an investigation by UEFA, and it shows how volatile the situation has become in Ukraine. A simple spark could cause the barrel to explode, and indeed Ukrainian football has the potential to face an Egyptian scenario in which an entire season could be suspended due to the larger socio-political problems of the country.

(photo credits: #1 via gynti_46 #2 via Metalist Kharkiv #3 via Diego Laje , #4 via ACN (KIN-AED) on Flickr)