A season of hope: Ukraine prepares for remarkable return of league football

Five months ago, footballers in Ukraine could not afford to give a second thought to their sport. The horrors being inflicted by Russia’s invading forces left nobody untouched and the act of staying alive, while ensuring the same of their loved ones, was all that mattered.

Many players left their clubs for the country’s west, basing themselves in relatively calm locations; some sheltered underground with their families and, in a number of cases, teammates, for days on end. For those able to consider their professional futures, the idea of a swift return to competition bore little imagining and generally held even less appeal.

Wherever and whoever you are in Ukraine, those fundamental tenets of remaining safe and protecting the country will continue to override anything else. But on 23 August, barring a pronounced deterioration in the present security situation, something remarkable will take place. Whistles will blow in Kyiv, Lviv, Uzhhorod and perhaps Ternopil or Rivne; they will signify the start of a new football season in an act of defiance, cultural preservation and societal reconstruction that had appeared unthinkable.

Last Monday representatives from the Ukrainian FA, government ministries and the state emergency service gathered in Kyiv to discuss protocols that, once signed off, should allow the league to commence. “Holding football competitions during the war is not only about sports,” said Andriy Pavelko, the football association president. “It is about demonstrating the fearlessness of our people, the indomitable spirit and desire for inevitable victory. This is a unique initiative in world history: football against war in conditions of war, football for the sake of peace.”

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