In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. euromaidan Ukrainian. Since then, this area has been a point of territorial dispute and one of the biggest triggers of the current occupation. In recent days, Ukrainian intelligence accused the Russian authorities of planning the annexation of the south of the country to this peninsula.
For the international community, the territory is Ukraine, but the de facto administration is Russian. Football played a fundamental role in this process. This Crimean Premier LeagueOrganized under the sponsorship of UEFA, it was one of the first symbols to open the door to a new status.
The current conflict has resulted in the suspension of all sporting events in Ukraine and the exile of major teams. The local championship in Crimea continues to be played normally. It is a kind of amateur tournament made up of local athletes, the majority of whom are in legal uncertainty like the region in which they are played.
His players still have Ukrainian passports and Russian Football Association Due to the fines it will receive from FIFA, it has not integrated it into the league system. While the current context of exclusion of Russian teams from the international scene has been reinforced by recent sanctions, the addition of the Crimean Premier League could be another geostrategic blow to strengthen influence in the region.
While Russia seeks to establish full control over the Donbas region and southern Ukraine by seeking a land corridor to Crimea, the local tournament continues to be played as if there were no conflicts at its gates that took control of continental stability. El Periódico de España, a newspaper belonging to the same group called Prensa Ibérica, with this newspaper + Ukrainian Premier League organization and FC SKChF Sevastopol, one of the most outstanding teams. It was via two English emails that she didn’t get a reply. At subsequent contacts, written in Russian, the organization sent a response linking to official articles.
Shakhtar’s exile
In 2014, football was one of the sectors where conflict was best exemplified. The occupation of Crimea and Donbas regions forcibly displaced clubs from these regions. The most notable case was: Shakhtar DonetskThe most successful Ukrainian team of recent times, which managed to win the Europa League in the 2008/09 season.
“After Euromaidan, the Russians illegally occupied the Donbas and forced Shakhtar to go on a journey. They moved first to Kiev, then to Lviv in the east, more than a thousand kilometers from their headquarters to the Donbass Arena, and finally changed their headquarters to Kharkiv in 2017.” Andrew AllLondon-based Ukrainian journalist covering all the sports variants of the conflict through her account of Zorya Londonsk.
This constant wandering of the mining team (known nickname)” a huge psychological wear on the players. Although it also allowed him to add fans from other parts of the country. Before the conflict, they were a team that mostly had supporters in Donbas.” The other big team in the area, Zorya Luhanskmoved to Zaporizhia. “Interestingly, this club, whose biggest achievement until then was to win the trophy, USSR First League in 1972He’s signed on in recent years, with his best results routinely qualifying for Europe,” adds the journalist.
In Crimea, teams like Simferopol and Sevastopol also fled, but unlike what happened with Donetsk and Lugansk teams, these formations were re-established on pro-Russian soil as part of a new rivalry: the Ukrainian Premier League. .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kflTrji2fb4
UEFA protection
“In 2014, our team started playing in the southern part of Turkey. Continental Football League (a competition of ex-Soviet countries) until Ukraine made a claim which was accepted by UEFA. We had to withdraw due to sanctions. The European organization later ‘private football field’ and the Crimean Premier League, which is controlled by the Crimean Football Union supported by UEFA,” he explains. valeri challyThe CEO of FC SKChF Sevastopol in an official interview with this newspaper in response to the question of how the competition arose.
Since then, the competition has been played without interruption, with eight teams in a major league and multiple teams in one second. Dominion was distributed between the re-established Sevastopol, Simferopol and Yevpatoriya from a tournament that has become a propaganda show. Previous rallies where UEFA and Ukraine were accused of “football genocide” against Crimea were common. The rationale for this statement lies in the limitation of team players who can only own facilities, in addition to the impossibility of the Crimean teams to compete in the Russian system.
“The main problem faced by football players born in Crimea and Sevastopol is they are still ukrainian in the eyes of uefa registration system. Therefore, if they want to play in Russia, they are considered foreigners. Imagine if our football players could compete, for example, in the second Russia. We would have had a much higher tier, but rosters in this category could only have five non-EU players. We do not understand how these Russian football players could not obtain a Russian passport while on Russian territory”; FC SKChF Sevastopol CEO defends Valery Chaly in a speech that makes no mention of Ukraine.
In recent years, a joint competition with the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk was considered, and the Crimean Football Union refused it. “Not possible! And less taking into account what is currently happening in Ukraine,” says the now manager, but before a former player and former coach, among others Rubin Kazan. The war has temporarily undermined their aspirations to integrate into the Russian system, but may open them up in the near future as a result of geopolitical action. The only thing Crimean teams will accept at the moment is, “human friendly”.
I support Putin
“They say to us: ‘Why don’t you get in touch with Vladimir Putin? Vitaly Muko (President of the Russian Football Union)?’ I think the president has more important things to attend to right now. Russia, like other regions, has supported us by developing football, but that is not enough,” said Chaly, who asked for more commitment from the governing bodies of the country that occupied Ukraine.
The attitude of the CEO of FC SKChF Sevastopol on the Russian occupation is clear. “I fully support the decision of our Commander-in-Chief, Russian President Vladimir Putin.. I know what Ukraine is, I know what the situation is there”, unraveling one of the heavyweights of Crimean football without any ambiguity. For this reason, his stance on the steps to be taken for sports in the occupied peninsula is clear.
“It’s time to stop complying with Western sanctions! Both UEFA and FIFA. We are Russian citizens. Crimea should be in Russian football. It was understandable that the Russian Football Union did not want to take risks in 2014, but what could happen after the sanctions imposed on clubs and the national team? Alexander Ceferin They were accused of being “propagandists” and leaving the federation where they would promise a similar status to Kosovo.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Premier League is walking towards the end of the season as if nothing had happened, Shakhtar and Dynamo kyiv are immersed in a charity round To mitigate the consequences of the war, active players such as the Prime Minister of Ukraine Andriy Bogdanov They are ahead and the team’s technicians embark on adventures to structure the World Cup playoff preparation plan in Qatar. The team he leads Oleksandr PetrakovRefusing to escape from Kyiv, they will play at Hampden Park (Glasgow) on 1 June to be a finalist in their draw and fight for a place against Wales.
“We are totally opposed to an out-of-compassion classification. We want to win on the field. It will be a great joy for our people. I firmly believe that we have possibilities despite the situation we live in,” says Andrew Todos. the power of football as a weapon and the conditioning factor of conflict: “Qualifying for the World Cup would be a real media and social blow for Ukraine.”
Source: Informacion
