[Amelia Chaffinch]

The Ukrainian Premier League kicks off on Tuesday. It's a morale thing.

I thought we could have a team each and follow their progress... maybe write a short* piece about their history, any tenuous links to Huddersfield (I'll give you the money myself if you can find one... only joking; I'm sure you'll rest at nothing to come up with one!)

You can either pick a team or I could do a random picker, i.e., put our names in one hat, the teams in another and draw them cup draw style. Anyone on any board can join in. Only thing is, we'll have to be quick with it starting on the 23rd.

What do you think? Anyone interested in showing some support for Ukrainians via football?




* I can live in hope! I've just told Snoots that we don't need an 8 page essay. He says that, if it warrants an 8 page essay, it will have one.

[Lord Snooty]

I'll give it a go. Anybody else?

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Shame Josh hasn't really been posting for the last six months or so, he used to really love Shakhtar Donetsk and could probably tell you a lot about the club at the drop of a hat.

[WBA-Josh]

Shame Josh hasn't really been posting for the last six months or so, he used to really love Shakhtar Donetsk and could probably tell you a lot about the club at the drop of a hat.

I'm surprised that you remember that Ska'd. I was big into Shakhtar Donetsk for a couple of years. I even planned to go watch a match at one point. I fell in love with them in 2008/2009 season when I saw them on TV. That was the season that they won the UEFA Cup beating Werder Bremen in the final (I have a vivid memory of watching the final with my Dad). I remember watching them play Dynamo Kyiv in the semis and the Brazilians lit up both matches. Illsinho, Jadson, Willian and Luiz Adriano as the attacking quartet with Fernandinho in the 8 position (converted from a left winger). *chef's kiss*



I don't post much anymore because I'm so busy with work and also trying and failing to deal with my depression but I'd love to take part in this and if I can, I'd like to take Shakhtar for old times sake.

[Lord Snooty]

Can I adopt Oleksandriya then?

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Yep

[HerefordBull]

Has to be Dnipro for me...........due to my now loose attachment to Hibernian FC!

In 2005 Hibs went out to play the second leg in Dnipro of a UEFA Cup game.

Hibs fans who went out were shocked by seeing the number and condition of orphanages around Dnipro and at the game held a collection and donated the money to the said orphans in 2 of the many orphanages there. On their return, despite the result! ,  the idea was set up to form an official charity to help these kids and "DniproKids" was formed. Over the years they have raised thousands of pounds for them and visited on a number of occasions taking out various items very much in need out there.

Fast forward to last year and the war with Russia and bombs started to fall on Dnipro. Stevie Carr the main driving force behind the charity worked tirelessly with his team from DniproKids to get transport to Lviv, across the border to Poland and then getting them on a flight to Scotland. In the first instance he managed to get over 50 children and their guardians out and even went back to get 4 more out who had been away from the orphanage at the time of the original evacuation.
On arrival in Scotland they firstly stayed out near Perth in an old Hotel complex before moving into Edinburgh.

People up here have been excellent towards them donating tickets to many events and shows including getting ticketsand transport for all of them to see the recent Scotland v Ukraine World Cup qualifier at Hampden. Amazon provided each with a large Ukrainian flag and the Scotland team joined in the charity donations by allowing Ukraine to win!

If you google DniproKids or look at their facebook page for up to the minute info, you can see and find out more about this small charity all spawned from a football match.

[Devongone]

What a good idea! Shakhtar have a very good, and very big young keeper called Trubin. His only trouble is that he definitely isn't an Ederson with the ball at his feet. He dwells on it like an unexpected and unwanted gift. I haven't heard anything about him since the war. He didn't play for Ukraine in the World Cup Qualifiers and he is miles better than the guy who was in goal. Hope he isn't fighting, he'd be an easy target for a sniper.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I'm going for Dynamo Kyiv. I was communicating with a Kyiv resident, having bought some crochet patterns from her. I had searched for a Ukranian seller on Etsy to support someone in Ukraine. She's now in Berlin. That's my very tenuous link to Kyiv.



Formed in 1927.

Play at Olimpiyskiy national sports complex.



Managed by Romanian Mircea Lucescu since 2020.

Squad list on Ukrainian Premier League site

Their next match is on 23rd but it's the away leg in the Champions League tie against Benfica. They're 2-0 down after the first leg which was played at the LKS Municipal Stadium in Lodz, Poland.

Their first league match is set to be a home tie against Hereford Bull's Dnipro-1 on Sunday 28th Aug at 3pm.

Find them on twitter (English account) @dynamokyiven

[Lord Snooty]

FC Oleksandriya:

Commonly known as Oleksandriya, is a Ukrainian professional football club based in the city of Oleksandriya, Kirovohrad Oblast. Founded in 1948, the club plays in the Ukrainian Premier League. The year 1948 on the club's crest depicts football heritage of the club rather than the club's foundation.

That former club was FC Shakhtar Oleksandriya, who folded in 1990 and the new club were formed in the same year, by workers at the local printing equipment plant.

In the 2015–16 Ukrainian Premier League season, FC Oleksandriya finished 6th place, earning their best achievement in the Ukrainian top flight yet and qualifying for the third qualifying round of UEFA Europa League.

The club plays its games at the Sports Complex "Nika" that was built in place of the old Shakhtar Stadium. Oleksandriya have played at the new stadium since the summer of 1998.

When the club was formed in 1990, it was still part of the Soviet Union, but from 1991 onwards, they played in the Ukranian Leagues, winning the second division in 2001, 2011 and 2015 and since that last promotion, they have been in the Premier League.

They have qualified for the Europa League three times. The first two times they were eliminated in the qualifying rounds, but in 2019/20 they were in Group I, playing Saint-Étienne, Wolfsburg and Gent.

And there's your Huddersfield Town connection. In the two games against Gent, Laurent Depoitre scored once in the game in Oleksandriya and twice in the return match in Gent.

Have a watch of that here.......

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/ma...a-vs-gent/

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/ma...exandriya/

FC Oleksandriya finished bottom of the table with three points from three draws and three defeats.

Oleksandriya has a population of 77,000, which makes it less than half the size of Huiddersfield. the most famous person from the city is Leonid Popov, the Cosmonaut, who was Commander on Soyuz 35, Soyuz 40 and Soyuz T-7.