– Have any decisions against the Youth League of Ukraine made?
-Yes, there was an idea that has been considered for many years, and now we have finalized the concept proposed by the UAF for the creation of the U-19 National League, which will be open and accessible to all football entities that develop this direction and have academies, the U-19 team or the opportunity to create it.
We canceled the binding of such a league to the UPL, which was a deterrent to the development of football players. Because of which we lost competitiveness, we got many passing matches. We wanted to remove it and we managed to convince the clubs that this is the right way. After all, our main goal is to develop young football players for both clubs and national teams.
-That is, in order to declare the team in the National U-19 Championship you do not have to have the first team in UPL?
-Any private school, communal or state-owned school, which has its own DUFL teams and produces, relatively speaking, 11th grade players and has the desire to form a U-19 team, can take part in the National League. Go through the U-19 regional league and join the best on a sports basis. Some teams will be fired, some will join, it will be an open ecosystem. The most important thing is to make this league competitive and turn into a quality product.
Instead, we received a counter-offer from clubs to restore the U-21 championship and we, as UAF, supported this initiative. This will allow you to keep some of the players in football, which may not be fully manifested in the U-19 tournament or will give players players who take shape after injury or have not taken time to match the main team match. This tournament should harmoniously complement the entire ecosystem of competitions.
Source: Sport.ua