Andriy Shevchenko was woken up in the middle of the night on February 24, 2022 at his home in London by a phone call from his mother. “Andrew, it has begun.” His first reaction was to get to Kyiv and take his mother and sister out of there.
But none of them wanted to leave the country, and the mother insisted that Andrii bring more benefit from abroad. Using his position and connections, he began to raise money and draw attention to the situation in Ukraine.
– I want to thank the Swedish people and the government for supporting us in this situation, – says Sheva, punctually entering the video call from home.
Andriy Shevchenko – the most outstanding football player of Ukraine of all time. He has also been the head of the country’s football federation for two years. Currently, he divides his time between London and Kyiv – the city where his own football career both began and ended.
When employees of the Football Federation of Ukraine come to the office, generators often have to be started due to power outages. Some airstrikes last twelve hours.
– Sometimes people stayed up all night. We start by updating information on where the bombings took place, who lives there, and what the circumstances are. While preparing for one of our matches the house of one of our players was bombed but luckily everyone survived. These are the things we deal with every day.
With the exception of a few months of pause after the start of the war, Ukrainian football is functioning, albeit with difficulties. The national teams – women’s and men’s – continue to perform, also at the youth level. The men’s futsal team won bronze at the World Cup last year, and the federation recently launched two new amateur leagues.
Matches have to be abandoned almost every weekend when air raid alarms sound, and stadiums can only hold as many spectators as the nearest shelters can fit. Security measures are strict.
Source: sport.ua