Andriy Pavelko: "We will not carry out reforms - we will lose the next football generation"
The President of the Football Federation of Ukraine at a briefing following a regular meeting of the FFU Executive Committee, which took place on July 15 at the Football House, answered questions from journalists and spoke about the key decisions of the Executive Committee.
At the beginning of his conversation with the media, the FFU President expressed his condolences in connection with the terrorist attack that took place in Nice on Thursday. "The whole world is now united in the fight against terrorism, and the Ukrainian people and the football community of our country join in the words of grief," said Andriy Pavelko.
Shevchenko's courage
According to the FFU president, members of the Executive Committee unanimously supported the candidacy Andriy Shevchenko to the position of head coach of the national team, and Myron Markevich - as chairman of the Committee of national teams. "I think that each member of the Executive Committee thought a lot before casting his vote for Andriy Shevchenko's candidacy. Myron Markevich also expressed his opinion on the future appointment of Andriy Mykolayovych. And it is his vision of the further development of the main team of the country and became for me personally to some extent decisive. There were also warnings, but I think the 34 members of the Executive Committee who voted for Andriy Shevchenko today and are experts in various fields cannot be accused of wanting to please or employ someone. Personally, today I really wanted everyone who voted to make this decision with their minds and hearts. If the decision was not made, the question of other candidates would be raised in the near future. But Shevchenko's confidence and willingness to take responsibility played a role. The decision to appoint a new head coach has been discussed for a long time, but it was made very carefully, "said the FFU president.
As for the terms of contracts with the new head coach and his assistants, the agreements will be signed under the "2 + 2" scheme. Exactly two years later, the FFU Executive Committee, assessing the results and prospects of the national team, will decide on their extension.
"We understand how important the experience of the leading football powers is, and I am sure that we did not make a mistake with the choice," said the FFU president, commenting on the appointment of Andriy Shevchenko's aides Raul Riancho, Mauro Tassotti and Andrea Mulder. "The synergy of these specialists will be aimed at achieving results by the main team of the country."
A clear plan is the key to success
The FFU president spoke in detail about the reforms that are already being introduced in Ukrainian football. "After the unsatisfactory performance at the Euro, we must admit that all previous efforts to develop Ukrainian football are clearly insufficient and require serious consideration. We must honestly say to ourselves: if we do not do the necessary reforms now, we risk losing the next generation of football. We need to organize and develop a single plan for the development of our football for the coming years. We cannot live without a further plan of action, solving only situational tasks. In this regard, on my initiative, the Executive Committee approved the establishment of the Committee for Strategic Development of Football within the Federation. Its main goals are a comprehensive analysis of all processes taking place in world and Ukrainian football, development of recommendations in all areas and the creation of mechanisms for implementing programs in cooperation with each of our departments.
The priority task of the Committee is to develop the provisions of the Infrastructure Strategy 2020 and the Strategy for the Development of Ukrainian Football until 2030, which will be aimed at educating a new generation of Ukrainian football players ready to solve high tournament tasks. "
The newly formed committee was headed by Andriy Pavelko. According to him, both the best domestic specialists and specialists from abroad will be invited to cooperate on the Marshall Plan for Ukrainian football. The program itself will correspond to the Ukrainian realities, although it will use the experience of countries that have already passed this stage and had a high efficiency of such developments.
The way to success is to improve infrastructure
Another step on the way to reforming Ukrainian football was the decision needed to implement it project for the construction of a plant for the production of artificial fields in Ukraine. As a partner, the Executive Committee has chosen the German company Politan - one of the world leaders in its field, which has the status of "FIFA's premier partner". "A few days ago, a presentation of this company took place in the Football House," said Andriy Pavelko. - "Politan" will install and adjust our most modern equipment. The plant itself will appear in Boryspil district of Kyiv region and will start production at the beginning of next year. The Football Federation of Ukraine will be the first in the world to have its own plant for the production of artificial turf for football fields. Thanks to this plant, the FFU-2020 Development Strategy initiated by me at the congress will be implemented, which aims to build 50 stadiums and 2 football fields in Ukraine, ”Andriy Pavelko said.
Fight for "Arena Lviv"
The FFU president did not ignore the problem with the disqualification of Ukrainian stadiums. According to Andriy Pavelko, the Federation continues to work to return Arena Lviv to the list of stadiums where the national team can play its matches.
Instead, Odessa will see the Ukrainian national team again in the new qualifying round. According to Andriy Pavelko, our team will play a home match against Finland at Chornomorets Stadium.
The new Federation has a new logo
One of the important decisions of the Executive Committee, according to Andriy Pavelko, was the approval of the new logo of the Football Federation of Ukraine, within the rebranding, which was carried out with the support of UEFA and aims to improve visualization and create a brand book FFU. The sketch of the logo was presented at the last Congress, but since the Euro-2016 Football Federation of Ukraine was announced with the old emblem, its implementation was postponed to the summer.
