Valeriy Zolotukhin: “The issue of reforming competitions in the DUFL should be considered to the smallest”

07.09.2018 13:31

Photo www.facebook.com/duflukraine

One of the leaders of the FFU Children's and Youth Football Committee and Vice President of the Children's and Youth Football League Valeriy Zolotukhin spoke about the start of the new Ukrainian league in DUFL, the creation of elite leagues and system changes that await the country's youth football in the near future.

— Valery Vasilyevich starts the new DUFL Championship. What will we see in this season?

- Indeed, after the beginning of the school year, our new Ukrainian championship in DUFL will start. The first matches of the top league teams will take place on September 8, and the first league will start on the 9th. The season for U-12 teams of the first league will also start on the 19th.

After coming to the post of FFU President Andriy Pavel, DUFL systematically monitors and analyzes each season. This year, after analyzing the past seasons, we are on the verge of quite serious reform decisions. These reforms will be to build the entire competitive process of Ukraine's youth football.

The DUFL Executive Committee recently supported the creation of an elite league. It will be a combination of the best children's and youth clubs into one competitive pool. To date, one of the problems in this regard is the distance to move teams. But the practice of last season, when one group was created, which, in our opinion, was the strongest (it included, in particular, the academies "Dynamo", "Shakhtar", "Dnipro", "Chernomorets", Zaporozhye "Metallurg", without participation Western region), confirmed that it was in strong groups that we got the best result, including for training guys for the national teams of Ukraine of different ages. We are convinced that creating a single pool, where the strong would play with the strong, is a pressing issue.

As for the upcoming season of the DUFLU championship, we formed the second group on the same principle, in which Poltava's Vorskla joined the company of the strong, winning the third group. We also conducted small castings on other groups, but they were insignificant.

In the DUFLU Premier League, the teams U-17 (born in 2002), U-16 (born in 2003), U-15 (born in 2004), U-14 (born in 2005) are playing here this season. newcomers from the first league - "Desna" Chernihiv (group 1), "Lokomotiv" Kyiv (group 2), CYSS-1 "Kryvbas-84" Kryvyi Rih (group 3) and "Podillya" Khmelnytsky (group 4). First, the teams will play each other in two rounds, and then, as last season, the four best teams from each group in the playoffs will play tickets to the final tournament. Representatives of groups 1-4 and 2-3 will play among themselves. The last clubs from each group should go down in the class, but this will finally be known only after the approval of the structure of the next championship.

In the first league of DUFL, where, let us remind you, clubs play in teams in two age categories (U-15 and U-17), this season they formed not eight, but nine groups, increasing the number of participants by 10 teams. It has been previously decided that the top eight group winners in the playoffs will compete for four tickets to the final tournament.

As for the U-19 Junior League tournament, the top two teams from each group in the playoffs will identify four participants in the final tournament.

Thus, in my opinion, formed in the higher leagues of the group before the creation of the elite league at the moment, meet all the requirements of the transition phase.

— Howі тtechnical points to pay attention to this season?

- In some age categories the duration of the match has changed. This season, DUFLU U-17 teams will play 90 minutes, U-16 - 80, and U-15 and U-14 - 70 each. During the match, teams of all ages can make seven substitutions, you can make up to 20 players.

The matches for U-16 and U-14 start at 12.00, U-15 - 14.00, U-17 - 14.30.

The places of teams in the table are determined by the following indicators: the number of points, the largest number of victories. If these indicators are equal, then the indicators in personal meetings are taken into account: points, victories, goal difference, number of goals scored. If after that it is not possible to determine the places of the teams, then the indicators in all matches are taken into account: the goal difference, the largest number of goals scored, the points for the cards (yellow - 1, red - 3) and the draw.

— What is planned reform in the DUFL Championship?

- Reform is extremely important and necessary. What do we mean by reform? The elite league, in our opinion, should consist of two groups of eight teams. One - Central and Western regions, the other - Central, Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine. One of the requirements for clubs in the elite league will be compliance with the regulations in terms of certification of children's and youth institutions. We have regulations and requirements for UPL and PFL teams. Clubs playing in the DUFL elite league must receive the same certificate. First of all it concerns infrastructure that teams had fields of the standard sizes of good quality, locker rooms, showers with warm water. These requirements will be included in the regulations of attestation of children's and youth institutions. From next season, teams will have to meet the requirements of these regulations, which will not be too difficult to implement. It will be simple and accessible to all teams.

The second document in this reform will be the regulations themselves. If we talk about the structure of the reformed competitions, then in the elite league there will be 16 clubs (two groups of eight teams on a territorial basis), in the major league there will be four groups of 10 teams. Here the main emphasis will be on the territorial principle, so that the teams, going to away matches, do not cover too long distances. In the first league there will be eight groups of 10 clubs. The first league plays in two age categories (U-15 and U-17), the highest - four (U-14, U-15, U-16, U-17).

— How do clubs react to such systemic changes? Are they ready for reform?

- The issue of reforming competitions in the DUFL should be thought out to the smallest detail. First, a project will be created that will be studied by the clubs themselves. Nobody will reform in the open and break through the knee. Therefore, a working group was formed, which included leading experts in children's and youth football. We are preparing all proposals for reforming the system by mid-October, but we will not implement them until we have studied the views of clubs participating in competitions and regional federations.

By the way, the idea of ​​reforms and systemic changes received support from UEFA expert Roger Meichtry, who visited the tournament "Crimea is Ukraine". He praised the idea and said that not even all the leading European football countries have elite leagues where the strong and the strong play.

DUFLOW-2018/2019

Major league. Composition of participants

(4 groups, 4 age categories)

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Total: 160 teams

First League. Composition of participants

 (9 groups, 2 age categories)

Total: 184 teams

Juniors U-19. P.rush league. Composition of participants

Total: 37 teams