The newly created association to take care of the development of eFootball in Ukraine

15.06.2020 21:02

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Cyber ​​football is a new trend and a promising area of ​​activity of the European Football Union, which is developing rapidly and already has its supporters around the world. Interest in virtual football is gaining momentum in Ukraine as well. That is why the logical consequence of its rapid popularization was the creation of a national e-football association.

At the XXIII Congress of the Ukrainian Association of Football, the new organization received the status of a collective member of the UAF. Its president Vladyslav Shovkovskyi voiced the goals and objectives of the structure.

"Given the current trends in the interests of the younger generation to spend their leisure time online, the main mission of our organization is to use e-football to stimulate and develop the interest of young Ukrainians in traditional football, create competition in digital entertainment and other e-sports disciplines, which are the reason for the transition of people from real sports to virtual.

Cyber ​​football is an opportunity for people to enjoy football, feel like a football player, coach or sports director of the club and learn about almost all aspects of football life.

People who like cyber football also love big football. They just need to be helped to join our big football family, ”said the head of the newly formed association.

It should be noted that the time of the beginning of large-scale development of e-football should be considered 2019, when UEFA announced the first European e-football championship - eEURO-2020 in the discipline of PES. All UEFA member associations were invited to participate in the newly created tournament, and the championship itself was to be held in parallel with Euro 2020.

In accordance with European experience, UAF has made a historic decision to create the first cyber football team in Ukraine. In the autumn of 2019, following the results of the national selection, a team was formed, which soon took part in the eEURO-2020 qualifying round, taking third place in the group. However, despite not reaching the finals of the continental championship, the new team continued to play friendly matches and took part in various friendly tournaments, in particular - reached the semifinals of the international tournament European Nations Cup.

The holding of regular cyber football events (both online and offline) in the first half of 2020 with the support of the UAF and the great interest in them on the part of the Ukrainian virtual community testify to the large-scale prospects for the development of the e-football project in the near future.