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Ukraine Football
Ukraine Culture: Ukraine Football
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Ukraine National Team
Despite developing a collection of inspirational and talented individuals (Andriy Shevchenko was voted the European Footballer of the Year in 2004 during his spell with Milan), the Ukraine national team as a collective have fared less well since its inception almost 19 years ago following the break-up of the former Soviet Union.
The side featuring the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Sergei Rebrov and Andriy Husin has over the past two decades only qualified for one major tournament, reaching the quarter-finals at Germany 2006 before losing to eventual champions Italy.
Ukraine missed out on qualifying for the 1998 and 2002 World Cup finals following playoff defeats to Croatia and Germany, respectively, and also failed to qualify for South Africa 2010 after another playoff defeat, this time to Greece.
Currently ranked 34th in Fifa's world rankings, Euro 2012 will be the first continental championships for the tournament's co-hosts.
Ukrainian Premier League
The 16-team Ukrainian Premier League, ranked the eighth strongest league in Europe according to UEFA, is notable for having its longest break mid-season rather than at the end.
Having been operating in its current, more independent guise since 2008 (after replacing the 1991-founded Supreme League), the Premier League starts in mid-July but doesn't complete its 30 rounds of home-and-away matches until mid-June following a remarkable three-month winter break.
Therefore, with the participants away from match day action from early December to early March, the winter break is significantly longer than the interval between seasons.
At the end of the marathon season, the bottom two Premier League clubs are relegated to the first division (organised by the Professional Football League, there is also a second division below that) and replaced by the two top clubs from the lower league.
In a bid to protect homegrown talent, the Football Federation of Ukraine (the operators of the Premier League) have also capped overseas players, much to the disgruntlement of heavyweights Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk (see below).
The Premier League is run in conjunction with the Ukrainian Cup and Ukrainian Super Cup.
Domestic Giants
However, the overwhelming domestic giants have enjoyed precious little Champions League success since reaching the quarter-finals and the semi-finals in 1998 and 1999.
Dynamo and fellow title hunters Shakhtar Donetsk - the reigning Premier League champions - put a large share of this European failure down to the domestic quota enforced on foreigners (see above).
However, Shakhtar, who play at the newly built 50,000-capacity Donbass Arena, which was completed in 2009 in readiness for Euro 2012, did win the 2009 UEFA Cup, the club's first European trophy, after beating Dynamo in an all-Ukraine semi-final over two legs.
What's more, the five-time Ukrainian league champions are still in the 2010-11 Champions League draw and face a two-legged knockout game against Roma after topping Group H ahead of Arsenal.
As well as that UEFA Cup meeting between the two powerhouses, the pair famously met in the only "golden match" playoff to decide the 2005-06 Premier League title. After finishing jointly on 75 points, Dynamo and Shakhtar fought a one-off championship decider, which the latter won 2-1 after extra time.
The Future
The league is gradually gaining in credibility since its recent revamp under the auspices of the FFU, a move that has garnered increased media and corporate sponsorship support.
But with Dynamo and Shakhtar rarely pushed close for the title by the other 14 clubs, the unwanted duopoly is showing little sign of ending (at the winter break, Shakhtar are 12 points ahead of second-placed Dynamo).
However, the Ukraine national team is fed by a reasonably steady flow of well-schooled under-21 talent, and home advantage could certainly reap dividends for the seniors in 18 months time.
Marc Fox
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