Ukrainian football league continues despite blackouts and missile attacks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Crowd sizes at football matches in Ukraine are determined by the capacity of the nearest bomb shelter.

For the first time since the full-scale war began in 2022, the Ukrainian Premier League is holding a full season with fans in attendance due to the easing of martial law bans on public gatherings.

Despite the constant threat of air raids, Dynamo Kyiv fans are eagerly snapping up the 1,700 tickets available for every home match at the 16,000-seat Valeriy Lobanovskyi Stadium. Many fans want a rare moment of calm away from the country’s traditionally intense sporting rivalries.

The war forced Dynamo to move its home matches in the Europa League to Hamburg, Germany, while it uses its own stadium in Kiev for domestic league matches.

Vitalii Kozubra brought his 9-year-old son Makar to watch title contenders Dynamo play Zorya Luhansk, a club displaced by Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine.

Drawing attention to the friendly atmosphere in the stadium, where Zorya fans mingled with the local people, Kozubra said, “Even though the war is going on, this is something people can enjoy together.”

Makar was amazed at the difference between watching a game in person and on television.

As 22 players wrapped in yellow-blue Ukrainian flags walked onto the field, the crowd, including soldiers and families with children, erupted in applause.

The stadium was alive with the players’ efforts and the sound of the ball. Children ran to the touchline to get the signatures of several foreign players from Brazil, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Panama who chose to stay despite the war.

Zorya was not booed even once.

Sirens and shelters

Ukraine’s 16-team top-flight league has managed to continue despite increasing difficulties. Matches will be played in the early afternoon due to frequent power outages and the logistical difficulties of traveling in Europe’s second largest country during wartime.

When air raid sirens interrupt play, sometimes for hours, and alarms blare from loudspeakers and thousands of cell phones, players and fans alike head for shelter.

“This season, we were lucky that there were no weather alerts during our home matches in Kiev,” Dynamo club spokesman Andrii Shakhov said. “But it’s different for away games… Our longest game lasted 4½ hours due to four weather alerts.”

Ukrainian football players will be subject to the draft at the age of 25, but clubs will be able to apply for exemption under trade protection rules. Two teams are now playing permanently outside their home grounds due to war, amid wider disruption, while two other teams withdrew after fighting broke out over damage to the stadium.

The country’s football tradition dates back to its Soviet past, when it was a football powerhouse producing top-level players and coaches. During the 1980s, fan movements became expressions of Ukrainian identity, often challenging Soviet authority.

After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, football remained a source of national pride despite years of political and financial turmoil. Ukraine reached the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup and hosted the 2012 European Championship.

Competition put aside

Domestically, fan groups have put aside bitter rivalries for more than a decade since they came together to support protesters during deadly 2013-2014 uprisings against Russian influence. They then organized military recruitment campaigns to fight in subsequent wars.

“Dexter”, a red-bearded Dynamo supporter and civilian contractor for the military, explained why the ceasefire between rival fan groups still stands.

“This was necessary because we had to unite against the common enemy. “These internal conflicts became obsolete when people from rival fan groups started fighting together in the same military units,” he said, walking his dog along the banks of the Dnipro River.

He added that fan organizations were involved in nearly every aspect of the war effort, from active combat duty to fundraising, veterans support and providing the military with technical skills such as computer programming.

He and others who served in or worked with the armed forces spoke on the condition that they be identified only by their call signs, in accordance with Ukrainian military protocol.

Dynamo officials estimate that more than 80% of its pre-2022 fan base is currently serving on the front lines in eastern Ukraine or performing other military duties.

Football fans in the foreground

Eight hours east of Kiev, in the Kharkiv region on the Russian border, soldiers from the 3rd Assault Brigade played a match on a field near bombed buildings. Many of these fighters were recruited through football-related channels and acquaintances.

“Organized fans play a big role in this war because they are highly motivated,” said a currently serving Dynamo supporter with the call sign “Shtahet”.

War doctor “Poltava” noted that football remains a vital morale booster.

“We get together whenever possible and rent places to play,” he said. “There’s not much entertainment here, so football is our only entertainment.”

In Kiev, Dynamo fan “Escobar” was grateful to watch a game while on leave at home before returning to the front.

“This is football, this is a game,” said the soldier in uniform and camouflage hat after Dinamo’s 2-0 win over Zorya. “There are no hard feelings between the teams and it’s great to see such a friendly atmosphere.”

Vitaliy Buyalskyi and Maksym Braharu scored goals for Dinamo in the second half, and although Zorya players looked sad as they left the field, they received applause from the fans.

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Dmytro Zhyhinas and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed from Kiev.

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