The president of Ukraine’s football federation says Kyiv is planning to resume competitive football in the country in August despite being under attack by Russia.
Andriy Pavelko told the Associated Press news agency that the Ukrainian president has approved the decision.
“I spoke with our president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, about how important football is to distract,” Pavelko said in Cardiff.
“We spoke about how football has a very big power to help people think about the future because now people, of course, are not in a good mindset. They’re in the worst mood. We spoke about how it would be possible that football could help us to think about the future.”
That is a future with players being able to take to the field again in Ukraine to provide uplifting sports moments of joy.
“So we took the decision with the president that we would resume the Ukrainian championship in August,” Pavelko said through a translator. “In Ukraine we will play on every level. So the Premier League, and the first and second professional divisions, and women’s championship.
“At all levels we will start in August. The decision was taken with the president of Ukraine.”
