Dynamo's New Quest for Champion Cup Begins on July 28
Lots were drawn on June 30 in Geneva, Switzerland, for the 1999-2000
soccer League of Champions and UEFA Cup. Our teams will open their European
cup season on July 28 when Kyiv Dynamo hosts a Champions League second-leg
qualifying match against the winner of the game between Zalgiris (Vilnius,
Lithuania) and Cement (Erevan, Armenia). The return away match will be
held on August 4. In UEFA Cup qualifiers on August 12 and 26, Kryvbas (Kryvy
Rih) will meet Chamkir (Azerbaijan), while Shakhtar (Donetsk) will battle
Silex (Macedonia). Both Ukrainian teams are playing first matches at home.
Lviv Karpaty will start playing in the first leg of the UEFA Cup main tournament,
The Day's Kyrylo STADNYCHENKO reports.
Do Ukrainian Sportswriters Now Have Their Association?
It is even strange: sportswriters as a rule are quick on the uptake
but have failed so far to organize a professional association of their
own. To be more exact, a federation was set up, but there are no legal
documents confirming its right to exist. Hence delegates to its founding
congress, who arrived from all regions of Ukraine, devoted so much time
to problems of the structural organization as well as of its membership
in various sports organizations, including AIPS. Mykhailo Volobuyev, head
of the press center at the Olympic Sport Club and staff correspondent of
the newspaper Sport-Ekspress in Ukraine, was elected president of the association.
What is now to be done is to go further, reports The Day's Oleksandr
HONCHARUK.
Andriy Shevchenko Now Playing for Milano
On the night of July 1, Kyiv Dynamo and Italy's Milano signed a contract
transferring Dynamo's and Ukrainian national's major bombardier Andriy
Shevchenko. Dynamo's web-site (www.dynamo.kiev.ua.) mentions US $25 million
as the price for a five year contract. Starting July 1, 1999, Andriy Shevchenko
began training for the new soccer season with Milano. When asked to comment
on the contract, Mr. Shevchenko started by thanking Dynamo members in general
and coaches in particular for taking into consideration his personal wishes.
He had on more than one occasion stated he wanted to play for Milano and
now he was fully equipped to prove that Ukrainian soccer players could
become European stars. Andriy Shevchenko's official presentation as a Milano
player took place on July 2. He will be shortly presented with a T-shirt
bearing the club's logo and his personal number, reports The Day's
Kyrylo STADNYCHENKO.
