The time of one-pole soccer has passed in this country. The struggle for the national championship between Kyiv Dynamo and Donetsk Shakhtar is now being followed by the contention for the office of chairman of the Professional Soccer League (PSL) by Oleksandr Bandurko and Ravil Safiullin. They have been debating on sport press pages for two months. Hryhory Surkis, the first and so far the only PSL leader since its inception, is known to have quit this office because he was elected chairman of the Soccer Federation of Ukraine (SFU). In an interview with our newspaper Mr. Surkis dwells on the prospects of our soccer in connection with the ongoing changes.
“Your impact on the development of Ukrainian soccer is being assessed in more than one way. However, in spite of all these differences, nobody denies the very fact of this impact. So today, with a new PSL leader to be elected in a few days, everybody looks at Surkis. It is common knowledge you would like to see Oleksandr Bandurko as PSL president. Why?”
“I want to note, first of all, the very fact of a broad debate in our soccer, triggered by the election of the new PSL leadership. I closely follow the movements of all sides. I follow these not because somebody backs one candidate and somebody else another. I am pleased that the work begun by the Professional Soccer League at the moment of its creation has yielded results. Now there are people who will continue and develop these efforts. Time has shown that we were right in principle, setting up an organization in charge of holding the national championship. In these years we have put our soccer developments in the channel of modern legal relations. It is also true that the mutual commitments of the league, clubs, players, referees, coaches, and other participants in this process have proved to be a reality, not empty sound. This could not have been the result of the efforts of Surkis alone. Hundreds of people took part in the making and development of the PSL soccer property, all fundamental decisions were made collectively, with each being able to voice his view and vote the way he wanted. But, as soon as a decision was made, we demanded that it be fulfilled unreservedly: there is a time for debates, when democracy reigns supreme, and there is a time for fulfillment, when there should be order. And I am pleased that the team that made part of the PSL worked as a closely knit body for the common result.
“There is an opinion, for some reason, that I indisputably support the candidacy of Mr. Bandurko for the post of new PSL president. Let me at once dispel these suspicions. I think both hopefuls, SFU First Vice President Oleksandr Bandurko and Shakhtar Donetsk Vice President Ravil Safiullin, have the competence and desire to work for Ukrainian soccer. But I am sure it is better to do this in direct contact with the PSL staff situated, as is known, in the capital, and not by proxy almost a thousand kilometers away. Anyway, it is club representatives, not Hryhory Surkis, who are to elect their leader.”
“You will agree that the Professional Soccer League has not yet fulfilled its main task: our soccer has not yet begun to earn money the way soccer does in the developed countries.”
“I think everyone is aware that the league itself is least of all to blame. In the conditions of a systemic crisis and economic collapse in the state, when there is shortage of funds even to satisfy the elementary needs of millions of people, it is just not serious to blame soccer for its failure to earn millions. Everybody talks about soccer earning money, but this will remain empty talk unless the economy begins to work, the country really sets in motion market mechanisms, and people have enough money not only to survive physically but also think about leisure.
“Does this mean that soccer lovers should be left to its own devices until better times come? Indeed, today only a few soccer clubs enjoy adequate financial stability. They enjoy it thanks to people who love soccer disinterestedly and invest funds in its development. These people are too few to provide a sound financial foundation to the majority of Ukraine’s soccer clubs. I have already named the causes. This will change when the crisis is over, an upsurge begins, and people come back to soccer and see a modern structure, rather than ruins, organized and functioning to meet today’s requirements. Owing to our professional soccer being organized and streamlined according to international standards, we will not lag behind the world forever but occupy later the place that Ukrainian soccer deserves. Yes, funding is today a problem for many clubs. The people are not prepared to pay money for expensive tickets, nor is television prepared to pay for broadcasting rights. This is why the burden of soccer has to be shouldered by certain more or less wealthy individuals. Do you see a different way today?”
“Behind the backs of Dynamo, Shakhtar, and some other club’s stars lies a gaping abyss; the once bountiful field of mass and children’s soccer is no longer able to provide players even for a few leading teams of this country. Are you, as the newly-elected chairman of the Soccer Federation of Ukraine, aware of this?”
“As honorary president of Kyiv Dynamo, I know the soccer reserves situation not worse but maybe even better than you. I also understand there are two interconnected trends in the process of achieving a high result. We must try to reach the peaks today, so Dynamo and other leading clubs of Ukraine will be inviting players from other countries, as is done throughout the world. Concurrently, we must restore the wide network of provincial soccer schools designed to give results in the distant future. In the next few days, the Soccer Federation of Ukraine is going to present this country’s secondary schools with 20,000 soccer balls to enable them to conduct soccer lessons. There will be more gifts, but this is in fact just a drop in the ocean. There are now insufficient government funds to qualitatively improve the work of soccer schools. One can produce resolutions and introduce soccer lessons — soon to become a mere formality — but all programs will remain on paper unless properly funded.”
“And will it be a good idea if you, an influential parliament deputy, insist on enlarging budgetary expenditure on children’s sport, including soccer?”
“At first, pensions should be paid off and raised to such a level such that the state will not feel shame for those who have sacrificed all their life to work and have now ended up in poverty.”
“No doubt, pensioners should be helped, the more so that they are the most grateful and disciplined voters. But doesn’t it seem to you that, while taking care of veterans, we are losing out on the younger generation? I hear that in one Eastern European country the majority of population have opted for increased funding of youth- oriented programs rather than for increased pensions. Children are our future, and we will raise a far from best replacement without sports, without soccer.”
“I cannot agree to this. A young individual can help himself, while the pensioner requires care. Thus the state will only have the moral right to seriously address young people’s problems after it has provided decent old-age benefits to its veterans. And while the state lacks funds, everyone must help children’s sport if he can. This is the essence of the whole ideology of our Dynamo. Dynamo school pupils, including the youngest, are the same Dynamo players as those playing in the Champions League. They wear the same uniform and train in the same places as the senior players do. We know that only a few will enter the main squad. But each of the hundreds of boys who have gone through our school course will grow up with our traditions, will stay out of the underworld, and show an example to their friends and acquaintances. I wish it were like this in every club. We should never forget that soccer is a powerful educational instrument. Our alumnus Andriy Shevchenko, an idol of all Europe, is the bearer of precisely our traditions, and I think it is symbolic that Andriy’s last name is very special for Ukraine. One of the world’s best soccer players, Shevchenko, has shown everybody that soccer can raise our country’s prestige. Each time I go to Milan I see more and more Ukrainian flags waving at the grandstands. Is this not something to be proud of?”
“Further dwelling on patriotism, I want to turn to you as to the Soccer Federation of Ukraine head. One way or another, the PSL will elect its head, the champion will win its title, and Shevchenko will score his twenty goals in Italy. But there is one thing that unites all of us — the national team of Ukraine. Our flag has never been raised in the outside world and European finals. What are you doing today to enable Ukraine to get to the 2002 world finals and make a high-profile performance there?”
“It will be too little to say that we work with our sleeves rolled up. Successful performance in the elimination tournament and qualifying for the finals is in fact our main objective. I will wish nobody had to live through what I did when, after my election as soccer federation president, the Ukrainian national team lost the very first match to the Poles. I had the sensation of bitter injustice: why, of all times, now when we have done all we could? But this is soccer; nothing can be done. But I felt no despair or inconsolability. I knew the team worked in the right direction. I used the word ‘team’ not only with reference to the players who are and will be going out on the pitch, with Ukrainian national jerseys on. I apply the word team to all those who work for the success of Ukrainian soccer, all those who are raising its level in such hard economic conditions. I do believe that the desire to see Ukraine in the world finals will unite all of us, arguments will serve the search for the truth, fair competition will really identify the best, and all of us will eventually scale that height. Ukraine must go through the qualification tournament in full compliance with the SFU’s current slogan, Our Aim Is 2002, We have all we need, all we have to do is to be a single team.”
