Kyiv, Ukraine –
With two sides playing in an empty stadium hundreds of kilometers from their hometowns, the Ukrainian football league kicked off the new season on Tuesday after a poignant ceremony honoring combatants in the war with Russia.
In the opening match at Kyiv’s 65,500-seat Olympic Stadium, which was closed to spectators, two sides from the country’s war-torn east, Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist 1925, drew 0-0. However, the result was always an afterthought.
It was the first top-flight football match played in the country since February’s Russian invasion, and the decision to restart the league was hailed as a defiant sign that Ukrainians are ready to restore some measure of normality. Although this game felt anything but normal.
Martial law remains in force in Ukraine and large public gatherings have been banned in the capital ahead of the Independence Day holiday on Wednesday amid fears of a possible Russian bombardment.
Police stood guard outside the turnstiles, where weeds have grown after the stadiums were closed six months ago, but no fans showed up in the arena. Three more league games were scheduled for later Tuesday.
“It’s work… to show the world that life in Ukraine doesn’t stop, it goes on,” said Shakhtar coach Igor Jovicevic ahead of the opening game. “Football is something that can move the emotions of the whole country and the people who are fighting for all of us. So football is vital for us personally, as a team, not only for Shakhtar but also for the whole Ukrainian Premier League. It helps to live on and shows the world that football goes on.”
Players from both teams took to the field with blue and yellow Ukrainian national flags over their shoulders and observed a minute’s silence while the names of Ukrainian cities where people had died in the war were displayed on a large screen.
Players raised a Ukrainian flag at the stadium, which was once owned by Danylo Myhal, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Myhal ran onto the field with the flag during a game between the Soviet Union and East Germany. He was wearing an embroidered shirt and dancing a Ukrainian folk dance before being arrested.
“(Myhal) always dreamed of bringing his flag to Ukraine and today it finally happened,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a televised address before kick-off. “It will be raised today at the opening of the Ukrainian football championship.”