3000 Participants for Football Week in UKRAINE

Seventeen Ukrainian regions hosted different local football activities including training sessions, seminars, local tournaments, which were all officially included into the All-Ukrainian Football Day calendar of the national federation. “Our mission is to support all football activities in Ukraine," said Boris Voskresenskiy, Vice-President of the Ukrainian Football Federation. "So it is my pleasure to encourage all our regional structures to assist locally during the Special Olympics European Football Week.”   

Regional unified football tournaments were organized in the country's four major cities (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv), and teams from neighboring districts took part.

The Ukrainian Prime League teams F.C. “Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk", F.C. “Metalist Kharkiv, “Nyva, Vinnytsya and “Karpaty-2, Lviv" promoted their club support to Special Olympics during half time of their leagues matches.  Special Olympics teams were invited and awarded in front of thousands spectators.  The visibility Special Olympics received from these highlights takes the program a step forward in promotional efforts accross the country.

The final event will held on May 12-13, 2009 on the excellent grass pitches of Vinnytsya were 15 teams are invited to participate in a 7-a-side National Tournament.

The record participation was made possible thanks to the support of the Ukrainian Football Federation, of Coca-Cola Ukraine, of the Lions Club Ukraine, and of Kyiv-Star GSM.

Photo: Participants in the tournament in Kiev on April 25, 2009. (Photo courtesy of Special Olympics Ukraine)