Published 09:33 IST, June 14th 2021

Ukraine, UEFA reach compromise in Championship Jersey row; League's decision irks Russia

UEFA's governing body reached a compromise with Russia & Ukraine over the latter's induction of new jerseys in the new national team ahead of the championships.

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Ukraine Association of Football Andrii Pavel Pavelko/Facebook/@interpolusa/Twitter/AP | Image: self
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On Friday, June 11, Ukrainian football federation said that it had reached "a compromise" with UEFA on its national team jerseys, which have a slogan deemed "political" by European body, against backdrop of Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

After seven years of war, conflict between Ukraine and Russia is manifesting in new ways-on one of jerseys worn by Ukrainian football players in Euro Cup- sport's second-biggest event after World Cup. 

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" negotiations" were "extremely difficult and ended in deadlock on several occasions", but "we still mand to reach a compromise with UEFA," wrote Andriy Pavelko, head of Ukraine's Football Association (UAF) on Facebook.

slogan "Glory to Heroes" will be part of a new element added to interior of jersey, he said, hinting that phrase will be removed from its original placement at collar.

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History of Ukrainian crisis

tably, Ukrainian conflict started in 2014, when a revolution forced out Ukraine's pro-Russian President. Russia took over Crimea-part of Ukraine, leading to armed separatists taking over part of eastern Ukraine, sparking a full-fledged war that resulted in deaths of 13,000 people and is currently at a stalemate.

What is conflict between Ukraine and Russia?

Relations between two countries deteriorated after 2014 Ukrainian revolution, followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and over Russia's backing for separatists' fighters of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.

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However, last week, in lead up to UEFA Euro Cup's Friday kickoff, Ukraine unveiled new jerseys that showed a map of Ukraine, including Crimea and occupied eastern region. It has two Ukrainian slogans used as anti-Russian nationalist chants: "Glory to Ukraine!" and "Glory to heroes!"

In wake of controversy, Ukraine's President addressed a press briefing where he stated that jersey is "t like ors" and contains "many important symbols that unify Ukrainian people".

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head coach of Ukrainian football team in same press meet opined that "Ukraine's silhouette will give strength to players because y will fight for all of Ukraine".

Ukraine's new UEFA jersey slogans irk Russia

news has for obvious reasons upset Russia and has taken up issue officially by filing a complaint with UEFA- organisation that runs games. tably, UEFA doesn't allow jerseys that "offend common decency or transmit political, religious or racial messs". As a result of its complaint, UEFA explained to Ukraine's officials in Russia, which is hosting seven Euro Cup games back-to-back, comparing slogans to Nazi calling jerseys "desperate" and "illegal".

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A Russian government spokesperson who commented on incident revealed that y were pushing for organisation to change slogan to "Become sporting heroes and you will have glory," she said, adding that it will remove unnecessary nationalist sentiments.

This new controversy is setting st for resurgence of conflict as on Wednesday, June 9, US got involved with its Ukrainian embassy and shared a tweet (which has w been deleted), "Love new look. Glory to Ukraine! #CrimeaisUkraine ".

UEFA ordered Ukraine to remove one of slogans, which had been stitched on inside collar with a mess that read "This specific combination of two slogans is deemed to be clearly political in nature, having historic and militaristic significance." However, it allowed map of Ukraine to remain on jersey as most countries according to UEFA, already recognised Crimea as part of Ukraine. 

Ukraine has w re-appealed with UEFA with a request to reconsider letting team play games with new jersey. Regardless of what happens, jerseys' purpose was to fire up Ukrainian players to "fight for Ukraine" and rekindle emotions and weight behind movement, which it did.

09:26 IST, June 14th 2021