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

On Friday, June 11, the Ukrainian football federation said that it had reached "a compromise" with UEFA on its national team jerseys, which have a slogan deemed "political" by the European body, against the backdrop of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

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

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

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

History of the Ukrainian crisis

Notably, the 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 the deaths of 13,000 people and is currently at a stalemate.

What is the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?

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

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

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

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

Ukraine's new UEFA jersey slogans irk Russia

The news has for obvious reasons upset Russia and has taken up the issue officially by filing a complaint with UEFA-the organisation that runs the games. Notably, UEFA doesn't allow jerseys that "offend common decency or transmit political, religious or racial messages". 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 the slogans to Nazi calling the jerseys "desperate" and "illegal".

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

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

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

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