FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Ukraine head coach Oleksandr Petrakov says he’s too outdated to fight at the entrance line however remains to be attempting to help his nation in differently.
Soccer, he believes, can play its phase within the effort to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine’s soccer federation is having a look forward to a time when the warfare is over and the Russian invasion has been repelled. This week it introduced it could sign up for Spain and Portugal’s bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
On Sunday Petrakov was once in Frankfurt for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw – however he admits he can’t suppose what lifestyles will probably be like by the point the match kicks off in Germany.
Ending the warfare – somewhat than qualification – is his precedence, however he nonetheless wants to use football to carry the morale of the ones combating for Ukraine.
“We have a connection with the guys on the front line because they send messages to the players,” stated Petrakov. “We feel they need our victory … it is important for everybody to raise the spirits.”
Petrakov is 65 years outdated so he was once unfastened to go away Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February. But he selected to stay in his fatherland in conjunction with his circle of relatives.
“I cannot be in the military because of my age and I don’t have any special skills, but still I stay in Ukraine,” he stated. “We live our lives day by day. Any day you never know what could happen because the people who are against us could do anything. Every day many people die in our country, it is hard to say what it will be like in 2024. I cannot predict.”
On the football box, Ukraine has a hard activity qualifying for Germany after being drawn in the similar crew as Euro 2020 finalists Italy and England. North Macedonia and Malta also are within the crew.
Ukraine, which overlooked out at the upcoming World Cup when it was once defeated through Wales within the playoffs, will most likely have to play its house video games at a impartial venue due to the warfare. It has been enjoying in Poland because the invasion.
“For my guys it is difficult,” Petrakov stated. “They don’t see their households. They need to end the warfare once imaginable and play in entrance of our fanatics in Kyiv, Lviv, possibly Kharkiv, we don’t know.
“It is more important to finish the war and stop killing people. That is most important for us.”
Russia has been banned from competing through FIFA and UEFA and Petrakov insists the sanctions will have to proceed.
“We have said before, ‘How can they compete when their military kill our children, kill our women and kill our men?’” he stated. “The laws make a decision that they can’t compete when they’re appearing like this.
“We have already said it, we are totally against it, so we hope it will not be allowed till the end of the war. Russians have supported Putin and they have shown it clearly, so it is not possible.”
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