UKRAINE FOOTBALL FEDERATION

After Ukraine gained independence from the USSR in December 1991, The Football Federation of Ukraine was founded and FFU clubs split from the USSR Championship. The first domestic title holders were Tavriya Simferopol.

Most Ukrainian success in European club competition has come through Dynamo Kiev, who won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 and have reached the quarter- and semi-finals of the Champions League on several occasions.

The national side are yet to make the World Cup or European Championship finals, having fallen at the play-off stage in 1997, 1999, and 2001.  

Founded

 13.12.1991

Pro players

 1,608

Amt players

 175,813

Yth players

 831,105

FIFA  ranking

 77 (July 04)

Coach

 Oleg Blokhin


Oleg Blokhin

Recent matches v England

Date

Venue

Comp

Score

31 May 00

Wembley

F

2-0


F = Friendly

Star Players

Andrei Shevchenko, 27, scored 100 goals for Dynamo Kiev before AC Milan signed him in 1999. Ukraine’s "golden boy" scored 24 goals in 30 "Serie A" matches in his first season in Italy and slotted home the decisive shoot-out penalty in the 2003 Champions League Final against Juventus. Andrei’s favourite actress is Julia Roberts

Sergei Rebrov, 30, is another legend in Ukraine, never really make his mark whilst at Tottenham Hotspur having joined the north London club from Dynamo Kiev for a huge fee in 2000. After scoring just ten League goals in his first two seasons, Rebrov went out to Turkish club Fenerbahce on loan before joining West Ham Utd this summer.

Legend

Oleg Blokhin - A striker, he scored 39 goals in 109 appearances for the USSR national team and was voted "European Footballer of the Year" in 1975. He won 8 USSR national championships and 2 European cup winners' cups with Dynamo Kiev and was 5 times Soviet National League Player of the Year. He made three apearances against England in 1973, 1984 and 1986 but failed to score. 

Insider's view
Oleg Taraday (National Team Administrator): "Oleg Blokhin has been our coach since the beginning of October. It is still too early to comment on the job he is doing. We have only played friendlies so far."

The Colour
UKRAINE

Area

 603,700 km2

Population

 50,000,000

Capital

 Kiev

Language

 Ukrainian
Famous people - Sergei Bubka (Pole vaulter), Milla Jovovich (Movie star), Leon Trotsky (Bolshevik revolutionary), Sergei Prokofiev (Composer), Vitali Klitschko (Boxer)

What they've given the world - Movement towards peace (through the post-WWII conference at Yalta), painted eggs, Borscht (Ukrainian soup),

Bet you didn't know - The Chicken Kiev did not originate in Kiev, Ukraine, as the name implies. It was invented by Frenchman Nicolas Appert (1749-1841), who also discovered the principles of canning and preserving food. Early New York restaurants gave the name Kiev to the method of preparing chicken to please the numerous Russian immigrants.


Ukrainian Trivia

Category  Stat
Cinema attendance in 2003 106.92 per 1000 people
Televisions 376 per 1000 people
No. of Ukrainian Everest ascents 8