UEFA obliges Ukraine to change the form of the national football team

UEFA has obliged Ukraine to make changes to the national football team's uniform before the start of the European Championship. This decision was made in response to a request from the Russian Football Union.

AFP News Agency informed about this, the Ukrainian Football Association also confirmed the information, Suspilne reports.

According to the UEFA decision, Ukraine is obliged to remove the slogan "Glory to the Heroes!" from the uniform.

To recap, the Russian football union after the presentation of Ukraine's new uniform offered to forbid it.

The new T-shirt's outline depicted the country's borders, including the Ukrainian Crimea, a territory annexed by Russia. The Russian Football Union has decided that the Ukrainian national team uniform carries a "political connotation." And they appealed to UEFA about this.

Initially, UEFA responded to Russia's appeal by saying that the organization approved Ukraine's national team T-shirt "under the rules regarding equipment." However, the RFU later made an official request to UEFA for Ukraine's new uniform.

UEFA analyzed Ukraine's national team uniform. And partially satisfied the appeal of the Russian Football Union.

According to the decision of UEFA, the Ukrainian national team uniform will still have Ukraine's outline, as well as the slogan "Glory to Ukraine." The European organization has no objections to these elements.

But Ukraine must remove the slogan "Glory to the Heroes": UEFA has decided that in combination with the slogan "Glory to Ukraine" it has a "political connotation".

UEFA explained that before approving the uniform, it had no objections to the slogan "Glory to the Heroes." In December 2020, the organization decided that it met all the norms and was not political. However, UEFA explained the change of position precisely because of the "duality" of the slogan "Glory to Ukraine – Glory to the Heroes." The organization stressed that combined they have a "political nature" as well as "historical and military importance." That is why UEFA decided to make such a decision.

Ukraine's national team has already played a match in a new form, a friendly match against Cyprus (4:0).

However, for the first match at Euro 2020, against the Netherlands, the Ukrainians must appear in an updated version of the new uniform.