“Glory to Heroes!” can become Ukraine’s official football symbol

President of the Ukrainian Football Association (UFA), member of the executive committee Andrii Pavelko took the initiative to promptly convene an online meeting of the UFA executive committee.

He wrote about this on Facebook, Rubryka reports.

"Ukraine's football symbols, long recognized by all our fans and the football community in general, must be protected and immortalized in our country's football tradition. Therefore, I took the initiative to convene an online meeting of the UFA Executive Committee. We take a rational position, which embodies the deep synergy of the Ukrainian Football Association, millions of our fans, and national team players. This position will be a response to numerous comments, calls, and voices of support addressed to UFA and Andrii Shevchenko's team, which we receive after the presentation of the new national team uniform with a map of Ukraine and slogans 'Glory to Ukraine!' and 'Glory to Heroes!'" he said.

Pavelko added that on Friday, June 11, he proposed to submit several issues for UAF executive committee members to consider and vote on:

• approving the status of Ukraine's official football symbols, slogans "Glory to Ukraine" and "Glory to Heroes";
• approving the small and large coat of arms of Ukraine's national teams (with the image of Ukraine's map in its indivisible borders, recognized by the UN, with Crimea and the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions).

"Thank you to all our fans for the crazy support of the UFA and the new design of the national team uniform. Thank you for your non-indifference, for your open public positions, and such a sincere reaction to today's events," the UFA president wrote.

He noted that "trying to remove the two words printed inside our players' T-shirts, our 'friends' contributed to the fact that today all international media and social media are full of inscriptions: Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!"

Pavelko is certain that the levers of influence of those who don't like the integrity and patriotism of the Ukrainian sports nation have given a fatal crack and proved their ineffectiveness.

"And under any circumstances, the slogans 'Glory to Ukraine' and 'Glory to Heroes' cannot disappear, because there's no force that can eradicate these words from the minds of Ukrainians or overshadow their incredible energy. The whole world saw and felt it," the UFA president added.

Pavelko also noted that talks with UEFA would continue on June 11 at 10:30.

As reported by Rubryka, a new uniform of the Ukrainian national football team was presented earlier, depicting a map of Ukraine and the inscriptions "Glory to Ukraine!" and "Glory to Heroes!"

Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation called to ban the use of this uniform at Euro 2020.

UEFA later reported that the uniform was developed following the organization's requirements and without any violations. However, on June 10, the media reported that UEFA had decided to remove the inscription "Glory to Heroes" from the uniform of the Ukrainian national team for the European Championship.

Pavelko is currently negotiating with UEFA representatives in Rome for permission to place the slogan "Glory to Heroes!" on the uniform of the Ukrainian national football team.