Charity match between Ukrainian and Japanese football clubs fundraises for Ukraine’s rebuilding

In Japan, a charity match between Ukrainian and Japanese football clubs helped raise funds to support Ukraine in rebuilding what was destroyed by Russian troops.

Rubryka writes about this, referring to the social network X (Twitter) of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, Suspilne.Sport.

The head of state thanked Japan for its support. As the Ukrainian leader noted, this football match gathered thousands of Japanese and Ukrainian fans.

"Thousands of kilometers separate Ukraine and Japan. But despite the distance, today, players and fans from different continents are united in a sincere desire to do good. I am grateful to Japan, a country with a unique recovery experience, to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and his government, as well as to the parliament of Japan and the entire Japanese people for supporting Ukraine and our common cause," the president emphasized.

We will remind you that Shakhtar held a charity match at the Japanese National Stadium in Tokyo. Donetsk residents played against the Japanese team Avispa Fukuoka.

The meeting between the two football teams was organized to raise funds for Ukraine's support. Shakhtar's opponent in the match at the Japan National Stadium, the main arena of the 2020 Olympics, was the current winner of the Japan Cup.

Before the start of the match, an address to the teams and fans of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was shown on the big screen, and a speech was also delivered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yoko Kamikawa.

A large flag of Ukraine was unfurled in the stands. Before the starting whistle, the anthems of Ukraine and Japan sounded, and the participants of the game and the fans honored the memory of the victims of the war in Ukraine with a moment of silence.

Shakhtar came out with mourning bands on their sleeves, honoring the memory of Anatolii Gros, a former employee of the club who served in the Armed Forces and died in December in the Kherson area.

The match itself turned out to be productive – a 2:2 draw.

The match in Tokyo was attended by 18,114 spectators. All proceeds will go to help Ukraine.

We will remind you that the American University of Kyiv (AUK) created and launched a petition with the demand to ban representatives of Russia from participating in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, both under the Russian flag and under any other "neutral flag."