A few weeks after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 18-year-old Ukrainian football referee Oleksandr Khodilov was forced to leave our country and move to Italy, reports the official website of the Italian Football Federation.

The Severodonetsk-based referee arrived in the commune of Cornedo-Vicentine in the province of Vicenza from war-torn Kharkiv and quickly approached the local referees' association "Aldo Frezza" with a request for temporary career continuation in Italy.

At the request of the Referees Committee of the Ukrainian Football Association, with the help of a local football club and the Italian Football Federation, which responded with great compassion to the Ukrainian, Oleksandr managed to obtain official registration and membership in the Italian Referees' Association (IRA) within weeks. On May 1, Khodilov debuted as a referee in the U-17 championship of the province of Vicenza in a match that turned out to be highly goal-scoring (4:3).

President of the IRA Michele Dalla Vecchia, who attended this game, noted: "It seemed impossible today to think about war. This seems surreal, but on the contrary, it is reality, and we see it through Oleksandr's eyes. Our association decided to help him, and today we see him much calmer and more confident about his future. This pleases us, and we will continue to support him and his family."

It should be noted that the Ukrainian referee, in addition to refereeing, is already studying Italian and has enrolled at the University of Padua to continue his studies in computer science, which he had started in Kharkiv.

We add that Oleksandr Khodilov began his football refereeing career in 2016 and worked in the championship of Luhansk Oblast. In 2020, he became a referee in the Premier League U-19.