A working meeting took place at the Kyiv Football House, which has been functioning as a humanitarian center of the Ukrainian Association of Football since February 24. The meeting was attended by President of the UAF Andriy Pavelko, head of the UAF Coordination Center Andriy Pavelko, Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Vadym Gutzeit, first vice-presidents of the UAF Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko, Anatoliy Demianenko, Oleg Protasov, Vadim Kostyuchenko, and vice-president and general secretary of the UAF Yuri Zapyshchak.

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

Among the key topics of discussion were communication support for Ukraine on its path to obtaining candidate status for EU membership and the support that the Ukrainian football community is ready to provide, involving foreign partners from EU member countries. The participants discussed events and projects planned to be implemented in the near future.

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

During the meeting, they also talked about activities of the UAF in support of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky's United24 initiative, upcoming friendly matches of the national team as part of preparation for the 2022 World Cup playoffs, NTZ and preparation for matches of women’s, youth, and junior teams, holding championships of the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) and the Professional Football League (PFL).

The UAF President acquainted the Minister with the work of the association's coordination center and humanitarian hub based at the Football House. After the meeting, he demonstrated a rehabilitation department operating in the Football House in cooperation with the Main Military Clinical Hospital. Andriy Pavelko and Vadym Gutzeit discussed humanitarian aid coming from foreign partners of the UAF for families affected by Russian aggression.

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

At the end of the meeting, UAF President thanked Vadym Gutzeit for fruitful cooperation and presented him with a special design national team jersey that will be worn only in friendly matches in March.