December 17-18, at the hotel "Ukraine" in Kyiv, a two-day seminar-conference on current issues of club certification (licensing) for UEFA and UPL competitions in the 2025/2026 season took place.

The first vice-president of the UAF, Pavlo Boychuk, opened the event by informing those present about the latest steps taken by the national association to improve the certification (licensing) system, taking into account UEFA trends. Additionally, Eugene Diky, president of OPFKU "Premier League," addressed the audience with a welcoming speech, emphasizing that all clubs must adhere to established certification criteria regardless of club size and financial resources.

Photo by UAF press service

Viktor Bezsmertny, head of the UAF Committee for Football Club Certification, began his presentation with information about recent personnel changes in the auxiliary body of the Committee - the Administrative Division for Football Club Certification of the CUA. Additionally, the head of the committee informed about recently adopted decisions by the Executive Committee of the UAF regarding club certification, including the approval of Regulations on Certification (Licensing) of football clubs in the UPL/PFL/women's leagues, deadlines for the main process, reduction of mandatory certification fees for UPL football clubs, and more.

On December 19, two seminars-conferences were held at the Executive Committee of the UAF. The first was for candidate clubs in the process of obtaining access to UEFA club competitions and All-Ukrainian competitions (Higher League) among women, the second - for amateur candidate clubs seeking promotion to a higher competition class for the 2025/2026 season. Both events were supported by the attention of national association leadership, heads of the UAF Women's and Girls' Football Committee Anastasia Klypachenko, and president of OFK "PFL Ukraine" Oleksandr Kadyn.

Photo by UAF press service

On December 20, the conference hall of the UAF was visited by managers and financial staff of PFL football clubs. The most relevant topics for this audience were an overview of key changes in the Regulation on Football Club Certification in the PFL, as well as questions related to solidarity payments.

A positive aspect noted by all clubs is the multi-topic nature of the agenda items at such seminars. Thanks to the involvement of speakers from relevant areas of activity covering minimal certification criteria requirements, the level of these seminars became more interesting. For example, Valery Zolotukhin, Yuri Nestriga, Andriy Taras, Oleksiy Koshevarov, Yevgeniya Yershova, Irina Makarevich, Olga Babak, and Sergiy Elshov gave detailed presentations on urgent issues.

Photo by UAF press service

We believe that in these very difficult times of full-scale war, when none of us loses faith in a free and independent country, it is extremely important to maintain communication between all interested parties, continuing to demonstrate solidarity and responsibility for meeting the minimal certification criteria requirements.