Representatives of clubs from the Ukrainian Premier League and Professional Football League of Ukraine, as well as departments for women's and girls' football at the UAF and domestic media were present at the event. Also in attendance were UAF General Secretary Igor Gryshchenko, UAF Technical Director Igor Dedishin, and Head of the UAF Club Accreditation Department Sergei Yelshov.

Photo: Dan Balashov

Until this season, the accreditation procedure was carried out within a subsidiary organization called "License Center," which has now been restructured into the Football Education and Leadership Center. It is now focused exclusively on issues related to coaching and football professionals from various fields. The License Center, which will handle accreditation, will now be within the UAF. A corresponding department has been established, headed by Sergei Yelshov.

The second change is that representatives of the UPF and PFL, including President of the UPF Yevgeny Dykyy and President of the PFL Oleksandr Kadynkiv, have joined the accreditation committee. They cannot directly participate in voting as they are members of the UAF Executive Committee but will act as observers in this committee. They can monitor its activities, ask questions, provide additional information at the request of committee members about a particular club. This is especially important regarding transfers between leagues. It would be beneficial to hear from the PFL president about a club's performance before it moved up.

Photo: Dan Balashov

Many clubs also raised the issue of funding for this area. For many years, funds were collected directly from clubs for the accreditation procedure, although UEFA funded UAF's activities in this field directly. Despite this, funds were still collected from clubs simultaneously. The clubs raised this issue, and we analyzed it, concluding that we can fully cover the accreditation process with UEFA funds. From this season onwards, club contributions have been reduced, and starting with the 2026/2027 season, clubs will be completely exempt from paying any fees for accreditation. This is also one of the reforms. We are trying to make the accreditation procedure more transparent and fair for all clubs.

The UAF regulates these processes. We are not a supervisory body, and our task is to assist clubs in raising their level to meet requirements for both PFL and UPF competitions. Ideally, we want to prevent situations where the accreditation procedure is used as some kind of lever or tool to replace the sporting principle. This occasionally happened in Ukrainian football before, and our task is to properly build the accreditation process so that a club aiming at a certain sporting goal in the future clearly understands how it should plan its activities to meet higher requirements for the next season. We very much want to base ourselves on UEFA's experience, which aims to ensure that all clubs earning the right to participate in competitions under its auspices are admitted to these competitions if there are no glaring issues such as debts or bans.

Photo: Dan Balashov

... "Regarding the accreditation itself, I would like to convey to the clubs and representatives of the media the main principles we apply as a leading football institution in this matter. For us, the sporting principle is paramount because football is competition, and this principle is fundamental. A team that secured a higher position and earned the right to move up will always be prioritized.

Photo: Dan Balashov

Our next task is to balance the sporting principle with other components of the accreditation process as much as possible. However, the sporting principle will remain paramount, and I believe that in this regard, UAF has been consistently consistent over the past two seasons. For example, in the situation regarding playoff matches for promotion to the Premier League, a decision was made that everything should be decided on the football field, with the sporting principle determining which team gets into the UPF. The same happened recently when a club 'Ruhh-2' withdrew from competition. We did not interpret regulations and football law. We used the sporting principle, and the UAF Executive Committee passed a resolution that everything would be decided on the football field. In Ukrainian football, the sporting principle should prevail.

Photo: Dan Balashov

The next principle we advocate and apply during accreditation is equality of conditions. We do not have the task of not accrediting anyone. The UAF's overall goal, and that of the club accreditation department in particular, is to help clubs meet the requirements set out in the regulations. We must assist all teams, and a lot of work goes into this, such as various seminars with representatives from clubs. Representatives from financial and legal departments also participate - according to the criteria for accreditation. Our principle is equality and fairness. The same conditions should apply to everyone. We do not intend to use club accreditation as a punitive element. If we make exceptions to the regulations, they will be the same for all teams regardless of whether they are top clubs or those from the UPF in the first league.

Photo: Dan Balashov

Another principle we would like to apply is that the regulation on accreditation should be alive and relevant. We want changes and adjustments to be made as much as possible in line with our realities. And we certainly do not want the regulations on accreditation to be seen as coercive. Many clubs dislike having a requirement for women's teams within their structure. We must approach this balanced, considering UEFA's accreditation procedure. We are interested in initiatives from clubs to create conditions for their development using the regulation on accreditation," Igor Dedishin added.

Photo: Dan Balashov

This season is historic as four clubs have left the UPF for the first time, and four new clubs are joining.

Regarding funding, we understand that First League clubs do not have a large staff compared to UPF clubs. Up to 50 employees at most. Accordingly, their expenses are significantly lower than those of UPF clubs.

A club aspiring for promotion spends the funds necessary to demonstrate a sporting result. Comparing salaries between players from clubs that have been promoted and those that were relegated is not comparable.

However, you also emphasized whether there are minimum thresholds. The criteria of UAF do not provide for any minimum or maximum thresholds if we refer back to the accreditation criteria. First of all, this is, of course, a financial report. We see these reports - clubs submit them.

Photo: Dan Balashov

If we notice an unverified opinion, our option for predictive financial reporting is activated. One of the candidates for promotion has used this option to convince the auditor of their payment capacity. Clubs provide additional documents - these can be sponsorship contracts, they may confirm an increase in statutory capital, or other materials considering all these materials, the auditor makes a final conclusion based on additional materials," noted Sergei Yelshov.

The meeting lasted almost two hours in dialogue mode. All participants were able to express their views. Clubs provided proposals regarding the accreditation process and related issues. Journalists received answers to all questions they asked.