- The legendary Franz Beckenbauer finished his coaching career quite early as, according to him, it’s too stressful. Still, when he became a president of the club, things didn’t get easier for him and he also complained about pressure and stress. Is being Dynamo president a stress or a pleasure for you?
- It’s a very difficult job and it’s not such a pleasure as it may seem. I’ve been Dynamo president for 17 years already. That means nervousness, stress and gray hair. This is mostly a thankless work. There’s some stuff supporters just don’t see.
- Where’s Dynamo place in the hierarchy of European football clubs?
- I really want Dynamo to demonstrate football supporters will like. As for our place in the hierarchy, it depends upon the situation in the country pretty much.
If we have peace and stability, Dynamo will be getting stronger. When there’s war and many people try just to survive, football becomes not so important. Many players just don’t want to come here and perform in our league.
Today my ideal Dynamo is the team with a lot of our trainees and young Ukrainians. I hope such players as Tsytaishvili, Buletsa, Supriaha and others will show their true worth.
If they succeed, then Dynamo place in European hierarchy will get better.
- Considering the lack of serious competition in the UPL and difficult economic situation, how can one change the situation in football for better?
- There’s a saying: “It’s possible not to make a good team with serious money and it’s totally impossible without money”.
We have stability in the club, but we don’t have such financial possibilities as Shakhtar. There’s a huge gap between our budgets.
We should thank the owner of Zoria Yevhn Heller and owner of Oleksandria Serhiy Kuzmenko for investing money in football. If other clubs were of such level we would have had a good league.
- People often estimate Dynamo only considering results the first team demonstrates. Is that okay?
- FC Dynamo Kyiv aren’t just the first team. That’s a huge organization that does not only professional football stuff. We have hundreds of boys at the youth school. They play football and get education. We want them to be decent citizens and patriots of their country. That’s a great social responsibility.
- There’re quite a lot of Dynamo performers in national teams of different age groups. Does this mean a lot?
- Of course it does. We care about the reputation of Ukrainian football and bring up players that represent our country.
Let’s see what we’ve achieved. Ukraine national team under the charge of Dynamo trainee Andriy Shevchenko has reached Euro-2020 finals. Vitaliy Mykolenko is the first team regular, Viktor Tsyhankov has played several worthy games, especially against Serbia.
Serhiy Sydorchuk, Olexandr Karavayev, Volodymyr Shepelev, Mykyta Burda, Artem Besedin and Vitaliy Buialskyi also took the field.
The best striker of the team is another Dynamo trainee – Roman Yaremchuk. He’s left our club, but this transfer was very important to him. We decided to let him go and give Roman the opportunity to make headway.
Besides, everyone knows who Andriy Yarmolenko is. He became the world class player in Dynamo.
Ukraine U-20 that won the World Cup had a lot of Dynamo and Shakhtar players in their lineup.
Ukraine U-19 has reached the European Championship elite round final stage. Seven Dynamo performers took part in the victory against Sweden.
Many Kyivans feature for Ukraine U-21 and U-21. So, our priority is to bring up young talents.
Our club wants players to be real patriots. They all do their best when playing for national teams. Unfortunately people in the UAF think that it’s their desert. They don’t even invite representatives of Dynamo direction to the national team games. After Ukraine U-20 victory at the World Cup they didn’t even thank the club for our players.
People, who haven’t invested a single hryvnia into football in this country, tell everyone that their significant efforts help our national teams succeed.
But we won’t respond in the same manner and we won’t ignore Ukraine teams of different age groups. Dynamo work to benefit the Ukrainian football.
- What was your reaction to the decision of UAF control and disciplinary committee concerning the events at the match in Kharkiv?
- I think it’s a total mayhem of UAF. This decision has nothing to do with common sense and logic. The investigation is still on, but our club has already been punished.
CDC not only gave us the maximal fine, but for some reason also decided we must play a game behind closed doors. Whom do they actually punish? FC Dynamo Kyiv or thousands of people, who regularly watch football at the stadium in Kyiv?
Why do they close Dynamo home arena on the basis of probable offence (investigation is still on) at away game?
That’s a totally biased decision against our team and our supporters. Football stadiums in Ukraine are almost empty, but instead of solving this problem UAF want not to allow anyone watch football at all.
FC Dynamo Kyiv will appeal against that. We’ll fight for the rights of our supporters.
- Speaking about social responsibility, Dynamo participate in many charitable events, help Ukrainian soldiers etc. Is this the part of Dynamo policy?
- We do charity all the team, but don’t always tell about it. We support different social programs for kids, help children, who’re victims of Chornobyl disaster, care about football veterans etc.
Now there’s war in our country and FC Dynamo Kyiv can’s stay aside from Ukrainian society. That’s our duty to help our warriors.
- They criticize Dynamo a lot in media. Sometimes it’s just bashing. Do you care about that kind of stuff?
- Dynamo have true supporters. They’re with us when we win and when we lose. They see what’s going on and don’t try to offend the team.
I can’t ignore useful criticism, but I’ll never listen to pseudosupporters, who actually don’t watch Dynamo games and don’t understand what’s happening on the field. Somehow they give us a lot of advice as for what we need to do.
Every day I see employees who do their best to help Dynamo make headway. But there’re also former employees, who often visit our “friendly” channels and try to offend the team.
Anyway, I don’t care about them. I honestly do my best to keep Dynamo at the decent level.
- Are there any Dynamo achievements you’re especially proud of?
- I’m proud of people I worked with. For example, Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Yarmolenko. The latter was expelled from Dynamo academy, but gave himself a word he would come back. And he did! He became the leader of our team. When you see boys getting mature and responsible in front of you, that makes you proud.
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After the interview Ihor Surkis addressed to supporters of the club.
- Believe in Dynamo and don’t lose optimism. This team deserves your support no matter what.
You give us strength. We’ll keep working and investing money in the club. We’ll keep raising young talents.
Everyone in Dynamo hopes that war in Ukraine will finish soon. If the economic situation improves, that will have a positive impact upon football.
Believe in Dynamo! Football is impossible without supporters. We count on your eyes and hearts at the stadium.
