Dynamo Kyiv will play their UEFA Youth League last-16 clash with Sporting Lisbon next week – the first UEFA fixture a Ukraine side has taken in part in since the Russian invasion.
Dynamo were due to face Sporting at the beginning of March, but saw their match postponed as war began in their homeland.
Since then, boys under the age of 18 have been allowed to leave the country and the club has relocated its younger players to Romania.
The match against Sporting will take place in Bucharest on April 7. Dynamo have indicated to the relevan bodies that they are keen to fullfil the fixture.
European Clubs’ Association vice-president Dariusz Mioduski spoke about the upcoming game on Wednesday at ECA’s General Assembly in Vienna.
Mioduski, who is the president of Legia Warsaw and is himself hosting 11 refugees from Ukraine in his own home, spoke of the importance of the game’s symbolic effect.
‘The feeling amongst clubs in the ECA and UEFA is that there is a very clear message that is very anti-war and very pro-Ukrainian,’ he told BBC Sport.
Dynamo Kyiv will play their UEFA Youth League last-16 clash against Sporting Lisbon next week
The match will be played in Bucharest, where the club’s youth team have relocated to
‘The Russian clubs and sports people are paying the price for what is happening. Everybody knows it is not them who has created this but the symbolic gestures in today’s world of sports are one of the most important ways we can demonstrate how society feels about what is going on.
‘We have an obligation as the football community to take a very strong stance. We cannot be wishy-washy about it. We have to make it clear this is unacceptable, that is not something we are will ever allow or be OK with.’
The winner will face Benfica in the quarter finals. Dynamo already faced the Portuguese side in the group stages, beating them 4-0 at home before losing 1-0 in Lisbon.
A shopping mall lies in ruins after a missile strike of the Russian troops in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv
