The current European Cup season is absolutely extraordinary for Ukrainian football. Due to the large-scale stage of the Russian-Ukrainian war, three representatives of the UPL – Shakhtar, Dynamo and Dnipro-1 – who managed to get into the group stages of European competitions – will have to play neutrally at home. areas in other countries. In this context, the notorious advantage of “home walls” for our teams will be largely a purely nominal concept, although there is no doubt that domestic fans who are temporarily outside Ukraine will do their best to support and provide for their compatriots. players do not feel like strangers.

Where will the Ukrainian teams play their home matches in the European Cups in the 2022/23 season? Let’s take a closer look at the selection of each club …

Dnipro-1: Conference League in Kosice

Let’s start with Dnipro, who will be the first team to play at home in the European Cup. Already today, on September 8, Dnipro-1 will meet Dutch AZ from Alkmaar in the first round of the Conference League group stage. The game will be played in Slovakia and local Kosice Dnepryan will play all home matches in the current European Cup season.

It was originally planned for Dnipro-1 to play in European competitions in the Slovak city of Dunajska Streda, with a population of about 25,000 people, but in the end the Dnipro team chose a much larger settlement – Kosice. about 240,000 people.

The temporary football field of Dnipro-1 will be the Kosice Football Arena, one of the most modern stadiums in Slovakia. Its construction began in October 2018, when state and local authorities finally agreed on all issues regarding the feasibility of building a new multi-purpose stadium in Kosice. As a result, the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport allocated 4 million euros and the Ministry of Finance – 8 million euros. Kosice municipal authorities initially planned that the construction of the arena would cost them 12 million euros, but over time they had to invest a little more in the new stadium – 13.5 million euros. The total estimate, including additional investments from other investors, reached 22.4 million euros.

It is noteworthy that at first Kosice Football Arena claimed to have received category 3 from UEFA in the coordinate system of the stadium rating within the scope of this organization. However, work was planned to improve the infrastructure during the construction process, which resulted in the stadium currently being classified in category 4, which is the highest category determined by UEFA criteria.

The legal owner of Kosice Football Arena is the city of Kosice. However, in terms of football, the owner of the stadium is a local team called Kosice, which plays in the second division of Slovak football. It is interesting that the Kosice club was founded in 2018, at the same time that the construction of the city football arena began. It was created by the merger of two local teams that had not previously reached serious sports heights. In his first season at professional level, Košice finished 12th in the second division (out of 16 participants), and then finished fifth twice. The immediate tasks facing this team are to reach the elite section of Slovak football and at the start of the 2022/23 season Kosice is showing good results as one of the top contenders for two tickets.

Currently, the official capacity of Kosice Football Arena is 5836 people. When all construction work is completed and finally accepted, their stands will be able to accommodate 12,658 spectators. It should be noted that the first official match in the new Kosice stadium was held on February 25 this year, defeating Rogozhnik in the second Slovak league with a score of 4:0. 1289 fans came to watch this match.

Tickets for the Dnipro-1 – AZ match are sold at 6, 8, 10, 12, 20 and 45 euros (the last two are for the no food and VIP sectors, respectively).

Dynamo: Europa League in Krakow

As part of the Europa League, the Kyiv “Dynamo” home matches will be held in Krakow, Poland. This is a city of about 800,000 inhabitants and a rich football tradition that helped create the local Wisla and Cracovia.

The main arena of Cracovia – the stadium named after Jozef Pilsudski, or simply Cracovia Stadium – will temporarily become a native of the people of Kyiv. This arena was built in 2009-2010 on the site of an old stadium that has been in operation since 1912. The old building has suffered a series of disasters and disasters. In 1914-1915, the stadium was destroyed during the siege of Krakow by the Russian army, but was restored in 1915. Ten years later, the arena suffered from flooding, and in 1935 a hurricane blew up the roofs of the stands, forcing them to rebuild. In September 1939, the arena was damaged by an aerial bomb, but during World War II. It was restored after the end of World War II. Set on fire by unidentified people in December 1963, the stadium completely burned down and took nearly four years to be restored.

In 2009, it was decided to build a new arena to replace the old stadium. To do this, the old building was demolished and the new one was built 14 months ahead of schedule. Cracovia Stadium hosted three matches of the U-21 European Championship group stage in 2017, as well as a semi-final and final of the tournament.

It is noteworthy that in October 2016, at the Cracovia Stadium, the national team of Ukraine played a nominally home game against the Kosovo team. The game ended with a convincing victory of the “blue-yellows” – 3:0, brought to him by the accurate shots of Artem Kravets, Andriy Yarmolenko and Ruslan Rotan. Andriy Shevchenko’s wards played this game on neutral ground, as Ukraine did not recognize Kosovo’s independence and did not maintain diplomatic relations with Kosovo.

The legal owner of the football field is the city of Krakow. Cracovia plays their home games at the stadium and the Polish U-21 team plays here often. Currently, the “lanes” are the only Krakow team playing in Extra Class, the elite division of Polish football. Its nationals, much more titled than the Vistula, were unexpectedly relegated to the second strongest division at the end of last season.

The official capacity of Cracovia Stadium is 15,016 spectators. The stadium complies with UEFA category 3 requirements. Dinamo will play the next match of Lucescu’s wards in the second round of the Europa League group stage, where the opponents of the Cypriot AEK from Larnaca will be on 15 September.

Shakhtar: Champions League in Warsaw

Shakhtar Donetsk has agreed to hold so-called home matches in the Polish capital Warsaw in the Champions League group stage. Pitmen will play at least three European Cup matches in the 2022/23 season at the Polish Army Marshal Jozef Pilsudski Stadium.

The arena was built in 1927-1930, and after the opening, a number of clubs played home matches there, including both the Polish national team and Legia Warsaw. During the Second World War the city was under German occupation and various competitions were held in the stadium and they continued to take care of it. The arena was destroyed in 1945 by the onslaught of the Soviet and Polish armies, but the stadium was quickly restored.

However, at the beginning of the 90s of the last century it became clear that the old arena could not cope with the trends of the time and required a radical restructuring. After long discussions, it was decided to build a new stadium to replace the existing one, but the initiators did not have financial support for a very long time. The bureaucracy also intervened in the case, but money was allocated in the summer of 2007 and a building permit was obtained in the spring of 2008, after which its first phase began.

It is noteworthy that the stadium was used during the construction period. For example, in the 2009/10 season its capacity was less than 6,000 and a year later it was more than 20,000 when the main work on the three stands was completed. In the end, only a small part of the main facade of the building remained from the old stadium. Currently, the arena’s official capacity is 31,006 seats. In terms of its infrastructure, the Polish Army Stadium named after Marshal Jozef Pilsudski meets the requirements of UEFA category 4.

The legal owner of the stadium is the city of Warsaw, although it was previously owned by the Polish Armed Forces. In fact, home matches in the arena are organized by local Legia, who has long leased the facility. The Polish Army’s Marshal Jozef Piłsudski Stadium is the fifth largest football stadium in Ekstraklasa and the seventh largest in Poland. It is equipped with a heated area, training ground, underground parking, sports bar, club museum and other facilities.

Shakhtar will play in this arena on September 14 in the second round of the Champions League group stage. Pitmen’s opponent will be Scottish Celtic, who lost at home to Real Madrid (0:3) in the first round. The cost of tickets for the match with the Scots is from 195 to 1700 zlotys (from 40 to 360 euros).