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EURO 2021 | The Ukrainians have not backed down and will eventually have a slogan on their jerseys that bothers Russia

Facebook @ Andrii Pavelko, Reuters

Negotiations with the football union were extremely complicated, according to the president of the Ukrainian Federation, Andriy Pavelek, but even so, both sides managed to reach a compromise. Pavelek’s post on Facebook shows that the slogan “Glory to the Heroes” will be on the inside of the jersey and will be part of the decorative element together with the map of Ukraine, the trident and the slogan “Glory to Ukraine”. Pavelka also stressed that the inscriptions “Glory to Heroes” and “Glory to Ukraine” will be on the millions of jerseys already produced, which will be sold worldwide.

UEFA said on Thursday that the slogan “Glory to the Heroes” was clearly political and demanded that Ukraine remove it. On the contrary, she did not mind the proclamation of “Glory to Ukraine”, which according to her does not have a political message in itself and was approved for use on jerseys as early as 2018. However, she was bothered by the combination of both slogans. The wording “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” became one of the main slogans of demonstrations at the Kiev Maidan in 2014 against the then president, supported by the Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych. Moscow also associates these slogans with nationalist groups that fought against the Soviet Union during World War II.

The Russians succeeded, the inscription must go! UEFA ordered the Ukrainians to change

Also, Russia’s objections to the depiction of the map of Ukraine, which includes Crimea, were not heard by UEFA. Russia joined Crimea in 2014, but the West considers the move a violation of international law and has imposed sanctions on Russia.

According to current football standards, “there must be no political, religious or personal slogans, no messages or images on the players’ equipment”. The ban, as stated in the rules, also applies to normally invisible parts of clothing that the player could possibly reveal when celebrating a goal (eg a T-shirt under a jersey).

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