Ukraine versus North Macedonia: jerseys duel that anger other countries


Ukraine versus North Macedonia
Duel of jerseys that anger other countries

It sounds like an unspectacular preliminary round duel, but the European Championship match between Ukraine and North Macedonia causes unrest. Not only in the teams involved, but also in Russia and Greece. They don’t agree with the jerseys.

When the national players of Ukraine and North Macedonia step onto the pitch this afternoon (3 p.m. / ZDF, Magenta TV and in the live ticker on ntv.de), Russia and Greece will be particularly skeptical of Bucharest. Not for sporting reasons, the Greeks even missed the leap to the European Football Championship, but because of those darn jerseys.

In the past few days, the double jersey gate and political interventions had kept the two teams in Group C somewhat undesirable. A missing “N” in the logo of the North Macedonians during the game against Austria angered their large and sometimes hated neighbor Greece.

Because as usual, “FFM” was on the shirts. The letters stand for “Fudbalska Federacija na Makedonija”, the national football association. Unlike the republic, this one did not rename itself in 2018 after years of naming dispute with Greece – there is still no trace of the addition “North”.

UEFA has lettering covered

The Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Denias wrote his North Macedonian counterpart a letter with a proposal to change the logo. Sport Minister Lefteris Avgenakis asked UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin to take up the issue.

For its part, Ukraine had to come to an agreement with the European Football Union (UEFA) in the slogan dispute. Because the sentences “Glory of Ukraine” and “The Heroes Glory”, the official greeting of the Ukrainian army and police, caused displeasure in Russia. The Ukrainians now had to cover up the writing “Den Helden Ruhm”.

However, UEFA allowed the country’s outline, including the Crimea annexed by Russia, on the European Championship jerseys. Russia protested against it. UEFA stressed that a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly “recognized the territorial boundaries as they are broadly represented by the design”.

“Primitive Football”

On the pitch, however, the annoying jersey discussions do not play a role, as Ukrainian national coach Andrei Shevchenko emphasized. Rather, the leap into the round of 16 is at stake for the two teams. At the start, Ukraine stole almost a point from the Netherlands (2: 3) with an appealing performance. Nevertheless, the “minimum target” is in jeopardy. This is to “survive the group stage,” emphasized Shevchenko.

An objective that seems quite realistic. Especially since Ukraine qualified directly for the European Championship in their group, ahead of European champions Portugal. And now the first small “final” against the newcomer North Macedonia.

“If we don’t beat North Macedonia, we don’t deserve to move up to the knockout stage,” said Oleksandr Sewidov, a former coach and currently an expert on several Ukrainian media outlets. Austria and North Macedonia (3: 1) played “primitive football” on Sunday evening, and Ukraine was “a class better” than North Macedonia.

There are words that should motivate the underdog around record player Goran Pandev. The 37-year-old remained confident after the opening defeat: “I’m sure we still have a chance,” said Pandev. He wants to take advantage of this small chance, even without an “N” on his jersey.

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