Scarf of the day #22 Arsenal Kyiv


Today we have Arsenal Kyiv. Although, I'd probably think of CSKA as my Kyiv team and had some great days out at Obolon and glory nights with Dynamo, Arsenal seemed to be a team who were more of a constant.

When CSKA had their place taken by Arsenal, a lot of people said that they were not going to support Arsenal, but carry on with CSKA. That was all well and good, but with most of the first league teams playing on Fridays or weird times in midweek, it was never going to be a pragmatic decision.

I gave Arsenal a chance and met a lot of their fans, who seemed to want something other than the mainstream appeal and dodgy politics of Dynamo. Most of them I would consider my best friends now - even almost 20 years later.

As for the scarf that was made especially for the ultras in 2004-2005. They were made in a factory in Zaporizhzhia, which makes them more authentic. I am also grateful that they got them here, as at one time they were wanting me to get a job load of Rangers scarves that they could customise when I was going to Glasgow. There is a line that you have to draw and giving Rangers any money or even stepping foot inside their shop is clearly over that line!

Unfortunately, Arsenal are now concentrating on youth football and for now the club as a professional man's team has disappeared. It's a real shame as Kyiv needs two teams in the Premier League and Obolon are somewhat a yo-yo club where as Arsenal were for the most part there and showed some ambition when they gave Ravanelli the job of head coach, even though that was ultimately ill fated. 

The last time that I saw them play was a home game against Vorskla in March 2019. The game ended 2-2 and was probably the most entertaining game on that trip. There was some real controversy when in the last minute of the match Arsenal converted a penalty. The ref had made a sign for a VAR check, even though there was no VAR in place. To be honest, he reffed the game like he was pissed in the second half, so god knows what he'd been drinking at half time!

Another anomaly was that on that day on Futbol-1 they had been discussing how they could get bigger crowds at Ukrainian league games. Strangely, not kicking off on a Monday afternoon like in this game was something that wasn't discussed







 

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