football rambles

 Obviously, I am a big fan of Ukrainian football and even before the trip to Kharkiv all the way back in 2008 that started the whole blog I had had 3 years at the start of the millennium following mainly Kyiv based teams, so as part of the trip to Kyiv and Kharkiv, I visited a few other meccas of football. Both of the games I saw were at the Lobanovskiy named stadium, so I also went to Olympiskiy to see the Dynamo museum. I had seen a small exhibition of odds and ends in the club shop on a previous visit, so the thought of a museum was intriguing. Unfortunately, the small exhibition in the club shop was the 'museum'. I enjoyed it, but it would be great if a club with so much history went to the bother of having a proper museum, especially as there is a massive and expensive museum just around the corner just for the Klitschko brothers. Another point to make is that nothing much is made of Start stadium and the legendary match against the Luftwaffe side. I know that Ukraine want...

 It's a good one today. The mighty CSKA Kyiv. CSKA were my favourite team in Kyiv, as you will have gathered on other posts on the blog. When I first went to Kyiv they were probably at their highest position, challenging in Europe and enjoying famous victories over Jokerit Helsinki (who now only exist as a Russian owned ice hockey club) and more impressively Red Star Belgrade.  Disaster was around the corner, after we witnessed them 'throw' a game against Dynamo at CSKA stadium on a day where Shakhtar also appeared to win by foul means against their neighbours Metalurh, the writing was on the wall. The mayor of Kyiv in the winter of 2001 wanted a team, and CSKA with its army heritage just wouldn't do, so he took their licence and replaced them in the Premier (then Vische) Liha with Arsenal Kyiv. CSKA more or less took on the role of a second team and despite there supposedly being this link between Arsenal and CSKA it never transpired.  The CSKA stadium was left derelic...

I was texted on Saturday by Phil to let me know that CSKA had finally called it a day. I won't go into the details too much here, as I have talked about CSKA and what they meant to me in several places on this site. After Arsenal took their place in the top division it was always going to be a struggle for survival. There was then the problem with their ground (photographed on this site and you can look at through the tags) which saw them having to play at Dynamo's training ground at Chapaevka, outside of Kyiv. When I was there they got relegated to the regional 2nd league. Most people thought that they wouldn't take part in the 2nd division last season, but they did and just missed out on promotion. However, they didn't seem to have the finances and stomach to face another season down there and it's shocking to think that 8 years ago they were knocking Red Star Belgrade out of the UEFA Cup.

Here's a picture of me with hard tackling defender Mamady Sangare. He was a hero, who always gave a 100 per cent for CSKA, he now plays for Desna Chernihiv. We met him at the game between Obolon and Desna. Funnily enough he wasn't playing because he was suspended. I think commited is the euphemism usually used to describe such players

As you might remember my camera ran out of batteries when we went to CSKA's game against Chapaevka against Sevastapol, Phil has now sent me some, so here they are. The first one was taken just before half time and I was distracted by some action on the pitch. The second is on the way home after a few too many beers

Well the biggest news over the weekend apart from Spain beating Germany to win the Euros ( a result I can feel smug about as I predicted Spain to beat Germany in the final before the tournament started) is that CSKA might have fgone out of business. A lot of people predicted that if they went down, which they did, they would pack in, but I really hoped this wasn't going to be the case. However, Misha the cloakroom attendant at the British Council knows his stuff. He reckons CSKA have called it a day and as he usually seems right, although I have got no hard evidence I am inclined to believe him, a sad day indeed.

The floodlights were as powerful as a 50 watt bulb in their heyday. I wonder if they still work. It's a pity, but despite it never being the best equipped stadium in the vishe Liha, it would be nice to see them return one day. This probably won't happen, as the stadium has been left to rot and CSKA were relegated to the basement earlier this week despite getting a very credible draw against top placed club Illichevests

Here's the old scoreboard. It worked well for about a year and then the lightbulbs went and finally it got to the stage that one of the kids would climb up it and put the score up on cardboard. When it was working well the fire engine that used to be parked in the corner beeped its horn to signal the operator to change the scores.

The sign reads Danger Condemned Stand , I don't remember it being particularly safe when the Army Legion were standing in it

Sector 2. Where we used to sit every week

Behind the goal was where the Ultras used to stand. The pitch is being watered as it can still be hired for games and the Arsenal Dubleri play here

It might not look like it, but this was the executive box at CSKA. Even when they still played here there was no glass in it, which more or less made it redundant. It did come in handy though if Surkis was in attendance as you were guaranteed that he could hear what you were calling him.

In the background is the old commentary box. The goal post shown was the same goal that CSKA lost a penalty shoot out to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in a cup Semi Final. It was minus 11 and the game finished 0-0 after extra time and then CSKA lost on penalties. It was a shame as CSKA had reached the final the previous year only to lose to Shakhtar