Kozak Talks Podcast
Ми знайомимо вас з українцями, які побудували тут неймовірне життя - підприємцями, професіоналами, громадськими лідерами та відомими українцями.
Їхні подорожі та інсайдерські поради покажуть вам, як боротися з викликами, відкривати можливості та реалізовувати свій потенціал - і все це з повагою до свого українського коріння.
Kozak Talks Podcast
Створили найбільший український молодіжний футбольний клуб у Англії
Ви коли-небудь замислювалися над тим, як молодіжний футбольний клуб може змінити життя? Приєднуйтесь до розмови з Андрієм, вчителем фізкультури з Молдови, та доктором Ніком Вайлдом, експертом зі спортивного менеджменту, про заснування першої української дитячо-юнацької футбольної асоціації у Великій Британії. Вони діляться своїм шляхом, викликами та впливом на українських дітей, переміщених війною.
Зустрічайте Артема, молодого українського воротаря, який розповідає про культурні відмінності у футболі, свої тренування та мрії. Ми досліджуємо баланс між розвагами та змаганням і їхню роль у його житті.
Ми також розповідаємо про вплив футбольного клубу на українську громаду в Лондоні, соціальну інтеграцію та підтримку психічного здоров'я, висвітлюючи підтримку з боку української діаспори та місцевих громад.
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Hi everyone. Thank you very much for being on Koza Talks podcast. We're going to be speaking in English as, because we have an English speaker here we're. If you listen to this, we will have translators. If you watch, you will see subtitles below. Thank you, yes, we will start. We have a very interesting guest today. We can say that Ukrainians who already have their football team in the east of London. Look, I want to start right away. This is Nakazatox. Very cool, we are also on Sony for the first time Artyom how old?
Speaker 1:are you 10. 10 years how long have you been living in?
Speaker 2:London.
Speaker 1:Two years, two years. Do you like London? Yes, yes, cool, you play football right? Yes, what is your football team?
Speaker 2:Inter London.
Speaker 1:Do you have any support? Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester, Arsenal, Arsenal. Okay, great, Because I think Ukrainians don't like Arsenal, but I do. Okay, let's start a podcast. I'll ask you in English. I would like to know a little bit about you guys individually know a little bit about you guys individually.
Speaker 3:Republic of Moldova, romanian by nationality, I came here about 10 years ago with my own personal ambitions and after 10 years I decided to go into professional football and started and submitted documents for a master's degree, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I worked here as a teacher of physical education and sports science at school. Probably that's why they took me. It happened that I just wanted to be an ordinary sports director, but in 2022, after the war began Dr Nick Wilde offered me a good idea and it turns out that after two years, we created the largest Ukrainian youth football club in the United Kingdom. My whole family is teachers. My grandmother is the school director and my father and mother are all teachers here.
Speaker 3:So I worked in the educational system and now it turns out that the fate has turned out that I have to help Ukrainian children who came here to London for their dream. The same thing, and what we wanted to do through this football club is to keep children away from the war. They already have so many news at home. They watch, hear their parents. To give them motivation, we gradually, gradually introduce them into the football industry. Football and professional industry are the same. A lot more can be said later, but for now, Andrey, thank you.
Speaker 1:I would like to ask you the same question. Could you do a little bit introduction yourself, and then we're going to start with the main topic.
Speaker 4:Okay, so yeah, I'm Dr Nick Wild. I'm originally from Sheffield. I was the Dean of School for the Global Institute of Sport and UCFB at Wembley Stadium, where Andrei is one of my students. So I'm a specialist in sports management, sports marketing, so I've been working in the sports industry for maybe 15, 20 years. I also teach at Real Madrid University in Madrid, so I have quite an extensive knowledge of the football industry. I'm doing a lot of work at the moment with a French university and just really immersed in sport. I have always had an interest in my research in football and corporate social responsibility, which is really football and charity work. So I work very closely with Charton Athletic Community Trust in southeast London and these people showed me how to how to use sport as a way to help people. And even in Argentina, I do some work in Argentina with a wrestling football club. Wrestling football club have a community trust and actually are supported by the pope. So you know football is.
Speaker 1:I found football to be very, very powerful and for for helping people yeah, I know football as well is a good way to, uh, to deal with mental health as well. If you have any issues addictions, or if I know that, I want to ask you this, because this is the main. This is where our topic starts how did you guys come up with an idea to open the first ukrainian football association here, and what was? What was the journey like?
Speaker 4:two years ago, um the, we woke up to see such horrific scenes. You know, people in ukraine, you know, being bom bombed, killed, you know it was horrendous, it was just just probably the worst thing to see. And then when I went to work, I was thinking about that. And then Andrew was in my class and he was actually very upset because because of what was happening, you know, because what we could see it was, we didn't know what was going to happen we were just thinking about friends and family, people that might be suffering. And you know he was really upset because he wanted to go and work in places like the Ukraine. So I was thinking about the community trust and thinking about how many people now we were talking about bringing in refugees and how many people would come. Do we open our homes? And and then I thought, wow, this is, this has to be an opportunity for football or basketball, but predominantly football. Can we find the kids? Do we know, even know if the ukrainians are coming to london? Can we find the kids, the families? Can we find facilities? But you really need somebody who's got a passion and cares about people, and this was Andrew. And so I mentioned the idea to him and he thought about it.
Speaker 4:You know you need this isn't an easy thing to do to to find for, first of all, to find, find the Ukrainian, to find Ukrainian people, find out where they are. Then you need money, you need sponsors, you need somewhere to play. You know it's very, very difficult and luckily my boss, brendan Flood, at the Global Institute of Sport, was running a competition and I said to Andrea why don't you put together a? This is a business I think this is a great opportunity for to get some funding. So he very quickly put together a case and he got some funding. He won the funding and I think the it really hit home to the, to the owner, to Brendan and his and his directors.
Speaker 4:Because you know, at the end of the day, we're all. You know I'm a granddad, I'm a father. You know you have to help people, don't? You know, whichever country they come from, you can't just sit back and watch people suffer. So it's really down to Andrew. You know it was my idea, but I didn't. I couldn't do that. I couldn do what he's done. So he's he's decided that he wanted to help people, you know, decided he was putting them first, and so. So we're so proud that that he, he was able to do this and we, we, we support him where we can, but with him. And I think also, I think it's the coaches, isn't it the coaches? That are good, um, and I think also that the parents you know the parents of the, the children as well they, they put in so much time to help and you know they're all so passionate as well so you know, when you, you guys opened it, um, how did you guys start finding the ukrainian communities here?
Speaker 1:well, how did you guys? Was it adrian, I think?
Speaker 3:I'm the right person. You won't believe it. It was the hardest thing I had to go through when Dr Nikuail said that I won this competition before me they gave me 5,000 pounds maximum, and after me they gave me 5,000, too. They gave me 12,000 pounds, and it was especially for helping Ukrainian children and I thought well, the project is a concept, there is money, there is a way to find children. I sent an email to your embassy and your football industry. I understand that everyone was busy with the war. I sent it to other organizations that I found did research, but it turned out to be completely different. Ordinary Ukrainians helped me.
Speaker 3:This is a special gratitude to FC Niva. This is the oldest amateur Ukrainian football club here. When they played here, there was no such team. They have been playing for 15 or 20 years. They have a good culture and tradition, and so I came to them and, thanks to them, they all joined. They liked the idea. They have a president of the club and a coach. This is Valentin Nikolaevich. He understood he is a true Ukrainian. He loves his country Probably, I don't know and he gave the task to the guys. Everyone joined and so we began to pass on information to each other.
Speaker 3:We started with 12 children and in two years we can say that more than 130 children are registered and about 80 children come to us for training. We opened three branches but there are a lot of children and it is very difficult. And how much we can, we can. Some children can be offended. Some children live too far from us. They want to be under emotions. They come there for a month or two, but far away. I noticed that for them, 45 minutes of travel is a lot. Here in London. This is little, this is nothing. They need to get used to it psychologically and we have such difficulties, especially in the winter.
Speaker 3:We are in East London where mainly East European are Stratford, leighton. We train on a very good field. All our coaches are Ukrainians who have professional experience, starting with Valentin Nikolaevich, oleg, vladimir, igor. I don't seem to have forgotten anyone. If I forgot, I apologize. There were others before us, also Ukrainians, who helped, but for personal reasons they no longer enter our project. Sergey, our ambassador, was there. Thank you very much to him. He invited InterTV. They shot a report about us, five minutes of the report. They posted it. Then we had Kristina, the chairman of the Radical Committee, and so everyone gathered together in such a friendly team and now other people are also joining. Now Kristina is not with us. Instead she is with Liana, and that's how we are growing. We have created a parent's committee, a disciplinary committee. We have created a very cool organization. But what I want to say most importantly, we have a very good atmosphere. Everyone is friendly. We feel great. There are children and we are adults. We just feel great there. Both children and we are adults. We have about 8 people staff.
Speaker 1:I know that you, you could say that only one organization like you, like you now, is engaged in football. No one with Ukrainians is engaged in what you do.
Speaker 3:No, we unfortunately are the only ones. Officially there is no one. There are different Ukrainian children who got into different English clubs, but the fact that there was a separate Ukrainian organization, there is no one.
Speaker 1:You made decisions, you made marketing. There is no one here. How do you differ from other organizations? How do you differ? What's the difference with you guys, with different organizations?
Speaker 3:They don't play official games every Saturday or every weekend. They pay a lot of money, they go to training regularly but they don't play. They are told that they are not ready yet. Plus, they have a language barrier. They don't understand the instructions from the coaches. Therefore, they sit mainly as reserve players. And we are on the contrary.
Speaker 3:We use football as an educational method at the first level. We do not choose the best. We will give everyone a chance to play official games and share the minutes equally. For us, the most important thing is to educate a decent citizen through football are on the field, they grow as a personality, they learn to make decisions there. They will lose important games, they will cry, but they will understand people in one place without problems because it's like soft skills here. If they are further, when they will look for work there, it is written soft skills requirements. Through football they will get it because they have an illusion about the professional academy.
Speaker 3:We will talk later but at the moment, all the children who come to us we will not have a problem that someone plays does not play. I get a call and moldovania and asks says what should I do with this? To swear or not swear and play. What is the problem with the world? I pay a lot of money and my child plays there maybe once every two months and the scouts they look. Who plays every time means this is the basis of the team, and no one sees our Ukrainian kids sitting on the bench, although they are very talented.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it's just that you need a chance to give the Ukrainians a chance.
Speaker 3:And that's why we decided and said this. We created a club for them, give them a chance to show themselves on the field. Already, ukraine has proven that it is not afraid of strong opponents and it does not give up. Can you imagine what it will be like to watch a Ukrainian team that will not give up, will play to the end, not caring how much they lose, and, they told me, every goal will be for Ukraine. That is practically. Our football club is like a national team of Ukraine, where everyone will watch and worry about these cute children. They are very well-educated, very disciplined. It is very easy for me to work with them and of course, sometimes it happens like children, but for me the most important thing is the atmosphere.
Speaker 1:And how many years do you start? We are approached by the elders, but unfortunately, we cannot take the elders.
Speaker 3:We start from 6 years old. We created a foundation under 6, under 10, under 11. And then we start from 14 years old. We have under 15, 10 children. We want to create a team under 15, 10 kids. We want to recruit to create a team under 15. That is, we take from 7 to 15 years old this season. In the next season we will take from 7 to 13.
Speaker 1:Artyom, tell us about yourself. Tell us how you found the club, how your parents found this club, and tell us your experience in this club and why do you stay in this club to play. You can choose to play in English or what. Tell us about your experience in this club. Why do you stay in this club? Can you choose to play in English? Tell us about your experience.
Speaker 2:I really liked football. My dad found this club on the Internet. He decided to call me to sign me up. I went to the training for the first time. I really liked it.
Speaker 1:What did you like?
Speaker 2:I liked the coaches. They were very good. We played a good match. I liked it a lot.
Speaker 1:Where do you play? Are you a goalkeeper? Defender?
Speaker 2:I'm a goalkeeper.
Speaker 1:You're a goalkeeper, wow cool. I know a lot of kids don't like to be a goalkeeper. I think when you get older, when you have a backache or whatever, you want to be a volunteer. How many times do you train? Do you train every day?
Speaker 2:No, only on Tuesdays I go to the training and on weekends I go to the Statum Park.
Speaker 1:Do you see the difference between the British and the Ukrainians?
Speaker 2:The British take it very seriously. They cry a lot. The Ukrainians play better. What are your ambitions? You live in Great Britain for two years. Do you want to become a footballer here?
Speaker 1:Yes, when do you want to become a footballer? In Ukraine, or here, here? Why here?
Speaker 2:Here is better academy, here is much better football in Ukraine.
Speaker 1:But you said that Ukrainians play better football.
Speaker 2:Yes, but it's better teams. Many Ukrainians play better football. Yes, but it's a better team. A lot of Ukrainians play here.
Speaker 1:You said you are an Arsenal supporter. Who do you support? Do you have any Ukrainian players that you support?
Speaker 2:Ukrainian player Zinchenko for sure.
Speaker 1:You are training now. You are not playing football as a main thing, but you also made friends with other Ukrainians and other British players. How do you see yourself in the team? Do you think you will grow? What do you think about the association? Do you think the association will grow? What do you see? I think so, and your friends, what do they think about this association?
Speaker 2:They also think so. They think London is a big place.
Speaker 1:I know that in this podcast, people will watch it. When they will watch or listen to the podcast, ukrainians, americans in other countries, but most importantly, it's England for us, because we live in England, I want people to listen to this podcast and watch it. I think there are also many Ukrainians living in the west of London, in the north of London, in the south of London, who will be watching you. I think you will also learn and maybe want to play football with you too. Maybe it will be like this that you, as players who train from Andriy because I know you have Ukrainian coaches who live here they will teach you well, how do you train? Do you learn well? Yes, don't you complain. What did you learn in football? What can you tell us? Because our fans and the coaches who watch this, we are not football players. We may go to the football field once a year and ask what can you tell us about football? That is so interesting? What have you learned? What have you learned about football? What do you like about football?
Speaker 2:It's fun. Fun and that's it Fun to lose, or?
Speaker 1:to win Both. Both Wow. Cool, because I know that when people win they are happy. When they win they cry. Okay, I understand. Did you think you would always be involved?
Speaker 3:here. I never thought about it. I wanted to become an ordinary sports director and one of the functions is to find good footballers for the club. I imagined myself traveling to different countries, establishing connections with different professional clubs. I look if they fit. If, for example, I work for a club, I look if it fits the style of the game and choose the best. That's what I dreamed of, but unfortunately no, unfortunately, maybe fortunately God has a different plan for me.
Speaker 1:Because I remembered, I remember I was at home, um, I was at home minding my own business, getting prepared, uh, getting prepared for another podcast, and andrian contacted me and he said and he says, oh, I want you to look at my, this football club, and I'm thinking what is this guy talking about? What? What Ukrainian football is? There's a lot of English football. There's no way Ukrainians compete with English football, yet there's no way. Just like you said, artyom, you know, when the English lose, they cry to take it to heart because football has always been here. You know, um, football has always been here and um, the english and the british they invest a lot of money into academic there's, there's kids that don't even go to school, they just dream to be a footballer, and so forth, and it's passionate. It's just just like, uh, I think, um, english football is kind of gets compared with italia and the spanish as well. They take it seriously, or even the brazilians, but english football, if you want to play the league, is always the british league. Um, I remember when you called me Andriyan. I remember when you said Radia Kozachok. I thought what is Radia Kozachok? Again, I think I am Radia Kozachok.
Speaker 1:I never liked it, but you called me and said Sashko, come to me, I will show you everything, how, what to what. I thought, okay, I will vote, I will come. And many children saw it. I thought it would be cool a place to live, but, as Niva said, I was right. Children should not only go to school and parents should go to school sorry to work, but children should find a place to play football. You see, they came to another country and these are children.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was 7 years old, my parents took me here. I was shocked. I was shocked. This is my story too. And then it was much harder Because then there were no Ukrainians at all. I came from all different nationalities, just like Artyom came with us. Thank God there are still many Ukrainians. There is a difference, but still it's great to have what you did For giving the opportunity not only to children to go through mental health. Thank God that there are many Ukrainians. There are differences and everything, but still it's great to have what you've done, because you've given the opportunity not only to children mental health and you're doing all this but also to parents Parents when they see their children going to a school or some facilities. I thank them for what they've done. Thank you to you for what you've actually done. You've created for the Ukrainian communities, not just for the kids, but also for the parents as well, which is very important, not only with football, but with other parents and maybe those parents came from the other end of London some information like a radio, because, you know, not everyone is on social media, not everyone is on these Telegram groups, not everyone is on WhatsApp, not everyone is on some groups, some platforms.
Speaker 1:I think the most alive is live communication, not social media. It's best, it's great, to give some information, but not all information. I'm glad. When I came there, I shot a video. That video was a bomb when I was on Facebook and then you told me from school what results you got. And now, in two years, you've grown even more. A lot has changed. I think many times you've. I think many times you wanted to give up, but you guys had a mission and you guys wanted to go, and now you've grown and I'm glad that you've done it and I'll be listening to you and watching you do it. It's great that you've done it. My next question what's my next question? How do you see all this?
Speaker 3:This is a question for me, because all my parents ask me about the professional academy they want. How do I see our club? Our club is already, you can say, like a trampoline for children in the professional football industry. That is, how will we do it? At the first stage, all children play equally in the local league and in London. We are there, we are ourselves, but we have very talented children. What to do with them? And here is Junior Premier League. This is the highest level for children which they can play and we have all the qualifications to register our children there. And there are scouts. This is not grassroots football and it turns out that we will do selection there. This is how it turns out. Now. Many Ukrainians play for other clubs, but those clubs, even if English, they don't play in Junior Premier League. They play in the local league. Then we will give a ban, do trials, choose the best and let them play in the Junior Premier.
Speaker 1:League. What is the difference between the local league and the Junior?
Speaker 3:Premier League Local league can have about 200 children. Junior Premier League is a national league. There are 25,000 children. This national league is already known in Europe. If we have a child, well, he lives in London for 2-3 years. Then the parents decided well, let's go to Poland or another country. We officially register all children in the Football Association, that is, they can prove it. They will go there. They will be asked have you played football? Yes, where In England and in which league? Junior Premier League this is a national league. Everyone in Europe knows and knows about the local league. I mean the local league. Right, thank you for the fact that there is a local league, because the bigger the league, even if it's small, the more children will play.
Speaker 3:This is the most important thing that they play Because, as they said, before they come here they don't know each other, and there they meet. They already get to know each other. They have a lot of Ukrainian friends. They already call each other on their birthday. We already have cases when one child goes on a weekend with a night shift to another to visit the parents already somehow make mini groups. Then, another very important factor Well, parents, you know where they work. They come here without choosing. At home maybe they had high positions, but here you have to work where there is a chance, and some parents who have problems with work they help each other. While the children are training, they sit, communicate, and if someone has problems with work, they turn to each other and they find each other a job. I want to say that Ukrainians support each other's work. I want to say that they support each other very much. Ukrainians support each other very much. This is very cool. Parents treat us with great respect, always listen if we ask them, for example, this, this, this, this.
Speaker 3:But another difference between us and other football clubs is that we organize excursions for them outside of training, so that they are outside of school, outside the football, without parents themselves. And we went to Cambridge. We still have a lot of plans, we just don't have time for them. They really like it when without parents. They know they open new cities for themselves. They learn to be alone on the street without parents. He is already looking. That is. He really liked it.
Speaker 3:This is one of the main factors that I would like to tell everyone that, in addition to the club, in addition to just coming training or playing and going home. No, we will still take them on different excursions together so that they become friends. Why? Because you finish the 9th grade, then Six Forms or college. It will be easier for them to get acquainted with our club. Go together, three of us, either to college or to university. I myself studied in the university. I was alone and it was difficult for me to be alone and imagine if there were three or four more from Moldova. It would be easier for me. And so they now sit and think so, after 9, 9 classes, where are we going? Which college? And they are already together, three of them. They are already a micro association. They go together. It will be easier for them feeling Plus our children playing with us. When they get into college or university, they immediately join football teams. If they play in Junior Premier League, they immediately join the team of the college. They are popular. On the second day, it is easier for them to make new friends. They will be invited to different birthdays. It is much easier. Therefore, through football we give children a chance to adapt much easier, to make many friends of their nationality.
Speaker 3:We will organize a warm-up for parents. We will meet on Sunday. This is a very important social factor they came here. We must stick together, guys. We are abroad. No one will help If we don't help each other. No one will help If we don't help each other, no one will help.
Speaker 3:In our club, parents understand, children understand. We don't have bullying. I tell all parents your child, after our training, when he comes home, he must smile and be happy. If he comes home sad, something is wrong. I must know it. We immediately stop him. Our priority is how they feel Then, where they will play and everything else and, most importantly, how they feel psychologically Smiling, friendly support and this spirit on the field. They must show it so that they play to the end. It doesn't matter if we lose 10-0. We play our game to the end. We show our character. Ukraine has already proved that it is not afraid of strong opponents and it will go to the end. Can you imagine how it will look like on such children, on the whole Ukrainian team, how they will tear them up? Therefore, we invite everyone in advance. We say where we play, Come and look at your children, especially if it's raining, dirty, torn, but they won't give up.
Speaker 1:This is probably the establishment of clubs like yours in other countries and involving children in the football industry beyond just playing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, in terms of this model. This model is transferable, so you can take it to anywhere in the world. So you could take the concept back to Ukraine, develop clubs over there or work in partnership, work in partnership with clubs. But the the other opportunity there is to think about the business of sport. You know, because sport is global, multi-billion pound industry, um, lots of jobs. So what we could do is something along the lines of working with a university or a college to develop their sports business programs, collaborate more with with clubs, you know. So create the opportunities for students to study and practice inside the clubs. And think really just about the British clubs. Now don't look at the UK, they look in all around the world. So you know, football is truly global.
Speaker 4:I'm doing some work for Manchester City. It's called the City Leadership Institute. Manchester City's focus is really just having bases all around the world, because they know that if they're going to be the best football club, they have to have representation in every part of the world, you know, to get the best players and share and share their good practice. So I think really, this, this model is, can definitely, can definitely be transferred. I think also, you have to as a country, ukraine, has to think globally. So you know the best I think Andrian will possibly talk about Juventus.
Speaker 4:You know, juventus have an academy in England. Benfica are going to have an academy in England. So a Ukrainian, either a Ukrainian professional club or a private club we can go to the United States and set one up, or we can set one up here, or we can set one up in Spain. Quite a number of people are doing now. So I think it's really about thinking this is, this is global. I mean, look at your, your best players, your best players, aren't in the ukraine. Are they necessarily there? They're in, they're all around the world, um, and so I think that's what, what we have to, what we have to learn from this I think it's a bit of a political as well if I I don't want to go.
Speaker 1:I don't want to go into it, but touch on yeah, yeah you know, when you said about a global, ukraine is not thinking global. I think because of the Russian influence they have and they kind of keep them behind. And also you said about players, ukrainian players, playing outside. Now the reason why they're playing outside is probably they're probably getting appreciated a lot better, more opportunities and the money as well, and the money is better outside than it is. I think Ukrainians, ukraine and Ukraine have better outside than it is. I think ukrainians, ukraine in ukraine, have to change that circumstances to make the players to say you know what? I don't want to play actually, I want to train outside, but I want to play back home. If that mentality can change, andrej, I can add something here.
Speaker 3:The message is to your professional football industry At home, you invest millions in your academy and train children and then you pray to catch a contract so that they play abroad. What is done at home? Investment a lot and where do your Ukrainian children play? Also at home. Against whom? Also against Ukrainians. Now you represent our club. We give the opportunity to Ukrainian children to play here.
Speaker 3:Let's take Junior Premier League. Junior Premier League has different divisions and there is also a professional academy. If your children play under-11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 in Junior Premier League, who do they play against? Against the English? This is a completely different mentality. And if your professional clubs, then at the age of 16, when they already have the right to sign a professional contract, take him home and train him physically so when he goes to play in the Champions League, he already has experience playing against another mindset. Can you imagine the difference? Even not that much money here, even that much cheaper here. It's like Juventus did. Dr Nikolaev said about Juventus. We are now organizing friendly games with our club. We have a boy on trials. It's on Tuesday they did the same thing. They opened their representatives here. They don't invest any money. All the footballers here who play for them. They pay, it is self-sufficient, and they all play in the Junior Premier League. And then Juventus looks at this good one and takes Vitaly for free. We can give a chance to Ukrainian children to grow here as a professional footballer and then he can come home and play for your club and win the Champions League or the European Cup.
Speaker 3:This is very important. Those who are good at football they now understand me perfectly well. Here you invest less, but where does your child play? In the very center of the world football industry. Play against whom? Against other children, let's say in which a lot of money is invested, and they learn. It's the same.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I can say the same about your soldiers. They give you European. They don't know how to do it. They need to be taught. And then here it's the same. Here they learn to play against, say, west and European. It's a completely different mentality, style of play, going back home and playing for you. You also have very strong football and professional clubs, so they already they have a footballer who understands perfectly how European clubs play. That's the difference, because at home he plays against the same Ukrainians, the same mindset, and here it's the other way around. Who understands football? If he hears me now, he should, in theory, contact me and say this is just great, we don't ask for money. We don't ask for money, we just say this is what we created. And who understands, he should understand it from afar. That's it.
Speaker 1:It's very I have a question. I just want to ask a question. I would say this in English and if Dina wants to answer, Dina and also Andreyan, we say a lot that Ukrainians can learn from British football. What can the British learn from the Ukrainian football? We often say that Ukrainians can learn from British and English football. What can British and English people learn from Ukrainian football?
Speaker 3:I am not so familiar with Ukrainian football, but I can say that I work at a school with English children, and here are our children. Our children have more ambitions and they don't give up so quickly. If the English children lose 5-6-0, they are already so-so, but the Ukrainians are not. They are up to the end, they have a good pace and they go. The difference is how they build the game. Here, children build the game as they were taught. There is a clear plan.
Speaker 3:What I noticed in Ukrainians this is my opinion, maybe I can and lose the ball because three of them will block it If you played with a psychological point of view. As Ukrainians, they need to do this. They don't have to give up and don't look at the fact that they are a strong opponent. Ukrainians are not afraid of strong opponents. They come out and say, well, real Madrid, so what we will do, what we can. It's just a difference in how they build the game. Yes, it's a big difference. Not the Champions League, but the European Cup. There was a big difference between how the Ukrainians attacked and how Chelsea attacked. The Ukrainians tried to defend themselves and were very predictable, and Chelsea didn't. They always tried to be creative. This immediately catches my eye what our children can take from English football, how to build a game communication between them and this creativity In the way you see a football game. It's a big difference.
Speaker 4:I think, also for me, is that we can. If you're serious about football coaching, you travel the world to find the best coaches. You don't believe that the best coaches are in your country, so we need to find out how do they produce in Ukraine? How are they producing players? You've got a player that sold for 90 million 100 million euros. You've got Zinchenko, who's played for two of the biggest clubs in the world. So we've got to find out who are the coaches. How do they produce these players? What are the conditions? What kind of training regimes do they do? Do they have a different mentality towards training? Do they make their players tougher, more resilient? Are the players hungrier? Are they more passionate? So I think you can learn from any country and any coach. And who knows, you know the best. Five years' time there may be a Ukrainian manager in the Championship or the Premier League. You know one of these coaches. There will be coaches out there with the right support can come to Europe as well.
Speaker 3:Can I add something? I just want to mention the Ukrainian manager, sheriff that beat Real Madrid. Remember that was Ukrainian manager.
Speaker 1:Recording. You said about coaching. How did you guys find your coaches? How did you find, or did they find, you?
Speaker 3:instead, they treat us like their own children. They don't forgive mistakes, especially Valentin Nikolaevich. He trains Andro 11. If you look at this team, it's like little predators. They want to win, they play, to win. They don't just play, they want to win. Of course, we pay and our coaches get qualifications. We grow, we grow, we grow a little bit, but in any case, your style is felt Because you had a school in Lobanovsk.
Speaker 3:If you know, lobanovsk won then and Barcelona won. And when you look at how they played, lobanovsk played 4-4-2, he had vertical passes center back. It was a novelty then. And plus he also approached with science. Vertical passes center back. It was a novelty then. And plus he also approached with science. That is he then, for the first time, when everyone was just kicking the ball, he approached and connected science. Therefore, they began to physically develop very much. Therefore, you have a very strong school. You just need to give a chance. That's what we do. Let's play in Junior Premier League and play in Lobanovsk school, which doesn't give up, which is physically very strong, and play for victory. They don't just play for victory.
Speaker 1:Dean, I have a question for you. Is your club affiliated with professional academics, and what exactly are these professional academics?
Speaker 4:No, no, we're set up as an individual club, so we're not, we're classed as a private club. But a professional academy is usually run by football clubs, professional football clubs. So an academy is a place where, from about the age of nine, you're allowed to bring players together for formalized training. Obviously at nine, ten, eleven, 12, up to 16 it would have to be, it has to be local. So the they pick, they pick the best, what they think are the best players in the area. They can only travel so far and they do intensive training. Um, you know, professional training, but again with limited numbers. Then when they get to 16, they can be, can be offered what's called a professional contract. So for two years. Then they're full time, they're getting paid, they're training, they're getting some education and then by the time they're 18, the club will have decided whether or not they're good enough to keep and the vast majority, 99.9%, will be released. You know they'll be told at 18, you can't play. You know you can't play for us, you'll have to go and find a club. So there could be hundreds and hundreds released.
Speaker 4:So that's the professional academies, but there are a lot more now, private academies. So we can set up a private academy. We don't need a professional organisation. We don't need a professional football club, can we don't need professional football club. So, as I said, we can set one. We could set up a ukrainian academy if we wanted, here we. But we would need finance, you know. We would need a home, we'd need to be able to be on that campus at least, you know, maybe 20 hours a week. So so you can see that for a football club it's it's expensive, but yeah but they.
Speaker 4:But it's worth it because they're investing. I think one of the problems with them is that they, from a very young age, they raise the expectations of the parents and sometimes the children. So, you know, an 11-year-old who's in the Arsenal Academy is a long, long way from ever playing football for Arsenal, but that's not sometimes the impression they get and so all along the way they're going to be dropping out. You know a lot drop out 11, 12, 13. They don't like it. It's too competitive. But there are more professional private organisations and a lot of football players now are setting up their own academies. I think Steven Gerrard set one up in Spain. So it's the people that don't get into the professional academies that get into their academies. So again, it's the same thing. The expectation is that some of those players will become professional. So even if you're released at 18, you still have the opportunity to train with another club and sometimes make it. So that's the difference. So so we are.
Speaker 1:We're not attached to a professional club I wanted to ask you step by step someone finds you online for someone. What is the step of joining your club Through online, through someone? What are the opportunities, and do I need to forget any of my questions?
Speaker 3:Very easily. If they find us. We send everyone to Liana. Liana is our welfare officer of our club and chairman of the management committee. Liana registers them, gives a contract, registers and then by age, then we determine which team. By age. We have Arthur. He is a secretary. He takes a child and takes him to the right team. Then the coach meets him and represents the team.
Speaker 3:Everything is easy, very easy. Everything is in Ukrainian. It costs 30 pounds now, 30 pounds a month and we train once a week. Parents want, and 2 and 3 times. It's all about money we have. Now. There is no sponsor.
Speaker 3:We didn't look for it, especially if, honestly, while the parents cover everything, but if you need to play twice or more, then already, yes, it will be too much for parents. We have parents and two sons. When we start playing, it will cost 55 pounds. You train once and play once. If you train twice and play once again three times a week, it's a semi-professional level. It costs money. You can't think how to make it cheaper. It costs money. You can't think how to make it cheaper. But if it is so, it will cost about 85 pounds per child. Some clubs that already have sponsors. They can do it a little cheaper, but we can't do it cheaper. This is our limit. If there are two children, imagine, in a family 85-85, almost 200 pounds, and mostly our parents, they are poor and work at ordinary jobs From morning to evening. Where to send emails to what clubs? And the club doesn't answer you right away and everything is in English.
Speaker 3:Therefore, I believe that the Ukrainian nation is now in a unique case in the football industry. When you imagine such people, how lucky we are that our board director is Dr Nick Weil, you can imagine how lucky we are that our board director is Dr Nick Weil, mr Andy Golding. He teaches at my university. He has an international reputation and my sent him the information. There were too many of them.
Speaker 3:To have such people next to you who will open the door for you is unique. There is no nation that has made a club for its children, registered a club and has a club for its children, and there is no nation that has made a club for its children, registered a club. It's unique to have such people around you who will open all the doors for you, and there is no nation that has made a club for its children, registered Junior Premier League, for example, and has such directors with great connections. In addition to giving them a chance to play on the field, if they want to become a coach, then we help them with colleges, universities Everything is free. We help them. Who wants a football industry. We are more than a club. It's not just a football club. Children came, played, came home. No, this means friendship, connections, network, opportunities to get into different colleges. We, of course, will go to the professional academy.
Speaker 1:Adrian, you said to play. You are training and playing.
Speaker 3:Are you playing with whom? With yourself, I mean. We will officially play in the league against other English teams. And now, now you play too. No, now we don't play. How do you train? We just train and play friendly games.
Speaker 1:And who do you play friendly games with?
Speaker 3:We find different clubs, also English I have just agreed with Juventus. I just honestly don't have enough time. And so there are English clubs, local clubs, so that we can already, you know, building a club is not just getting children. They should get used to each other, they should study each other how they play. They need time and now, while we're preparing the team, we're going to arrange these little friendly games to see how our team is being built.
Speaker 3:Because if you immediately gather children and let them play in the championship, they will lose 10-0, 20-0. After 10 games they will say we don't want to play. Emotionally, they will fall. It's not that easy. You are recruiting children. They need time to grow up, to get used to each other. There are children who have pushed football, didn't push, it got offended. You won't win. They got used to each other. There are children who can do something Football Pushed, didn't push, offended. You won't win with such a team.
Speaker 3:Building a team is not just getting children, and that's it. You need to make sure they fit each other. They need time to adapt, they need time to study each other, and that's why we only train, we arrange friendly games and we look at who plays which position. And now, in two years, we are ready. We already have Kostya, we already have Under 11, 12, 13, 14. These teams already exist. Under 15 needs to be picked up and there will be 5 teams. That is for a club. That usually starts with one, team, two and we have 5. Even too many? I can't say no to children. They come, they ask Okay, we'll help you, and in two years you can already leave with teams, because children already know each other, they know who plays how and now there is already hope.
Speaker 1:But everything comes with experience. How many teams?
Speaker 3:do you?
Speaker 1:have Five. How many people are in these five groups?
Speaker 3:We try to get to 20 in each team Because, considering that especially small age 11, 12, 13 in the winter period are getting old and can't come. So we get 20 children and they play 9 on 9, not 11 on 11. For example, under 11 and under 12 play 9 on 9, already from 13 to 11 on 11. If 9 on 9 plays, if you have 12 in the team, you think, well, that's enough for me. And if 4 are sick or have received a trauma, then we recruit up to minutes. But we will play exactly the same. We will play minutes at the first stage. At the second stage, when we play Junior Premier League, we will choose and give the best chances.
Speaker 1:What's the feedback from the parents? There was a family. They came here a boy, 11 years old.
Speaker 3:I think he didn't do very well at school. Children come don't know English and it's not as easy to make friends here as it is here. All English children have their own method of friendship, their understanding of friendship. Children were sad and they wanted to go back home Because the child could not get used to this school. They accidentally found out about us when the child saw so many Ukrainian children. They stayed and did not go anywhere, only because they found a Ukrainian club and their child child has many friends and his social life is fine and he will go to school.
Speaker 1:What challenges do you think Ukrainian children may face if they play for other clubs? What are the problems I said?
Speaker 3:it before, but I will repeat it again. Firstly, they don't play official games. Secondly, language barrier. They just came, don't know English.
Speaker 3:We have one boy, very talented, markian. He immediately stood out. We sent him to Ryan FC. Ryan FC is a local club which a lot of players from there got into the professional academy. That is a very serious club we dream of becoming like them.
Speaker 3:You can say he was noticed and he was given a chance to play. For you know, clubs can have three teams of the same age and they distribute by colors. Red is elite. He was returned back and told that he didn't understand English. Can you imagine what a chance he had? Language is a barrier for them. Second, how they are introduced into the team, because if he is good, but if he doesn't connect to the others, I won't pass him. The coach notices that he doesn't play with him and he will sit on the bench when someone gets injured. That is two main challenges. If someone hears me from Ukrainians and thinks my child plays every game, you are lucky. It turns out that one can play out of 20.
Speaker 3:Basically, last year we played together. They really wanted to play in the team and we did it and sent them to the club. Then I asked them how many times have you played officially for the whole year? Three times, three times, three times. Why? They told me that I was not ready yet. We don't have that. We have ready-not-ready. You will play. Ready is for Junior Premier League higher. And so, no, you will play. You must grow there on the field.
Speaker 3:We want to help them in raising a child, that is, on the other hand, we are parents and together we will make wonderful children. Even if they do not become professional footballers, they will go to other professions. Being a serious club, I mean that our culture inside the organization is very important for us. How the child feels psychologically is the most important thing. He will come out of us psychologically strong, strong, friendly and, most importantly, he knows how to accept criticism. This is one of their problems. That is, the coach tells him you know, like in sports.
Speaker 3:In sports, let's say, if me and Artem go to training, if I come to Ferrari and Artem comes to the underground, if the coach puts 100 meters on the competition, if Artem is stronger, then he will beat me. Ferrari will not help me. In sports you cannot cheat. If you are stronger, it shows the result. That's what we're going for. It doesn't matter for us where our parents work Absolutely it's important for us how our parents behave inside our organization. Whether one parent is a cleaner, a businessman, it doesn't matter. We all belong to the same level and we don't have favorites for our children.
Speaker 1:I see Dean. I think Dean understands a bit of Ukrainian Russian now, I think, because he's looking. He's like I know what he's talking about. We're going to wrap up our podcast. I've got two final questions to ask you. The first question is what advice would you give to Ukrainians, or maybe suggestions to Ukrainians that you think that you need to give them as parents, Ukrainians in here in UK, regarding your football association?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think, for me, we need more support, so we need some, we need money. The parents help finance this, but really this is to help this grow and to give the players more opportunities. We need a good sponsor. You know the british or ukrainian, so somebody, so somebody could come forward and somebody sees what we, what the andrin and the the team, are doing here. It's something that's really you should want to support it because of what it does and because of what it's achieved.
Speaker 4:You know, if you think that's a horrendous situation for two years now, what the players, you know this has changed their lives, hasn't it, you know? So, just a little bit more money. We can do more. You know, maybe we can start looking to have more games, expand. You know, maybe somebody can sponsor a trip. You know we have connections all over europe. We can take these boys, uh, to barcelona tomorrow. We have friends in barcelona that have teams, just need some funding. Yeah, just, you know somebody wants to to help out.
Speaker 4:Help out, you know, your, your people, and I think really that, um, you know, just see how wonderful this is. You know it's, it's really, it's really great to be part of something. That that's that's helping people, you know, get over and partly maybe get over what's happening at home. You know that we can't underestimate what people are going through there. Um, you know I go back as well.
Speaker 4:I think probably earlier on I said I was from sheffield, but sheffield is twinned with Donetsk, so I've grown up as a young man knowing that we had a partner. You know that with this, these twin twinning, is very important. You know you, I'll take you to Sheffield and I'll take you down Donetsk way. And so I think, really, just, you know, appealing here to Ukraine, if your parents or grandparents or business people just just give some support, you know, give some money, you know it's, it's. You won't spend your money in a better way for me. So I would say that for and for any any ukrainian, uh, parents that are watching this and aren't so, then then contact the club. You know, come and come and join us. You know, come and help. I mean, you know the, the parents, help they, they act as volunteers, don't they? And the coaches, so we can grow with their support. We can definitely grow Can.
Speaker 3:I add something Dr Nikolay just said. What I want to say I want to address the Ukrainians. We all know that very rich, successful Ukrainians live in London. Please don't drink your expensive whiskey for one day and pay the kids for the field. Pay the field. The field is expensive. They want more than once a week. The parents can't afford it. We created so much but we can't grow because everything is on parents. I know that there are a lot of successful Ukrainians here, a lot. I know that football is very popular in Ukraine. We created a Ukrainian youth football club. We are in the very center of what can be in the football world industry, having such directors, as we have great opportunities.
Speaker 3:My university has already done a lot, gave us 12 thousand pounds. Now only parents cover. I can't. We all work for free. What we pay the coaches is so that they come to us after work, have time to have something to eat and go on the road To grow further and make a really very serious result. Financial support is needed. This is not a million and this is not hundreds of thousands. This is a couple of hundreds and a couple of thousands. You need financial support. It's not millions and it's not hundreds of thousands. It's a couple of hundreds and a couple of thousands. That's it. I know that in London there are a lot of successful Ukrainians. Please look how much we've already done. Just come to us and help. It's very difficult to do. I wouldn't do it a second time.
Speaker 1:Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners about your experiences or insights of your football club?
Speaker 3:If not, if you already wanted, but we did as much as we could, but I know that there are very powerful Ukrainians who are in London. They just don't know about us. Come to us, help us. I know that a couple of thousand is not a problem for you there. I am addressing those who are really not a problem. There are influential, successful Ukrainians here and you love football. You don't want to have your own club here to win English teams. Do you know how many will get into the professional academy we?
Speaker 1:And, finally, where can our listeners and viewers connect with you and learn more about you guys?
Speaker 3:We will be happy to work with Alexander next season because Sasha is watching and loves a lot of Ukrainians. You know, parents sometimes come to me and say you know? I saw Sasha today in the center of London and another parent said I took a selfie with him. I said well, congratulations. Yes, so through you, and I can say about Educational Hub If you don't know, ukraine has opened its own Educational Hub, which is supported by your Ministry of Education. The manager is Evgenia. Evgenia agreed to be our ambassador. She will also talk about us through their network. Therefore, we have your Ministry of Education with Education Hub. This can be believed. Yes, this is a very serious organization. They are doing great. They are happy to support us. We are very grateful. And Network UA and Sasha Kozak Talks.
Speaker 3:How do you find yourself? If you type online, it's already shown Facebook if you want Facebook. We are mostly on Facebook. We know that Ukrainians use Facebook a lot and that's why we have our own group there. It's called FC Inter London. Do you have Instagram? I have Instagram. I have TikTok. I have YouTube Ah, cool. And Facebook mostly Facebook, because Ukrainians use Facebook a lot.
Speaker 1:There are more Ukrainians on facebook. I will send you the link to all the links below. I will send you the link so you can see the logo. If you need to contact Andriy, he will answer all your questions. Artyom, what last words do you want to say to yourself, because you were almost silent the whole way through this podcast? What do you want to say to yourself and to your friends, because your friends know that you're on the podcast today? I know a lot of people will listen to you and watch this podcast. Maybe you'll be famous. Selfies will be with you. I'll tell you you will be. I know you in the podcast. Let's take a selfie with you and it will be shown to you.
Speaker 1:Look, I want to say Andrian and Dean, thank you very much for being on my Koza Talks podcast, where we do life with Ukrainians and life with successful Ukrainians here in the UK, but also organizations. I invite also different Ukrainian organizations or anyone that's affiliated with Ukrainian organizations, also British and English people, to come over to my podcast for them to share experiences how they work with Ukrainians and how to integrate and how, from not just from the Ukrainian perspective, how they can integrate, but also from the British side how they see how Ukrainians are integrated, because it's very important from both sides. So thank you for being on, kozatox. Thank you for agreeing. Um andrean artyom, I see the difference between British football and Ukrainian football. I think you're a success.
Speaker 1:Most importantly, don't give up Ukrainians. Don't give up. Ukrainians are moving forward. Andriyan already told us that there is no difference between Ukrainians and our opponents. Russians are a big army, but they don't show us. We all think it does. Don't get carried away, dear Ukrainians. As I always say on my podcast, we hold on, we don't give up. We only move forward. Glory to Ukraine.
