Ten years after the European Football Championship: a free Kharkiv above all

Football now briefly provides relief in dark times. When Artem Dovbyk gives Ukraine a 3-1 lead against Scotland at Hampden Park, the Zmiivskoi family bounces off the bench. Father Andrii (60), mother Nataliia (57) and daughter Tetiana (31) celebrate a modest party in a living room in Warsaw. Baby Roman (0) is already asleep. And eldest son Stanislav (36) cheers while hiding in the catacombs of a flat during the air raid siren in Lviv.

The national team of national coach Olek-sandr Petrakov is still one step away from the World Cup in Qatar. A decisive game in and against Wales will follow on Sunday. The Zmiivskoi family will then again be glued to the television and laptop. In Warsaw and in Lviv. “Winning the war is now our goal. It’s really not possible to think about anything else,” Tetiana Zmiivska said via WhatsApp. “But when it comes to football, the World Cup is of course the dream. Everyone supports the team. Football evokes a lot of emotions.”

Football is now more than ever an afterthought in the lives of Ukrainians from Kharkov. They have been on the run since late February. Initially, the Zmiivskoi family thought they could await the battle in the air-raid shelters of Kharkov. But soon the shelling proved so heavy that leaving was the only option.

Four months ago they all made the crossing to Poland via the western city of Lviv. Except for Stanislav. As a man of 36 years, he was not allowed to leave his country. He stayed behind in Ukraine and communicates via Zoom with his parents, his sister, his wife and his son. “I will never forget and forgive what the Russians did to us. Only when everything is 100 percent safe will we go back to Kharkov,” Stanislav writes via Messenger. “Helping to rebuild the city. And make it better than it ever was. That is what I want.”

How different the future prospects of the Charcovites were ten years ago. At the time, Ukraine’s second-largest city was preparing for the 2012 European Championship. A veritable Dutch invasion took place in the city, which is a mixture of imposing Soviet architecture, desolate apartment buildings and endless parks. Because Kharkov was the host city of the Dutch national team. The Orange squad played against Denmark, Germany and Portugal. An impressive orange march continued to march from the center to the stadium. It was not a success. The three group matches were lost and the Orange squad could go home as the laughingstock of the tournament. However, Tetiana has only good memories of the tournament. „The atmosphere in the city was so great everywhere cool with all those Dutch, Danes, Germans and Portuguese,” she says. As if Europe had come to Kharkov.

Secret Service

A century ago, Europe felt very far away. At the time, Kharkiv was the capital of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, founded in 1918, and today’s Freedom Square was still called Dzerzhinsky Square, named after the infamous founder of the Cheka, the secret service where Vladimir Putin began his career. Father Andrii and mother Nataliia were born and raised as citizens of the Soviet Union in the 1960s, while their children grew up largely in an independent Ukraine. About forty kilometers from the Russian border, the two cultures intertwined without too many problems. Until recently, Russian was the main language in Kharkov and the family was then known as ‘Zmievskoy’ (phonetically translated from Russian and not from Ukrainian). Ten years ago, the city’s Freedom Square still featured an 8.5-meter-tall statue of Vladimir Lenin.

The older generation often focused on Moscow, while younger people preferred to look at Paris or London. The family where Andrii brought in the money as a small businessman lived a simple life. A small apartment in one of the countless gray apartment buildings formed the parental home. The parents and children felt that they lived in different worlds. The generation gap was huge. “I mainly focused on my work. The purchase and sale of goods,” says Andrii. “My wife and I only went to Europe for the first time in 2017. With the help of our daughter Tetiana.”

Stanislav, active in the video game world, and Tetiana, an IT specialist, discovered the West much earlier than their parents. “We experienced the digital transition from up close. We were part of that ourselves,” Tetiana explains in fluent English. Her brother Stanislav agrees. “I was able to build my own career by working for an international company that develops games. I traveled all over Europe for that. I got to know another world.”

Metalist Kharkiv

A decade ago, football club Metalist Kharkov was the unifying factor in the Zmiivskoi family. The home games in the Oblasny Sportivny Komplex were invariably attended by the family. Father Andrii enjoyed watching football with his children. He was also able to express his emotions there. ‘Stas’ and ‘Tania’ experienced football in their own way. They were especially looking forward to duels in the Europa League when Metalist had to compete with foreign visitors. Such as in 2010 when PSV was linked to the ‘steel workers’ club’. A small group of Eindhoven fans celebrated the 2-0 victory for the Dutch club. Despite the defeat, these kinds of international matches gave the life of Metalist fans a glow. A foretaste for the European Championship that would come to the metropolis with 1.4 million inhabitants two years later.

The European Championship was supposed to open the door to Europe for Ukraine. Partly for this reason, it was decided to organize the tournament together with EU member Poland. Other candidates such as Italy, Croatia and Hungary were trumped. Within Ukraine, an internal battle ensued between candidate host cities. Aleksander Jaroslavski, the very wealthy club owner of Metalist, personally ensured that the European Championship would come to Kharkov. “When it became known that matches would be played here, I immediately signed up as a volunteer. The backpack from that tournament survived everything. I took it with me during our flight to Poland,” says Tetiana from Warsaw. “It was then that I first came into contact with young people from other countries. That opened my eyes. I went to live on my own. It may not have been perfect, but the future looked hopeful.”

The European Championship was a catalyst for Kharkiv in several ways. A war was never thought possible at the time. The four battles that took place around the city during World War II belonged to a distant past. A time when Kharkov, as a producer of army tanks, was known as one of the most important industrial centers of the Soviet Union. Decades later, the remains of it can still be seen in the form of old dilapidated factories.

Another, modern Kharkiv, also emerged. Including Porsches, expensive hotels and tinsel. For the European Championship, oligarch Yaroslavski invested 225 million euros for the construction of infrastructure and the renovation of the Metalist stadium. “On the one hand, not enough has been done to modernize the metal industry, but good steps have been taken in terms of accessibility and digitization,” says Andrii. Nataliia: “And the city became much more beautiful by the construction of sports fields for the youth, the many parks and the beautiful zoo.”

Maidan Revolution

After the European Championship of 2012, the prospects for the Zmiivskois, the city of Kharkov and the football club Metalist look good. Father Andrii and mother Nataliia are proud to see their children stand on their own two feet by developing internationally. Although a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian is spoken within the family, Stanislav and Tetiana speak more and more English at work. But when they are together at Metalist Kharkov, the football language is spoken in the stands. Life seems good. Until 2014. The annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in the Donbas changes a lot. And for the Metalist following almost anything.

After the European Championship of 2012, Metalist Kharkov had come into the hands of Sergei Kurchenko, owner of Gas Ukrain. This oligarch was on the side of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and had to flee to Russia after the Maidan revolution in 2014. He is now on the list of Ukrainian oligarchs subject to international sanctions. Metalist Kharkov quickly ran into financial difficulties after his departure and went into freefall in all respects. Until the club went bankrupt in 2016. Under the name FC Metalist 1925, the club started again in the lower regions. “Shaktar Donetsk came to play in our stadium. That’s where my football hobby ended for me,” says Tetiana. Father Andrii: „Metalist will always remain our club. Football will always be one of my great loves. As a family, we had even obtained tickets for the Netherlands-Ukraine at the European Championship of 2020. Unfortunately, Covid-19 threw a spanner in the works.”

The year 2022 began for the Zmiivskoi family between hope and fear. The corona pandemic seemed to have peaked, and Metalist was on its way back to the top division under Yaroslavski’s renewed leadership. Above all, there was the threat of a Russian invasion. And it came on February 24. Soon Kharkov was also bombarded. The football competition came to a halt immediately. The playoffs for World Cup qualification have been postponed. The Zmiivskoi family left from the center of the city for the house of Stanislav’s in-laws. There they sat with ten adults, a child, a baby, a dog and four cats before going on the run. The beginning of an uncertain existence in Warsaw and Lviv. Tetiana: „I mainly live from day to day. I do realize that this war will not just pass. I had a lot of plans at the beginning of this year. I wanted to work more independently from home. And preferably in another country. I was thinking of Thailand, Portugal or the Netherlands. It has become Poland. But of course completely different from what I had in mind. Now I want to go back to Kharkov as soon as possible.” Father Andrii and mother Nataliia now cherish their pre-war existence. “After the victory, we will again face the pre-war problems in Kharkov. Like poverty and corruption. However, the people will be stronger than ever.”