But Premier League refused. Dynamo head coach Oleh Blokhin has commented upon this situation:
- First of all I’d like to state that I care about our national team very much. Six Dynamo players got call-ups to Ukraine national team, six – to Ukraine U-21 and five more – to other national sides. This means that we do our job properly. No other club in our country is represented by such large group of players in different national teams. I guess Premier League is not aware of this fact.
- Why do you think so?
- Every coach knows that players need some time to rest after national team games. Each spare hour is important in such situation. So we hoped that Premier League will postpone our match against Chornomorets.
- But FC Shakhtar Donetsk will also play on March 30!
- Let’s be realists. It’s already clear that nothing will prevent Shakhtar from becoming champions this season. At the moment it’s more important who’ll finish second. Our main opponents – FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FC Metalist Kharkiv will play their matches on March 31. We’d like to be on equal footing with them.
- What do you think is the reason for the refusal of the Premier League in response to Dynamo’s request?
- Maybe they made the schedule in autumn when Dynamo and Shakhtar had equal chances to win the Ukrainian league. But now the situation is different and I suppose that the schedule should be changed a bit to be fair to everyone.
- Maybe someone doesn’t want Dynamo secure the Champions League spot?
- I don’t want to think of that. My task is to work with my team. I don’t ask for some privileges. I just want us to be on equal terms with other clubs. I hope that common sense will eventually prevail.
- Maybe you should appeal to The Football Federation of Ukraine?
- We have appealed FFU already. Now we are waiting for the response. I hope it will be positive.
