Vorskla Football Club (Poltava) played its final game with Alexandria in Ukrainian Premier League. The game was rather token: Vorskla players summarized their achievements, twice in a row in the top five of the best football teams of Ukraine.
While KrAZ is a calling card of Poltava region in the industry, Vorskla is its calling card in sport. Poltava region today is one of the most developed regions of the country and leader in football development in Ukraine. It may be said without exaggeration that it should be regarded as merit of politician and businessman Konstantin Zhevago. Vorskla Football Club and Gorniak-Sport and Kremen farm-clubs are a big social project of Honorary President of Vorskla Football Club Konstantin Zhevago and all the sport community of Poltava region can be proud of it.
Today Ukrainian football is loosing money. The game of millions needs investment of millions in conventional units and not in UAH. Only really passionate philanthropists who fanatically believe in football and future of sport in Ukraine afford such expenses. Konstantin Zhevago is one among few people who both invests money and puts his heart into sport.
Annual budget of Vorskla Football Club is about USD 10m. Funds are spent for various purposes. Main expenditure item is development of the first team: necessary outfit, 14 coaches and administrators, training centres, football grounds and a host of other things that make it possible to hold the bar high. Vorskla main team has one of the best out-of-town training centres among all the football clubs of the country. It includes huge sporting complex with state-of-the-art medical rehabilitation centre, swimming pool, restaurant and 25 twin rooms to accommodate football players. Three full size lawn football fields, tennis courts, basketball and volleyball grounds, futsal field are at a distance of 200 from the centre. Maintenance of Vorskla and Ltava stadiums is a considerable expenditure item. UAH 10m were spent in 2013 to repair main stadium in Poltava on the occasion of Vorskla participation in League of Europe 2015/16, another UAH 2,5m were spent to repair bleachers and automatic watering system, replace seats, etc.
Considerable investments are made into education of future first-team players, young footballers of U-19 and U-21 teams. Ltava stadium has two full size grounds in Krutoi Bereg suburb, where second-stringers of white and green team and Vorskla U-19 have their competitive and friendly matches. A mini ground with up-to-date flooring was built in 2015 at Ltava stadium for the youngest football players. Two state-of-the-art stadiums in Nizhnie Mliny and one stadium in the territory of Poltava Brake Components Plant are about to open their doors, children from 6 to 17 years will be able to complete in football on natural grass and last generation synthetic turf football fields.
In this March Vorskla managers took decision to establish its own boarding house for talented children of Poltava region who will live and train there. Vorskla managers have always paid much attention to homegrown talents that can hope for promotion providing hard work. For instance, Kremenchug resident Roman Bezus raised to the ranks of Dynamo Kiev and the national team from local Kremenchug team. Now this remarkable half-back player with extraordinary technique is one of key players of Dnieper (Dnepropetrovsk).
We can endlessly enumerate everything that People’s Deputy Konstantin Zhevago does for Poltava region keeping a low profile: assistance to orphanages, boarding houses and targeted financial aid to sick children.
The remarkable thing is that Vorskla is a menace for undisputed leaders of Ukrainian football. Dynamo Kiev, Donetsk Shakhtar, Lugansk Zorya and other eminent teams lost points playing with Vorskla. It should be noted that the team in top competition form is ambitious and determined to reach goals set by club managers. Club bosses, in their turn, take care to award bonuses for successful performance. After all Volyn (Lutsk), Metallurg (Donetsk, Zhaporozhye), Metallist (Kharkov), Dnieper (Dnepropetrovsk), Chernomorets (Odessa), Goverla (Uzhgorod) and other once successful teams disbanded or are on the verge of extinction from football map of Ukraine. In contrast, Vorskla for 11 years with Konstantin Zhevago at the head has been promoted to UEFA Europe League four times and will defend the honour of Ukrainian football in one of the most prestigious tournaments of the Old World. Only 12 teams of our country managed to participate in European Cup Tournaments since the time when Konstantin Zhevago has taken over a position of Club President and only 4 teams appeared in Europa League more often than Vorskla (Poltava).
Once again the Honorary President of Vorskla thanked everybody for giving support to local team in his speech at the sports arena of Poltava region and emphasized that football will live on and develop and football team will set and reach ambitious goals year in year out. People believe him because during his time as President Konstantin Zhevago has never raised doubts that Vorskla is well-handled, this team was, is and will be a prestigious calling card of the region known in high football society.
