Political Aspects of Ukrainian Football Clubs Charity Matches in European Countries (in the Context of the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War)

The socio-political aspects of the charity matches of the ”Dynamo” (Kyiv) and ”Shakhtar” (Donetsk) Ukrainian football clubs in European countries in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022 have been studied. These matches were aimed at informing the international public about Russia's full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine, collecting funds for the victims (“Dynamo“), and drawing attention to the large number of victims and injured among children (“Shakhtar”). The author claims that the charity European tours of Ukrainian clubs have had a positive effect on the image of clubs fans, European football, countries in general, and contributed to the improvement of mutual understanding between people. The largest number of «matches for peace» has taken place in those countries that intensively help Ukraine in protecting its territorial integrity, and themselves experienced the horrors of war. These are Poland, Turkey and Croatia. Other countries have also confirmed their political support for Ukraine on the ”sports front“. Political aspects of Ukrainian clubs friendly matches cover various spheres of social life, specifically: history (cities of European states), information (fighting fakes), political culture (civic position of famous people, actions and behavior of players, spectators), sports (refusal of clubs to hold matches), arts (holding performances). Political aspects have various manifestations: visual (decoration of stadiums, uniforms of football players, banners and posters of spectators), verbal (chanting and exclamations of fans) and media (manipulation of information).

The methodology of this article is based on logical, comparative, statistical and cognitive research methods.