Ukrainian Post-Soviet Football: Between Professionalization and Criminalization

• In Event: Moral Inversion: Value Change, Memory and Culture After Communism, 1990 Onwards

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the professionalization and commercialization of Ukrainian football after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with a particular focus on the ‘new rich’ in this process. Based on media materials and interviews, it will analyse how the Soviet legacy of patronage and the new realities of the market economy shaped the transformation of Ukrainian football after 1991, creating close ties between the criminal and footballing worlds. It will also examine how new patrons and new money influenced the rules of the game for former Soviet players and coaches, and the long-term cultural imprint this left on Ukraine.

Author

• Kateryna Chernii, ZZF Potsdam (Germany) / European U Viadrina (Germany)