91Èȱ¬

Shame about the high price of flights as well as lack of flights and lack of accommodation in Donetsk. It also doesn't help that Portugal is at the opposite end of Europe. Don't expect more than 3-4,000 Portuguese fans.

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@1 the fact less people made the trip is what has made the Euros.

Donetsk is a friendly city & the extra cost of the flight is more than made up with the lower cost of living. There is accommodation, but you do have to accept that it may not be western in standard (but not awful either). Thoroughly enjoyed my 10 days there over the last couple of weeks.

Thanks for the blog.
I live in Donetsk for 8 months of the year. I recently saw the daily mirror describe Donetsk as "the Barnsley of Ukraine". Having been brought up in Sheffield (next to Barnsley), I assure anyone that whoever wrote that article in the mirror had never set foot in Donetsk. Donetsk is a nice city with open spaces and yes, even the accomodation is catching up with western standards. Food is cheap but clothes etc are more expensive than in the UK. Racism exists everywhere however, I have seen very little ever in Donetsk and you would be surprised how many African students choose to come to study here.
BTW...glad England lost.....it would have been an affront to football if they won.

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By the magic of Google streetview I would agree that the stadiums are night and day different.

Saw Donetsk play against Celtic in Glasgow about 7 years ago now. We beat them on penalties then, but you could tell with the money they were headed for big things.

I really hope Portugal win, getting tired of watching Spain and their perfect football, would like to see them troubled a bit, see how they play having to come back from behind when it matters in a knock-out stage.

Also don't forget that the city was founded by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes, and the city was also originally called after a Ukrainian approximation of his name. Well, I always found this interesting.

Hugo Almeida starting for Portugal :(

Donetsk is a fantastic city, a lot more cosmopolitan than most people expect. Having been to 3 games there it was a shame that only England brought some actual fans to the game and the fans enjoyed themselves immensely it seems. It was just a shame that certain 91Èȱ¬ journalists and others decided to try and ruin the tournament before it had even started by trying to further their own careers with exaggerated lies and nonsense. It's a shame no-one at the 91Èȱ¬, in particular the odious careerist David Bond, has had the guts to apologise and admit they got it wrong.

10 - spot on. Has there been one incident of racist trouble for a spectator in the entire tournament? The whole thing was just a ploy to get people to go to the London Olympics instead.

white people talking about a lack of racism. quelle surprise.

Number 10 - Totally agree. The 91Èȱ¬ should apologise for the biased coverage the Panorama programme made towards Ukraine and Poland. Yes they managed to find some racist incidents at games which I in no-way condone, however I am sure you can find similar things happening just as frequently on the terraces of Italy and a number of other Western European countries. The programme made out it was a unique phenomenon to the host nations which it most certainly is not. It also massively over-egged the problem with the Sol Campbell nonsense about black people "coming home in a box". Out of interest, can the 91Èȱ¬ actually do some unbiased investigation and tell us how many non-white people have been Assaulted (nevermind killed) in Ukraine during this tournament as a result of racially aggravated attacks?

Good blog Steve by the way.

see no evil. hear no evil.

It's strange because most if not all of the reported racist incidents came from Spanish, Russian and Croatian fans. I don't recall one from UKraine. Only the one in Poland when the Dutch were training. I hope Ukraine can move forward as a footballing nation. In the U19s Euros in 2009 we won it, beat England 2-0 in the final. Those youngsters now need to come through.

16 - The future looks bright for the Ukrainian team with excellent young players like Konoplyanka, Butko, Bezus and Yarmolenko. I went to watch the Ukraine Under-21s play Sweden Under-21s at Obolon Arena and they were absolutely fantastic and won 6-0. Some great football on show. But they need to learn consistency, as shown by a disappointing 1-0 defeat in Lithuania off the back of that Sweden result.

Should be very good match tomorrow night. With the way both sides have been playing so far I would put Portugal as slight favourites against Spain. Portugal have been getting better and better and show they can score lots of goals. Spain are also playing good but not been scoring much goals but have a strong defence.

@17 - Yes they are promising players. Kono and Yarmo are being looked at by top clubs. I fear we don't have anyone to replace Shevchenko though. I also fear we have lost some of the other players from 2009 like Korkishko, although am glad Garmash is making it forward he is a very promising midfielder. Aliev should also get more games.

12. At 21:47 26th Jun 2012, plath wrote:
white people talking about a lack of racism. quelle surprise.
______________________________________________________

And you know for a fact that these people who are commenting on the lack of racism in Donetsk are all white?

#10 & #11 have it spot on. I can not remember reading of a single incident of a travelling supporter being racially abused by a Ukrainian during the entire duration of this tournament. Yet of course the 91Èȱ¬ and the likes of Sol Campbell would have you believe that any non-white supporters were, quote: "likely to come home in a box".

If this tournament were being held in Italy, where similar isolated incidents of racial abuse unfortunately creep up on the terraces from time to time, there would have been no suggestion of their right to host the tournament. The suggestion that Ukraine wasn't fit to do so was a smear on the vast majority of decent, racially tolerant Ukrainians

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Looking forward to the semi's. Although disappointed England aren't there, it's good to have the 4 best teams making it through and no surprise they're from the 2 difficult groups. Would love to see Portugal go all the way but just think Spain will stifle Ronaldo and he'll get too frustrated

#12
white people talking about a lack of racism. quelle surprise.

People are merely stating that there has been nothing close to the levels of racism shown in the 91Èȱ¬ documentary. You are implying that all white people take the stance you have mentioned based on a couple of comments, which is more ridiculous than the point you are trying to make. Furthermore what do you expect, people are going to form their opinions based on what they have seen and heard... It's not misguided, it's natural. And in this case - bearing in mind the heightened media awareness of the issue of racism in football in the Ukraine and Poland, and thus the willingness to expose it further - they are accurate opinions.

Russia have now been fined three times in three matches, all included Fans with "Illicit Banners", fans throwing fireworks on the pitch etc...... This does not include the racism still present in Russia with Bananas being thrown on the pitch, waving bananas and making monkey chants....how should the Russian FA be punished.

World Cup 2018.

Absolutely pathetic and has $£€ and OIL written all over it.

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They have a great football team, from what I have seen play attractive attacking football.
There must be a real sense of disappointment with Ukraines early exit.

The 91Èȱ¬ Panorama reporter needs to be investigated. Poor silly Sol Campbell was led to believe all that he saw on the programme. I'm sure that the Panorama programme scared many thousands of Brits into not going. So sad and unneccessary but I guess the reporter had to justify the expense of sending him and the team over there!

At most of you. It wasn't the Panorama programme that disuaded many fans from going, it was the fact that the hoteliers hiked the prices of their rooms to ten times the original price.

@ plath: Would you like some fish to go with that massive chip on your shoulder?

Essentially you are generalising all white people as racist. Does that not make you that which you so despise? You've made a prejudgement based on a person's skin colour, which is a racist view if I'm not mistaken.

@ #24: I'm in full agreement with you on that one.

plath: Having been all ovef Ukraine during the tournament I can tell you there were plenty of black and Asian fans who had no problem, some I know personally.

#27 - I'm not sure why 'Brits' would be going to Ukraine as only England qualified. We are English

Good to see Alex Capstick's basic but complimentary piece about Donetsk on the 91Èȱ¬ World News channel. Too little too late in terms of rebuilding the 91Èȱ¬'s reputation but at least some backtracking in this way might sooth things a little.

I very much doubt that the "Beeb" will publish this, but here goes. I'm a "brown british" guy who spent 5 days in Donetsk (and another 5 in Kiev) for the football, and it was a truly wonderful experience. The people were lovely and friendly, and quite frankly the City was MUCH better looking than many parts of England, that's for sure!! The 91Èȱ¬ has let itself down big time with the negative, biased reporting of Ukraine. The panorama programme was lazy journalism, and it has massively tainted the Beeb's reputation. I've now boycotted bbc news (aside from today, when I specifically jumped on the site to write this). Poor form 91Èȱ¬, very poor form.

Larache123 - Good to read your comments and to know that you did not experience any racial problems. Just looking back to the Panorama programme - did you not think it strange that the 91Èȱ¬ camera recording the alleged attack on the Asians stayed so far away and did not get any close-up shots? Then when one of the Asians was later interviewed about the attack I expected him to have cuts and bruises all over his face but instead all we saw a few pieces of tissue stuffed up his nose!! All VERY strange.

I have no proof of the following but it was what I was told when I was in Kharkiv: The locals told me the 91Èȱ¬ crew filmed twice at Metalist Stadium since they didn't get the footage they wanted the first time.

So, yeah, take it all with a pinch of salt, eh?

@Tsarevich Long time no see online. Shame we missed the chance to meet up in Ukraine. Wembley?

Think they did a great job, and surely the stadium(s) doesnt become a white elephants like so many, for example in cape town. For the the story itself , is a bit cliche and obvious, what was ( drab and dirty etc, where was the charm?);
anecdotal evidence from stadiums and neighborhoods, not to mention hotels in the uk which can be an experience can be written in comparable style, everywhere there is room for improvement, but is that the right way?

I enjoyed my trip out to Ukraine following England. I am mixed race but can't say I experienced any hassles at all. In fact the locals went out of their way to be welcoming; it was their big chance to show off their country to the world. It was also interesting to note that the Ukrainians themselves aren't exactly a homogenous race - some look like Nordic types, others could pass for Turkish. There were surprising numbers of Black and Asian students too. Maybe things would be different without the tournament but I didn't get the impression there was ongoing racial tension.

That said, I don't think the rather sensationalist 91Èȱ¬ piece put people off going - they would have booked already by the time of the broadcast, if they were going. The high reported cost of accommodation was off-putting, but we gambled and found places to stay at much reduced prices once we got out there - from a boat in Kiev for £20 a head, to a family apartment (they moved in with their mum!) in Donetsk for £130 a night between three of us. All in all, it was a really enjoyable time in Ukraine.

miedzy-slupkami.blogspot.com look please

Been very disappointed with spains performances in the euros so far. Read this blog earlier. kinda sums it up for me

fantastic, amazing