Daily Times

KYIV: Ukraine has agreed to modify the design of its national soccer team kit to cover up the slogan “glory to the heroes” after it was banned by UEFA, the head of the Ukrainian soccer association said on Friday. The unveiling of Ukraine’s team jersey for this month’s Euros tournament sparked outrage in Russia, which objected to an outline map of Ukraine that includes Russia-annexed Crimea. European soccer’s governing body UEFA told Ukraine on Thursday it could keep the outline map on the front of the shirt. But it said it must remove the phrase “Glory to the heroes” from inside the shirt because, as a military greeting, it has “historical and military” connotations. Andriy Pavelko, President of the Football Association of Ukraine, said Ukraine could sell jerseys to fans with the slogan “glory to the heroes” but for the team would add another map and the slogan “glory to Ukraine” on the area of the banned slogan. “Negotiations with UEFA on a new design for the national team of Ukraine have ended. They were extremely difficult, several times literally they went into a dead end,” Pavelko wrote on Facebook after flying to Rome for talks. “But we still managed to reach a victorious compromise with UEFA!” He told the Ukraine 24 TV channel that the new design would completely cover the banned slogan.