Ukraine through the Lens of Soccer: Kateryna Chernii in Conversation

The Assistant Professor of Football: Soccer, Culture, History.

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A historian’s and fan’s view on how soccer is not just affected by politics, but has foreshadowed, accelerated and even influenced the political and cultural transformations in independent Ukraine since 1991. Kateryna, a PhD student at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany takes us from the glory days of Dynamo Kyiv, the coaching genius of Valeriy Lobanivskyi, strange oligarchs, fur coats for referees and the rise of Schachtar Donetsk to today’s war in a turbulent yet resilient football nation.

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HELPFUL LINKS for this episode:

Kateryna Chernii’s website at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History

A portrait of Valeriy Lobanivskyi

“Who Are Ukraine’s Ultras?” - Radio Free Europe

Sturm Graz Fans on tour in Kharkiv, 2009

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If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please

• Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help.
• Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me.

Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige Lind
Instrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/