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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Walker

Emotional Ukraine chief believes Scotland World Cup tie may not happen as football unites around war torn nation

The president of the Ukrainian FA Andriy Pavelko admits there's no guarantees his country's World Cup qualifier with Scotland will go ahead.

Scotland 's semi-final play-off against Ukraine was postponed to June after the Russian invasion of their country.

UEFA and FIFA agreed to move the Hampden showdown back to allow Ukraine to try and get a squad together, with 16 of their numbers currently playing domestic football, which has been suspended indefinitely.

But Pavelko has admitted the summer date remains a hope rather than a guarantee.

He said: "Firstly, we would like to thank UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin for the work he has done since the first invasion.

"He calls us three, four times a day to clarify our situation and asks how he can help.

"Everyone understood it was impossible to play in Scotland in March and the game was postponed to June.

"No one can say how the situation will develop and of course, it is possible the match will not go ahead then either.

"Our fans want us in the best possible condition for June, but it's completely impossible to speak about that at the moment.

"Our thoughts at the moment are all about human lives, not football.

"Unfortunately, there's no guarantee the match in June will go ahead either. We are getting closer to victory every day.

"All I can say is that UEFA and FIFA are supporting us all the way and trying to help us so that our team can prepare and perform as well as possible."

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