Pokrova AMP football club began its history in September 2023, when the first four football players attended training. The team was created on the initiative of the Fathers of the Salesian Congregation of the UGCC and 80% consists of military personnel who defended their homeland at the front. Athletes are trained by Bohdan Melnyk and Nazar Rusetskyi.
This is the first football team of people with amputations in Ukraine, as well as the first in the world, which trains in the snow. Since September, the team has been replenished with new football players, a coach and specialists in the medical sector. And thanks to rapid growth and proper training, Pokrova AMP became the base team of the national football team of Ukraine among players with amputations, which took second place in the League of Nations-2023 in the fall.
In 2024, Pokrovy AMP football players will play in the Polish PZU AMP Football Ekstraklasa championship, which is one of the strongest in Europe. Also, the team dreams of this sport developing in Ukraine as well and aspires to play in the championship of Ukraine in the future.
Let’s add that football on crutches is played by teams of seven people on a field measuring 40×60 meters. Field players play on crutches, their crutch is considered an extension of the arm, goalkeepers with one arm amputated are only in the penalty area during the match.
💭”We are proud that there is such a powerful sports and socially important project in Lviv Oblast. We gave the team 20 season tickets for swimming training under the guidance of coaches and rehabilitation specialists. The classes will take place within the framework of our “League of the Invincibles” – an integration project of psychological and physical rehabilitation (habilitation) of servicemen and war veterans by means of sports and adaptive motor activity, which was launched in June 2023,” said the head of the Youth and Sports Department of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, Roman Chemist
We will remind that one of the ambassadors and regional coordinator of the League of Invincibles is a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the archery champion of the 2023 Invincible Games, Pavlo Luchkiv.