From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Feniks have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Feniks
Yehor Demchenko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Chornomorets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Victoriia Sumy leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Marko Podoliak
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Serhiy Vanat chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Chances created: 10. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Feniks — 7.79
1 for Oleksandr Chornomorets, marked 7.79, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Feniks asked and Chornomorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrii Kukharuk, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maksym Pukhtieiev commits to Feniks for another 4 years.
Match15 Aug 2026
Feniks and Nyva take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Serhiy Vanat after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Feniks — 7.41
1 for Valerii Kucherov, marked 7.41, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Taras Kravets has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kyrylo Yaremchuk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitaliy Rebrov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladyslav Tymoschuk has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Feniks, 1‑0 the final word against Livyi Bereh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
A hiding for Feniks
Beaten 1‑4 by Chornomorets, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Valerii Kucherov commits to Feniks for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Feniks
Andrii Kukharuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Rostyslav Rusyn did the work nobody counts — 6.63
12 combined actions and 6.63. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Serhii Kyslenko
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Feniks dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Serhiy Vanat after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.