Despite being the more successful Ukrainian soccer club in recent years, Shakhtar Donetsk still isn’t the nation’s favorite team.
A June 10-20 Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey reported that overall Ukrainians gave Dynamo Kyiv a double-digit margin of preference over any other club when it competes nationally and in European tournaments.
Dynamo had 40 percent support in the nation’s Premier League and 47 percent preference when competing in Europe. Current Premier League champion and Euro 2009 victor Shakhtar was the second most favored club in local club play (30 percent) and in European competition with 36 percent.
Regionally, however, club preferences resemble the nation’s political landscape.
Respondents in western and central Ukraine where the majority of opposition forces’ electorate live, overwhelmingly root for Dynamo in the Premier League and in Europe with 45 and 70 percent support, respectively. Only 13 and 19 percent, respectively, favor Shakhtar.
Only 15 percent of western, and 30 percent of central Ukrainians voted for Viktor Yanukovych, a native of Donetsk Oblast, in the 2010 presidential election.
The study’s authors though were quick to deny a direct correlation between the soccer club preferences of respondents and political sympathies.
“There’s most likely a regional dependence here,” said Oleksandr Krasnovsky, KIIS projects manager. “That is, the opposite, a person’s place of residence influences for which club they root and which [political] party they support.”
Conversely, 71 percent of southern and 83 percent of eastern Ukrainians voted for Yanukovych.
KIIS polled 2,040 respondents aged 18 and over in every oblast, including the city of Kyiv and Crimea.
Domestic soccer clubs most supported by Ukrainians with regional breakdown
Nationwide,% | West | Central | South | East | |
Dynamo (Kyiv) | 40.4 | 45.4 | 69.7 | 34.2 | 7.6 |
Shakhtar (Donetsk) | 30.4 | 13.2 | 18.7 | 23.6 | 68.4 |
Karpaty (Lviv) | 6.5 | 25.3 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk) | 4.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 18.6 | 0.0 |
Metalist (Kharkiv) | 4.4 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 17.0 |
Domestic soccer clubs most supported by Ukrainians when competing in European tournaments
Nationwide,% | West | Central | South | East | |
Dynamo (Kyiv) | 47.4 | 61.8 | 73.1 | 39.3 | 10.6 |
Shakhtar (Donetsk) | 36.0 | 18.5 | 18.8 | 32.4 | 77.1 |
Karpaty (Lviv) | 3.8 | 13.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.0 |
Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk) | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 11.9 | 0.0 |
Chornomorets (Odesa) | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 8.8 | 0.0 |
Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology
Kyiv Post staff writer can be reached at [email protected]
