UAF has established a Commission on History and Statistics

Verification of all protocols since 1992, elimination of "white spots," and new rules for preserving players' individual statistics.

The Ukrainian Football Association has established a History and Statistics Commission, the purpose of which is to preserve the historical heritage and verify the digital data of Ukrainian football. The body will work closely with the recently launched extensive portal UAF Data Center, which already unites hundreds of thousands of records. The establishment of the commission is a logical continuation of the association's global digitalization under the leadership of Andriy Shevchenko.

History and Statistics Commission

The History and Statistics Commission includes enthusiasts and experts in this field who have dedicated their lives to football statistics, as well as media representatives. At the same time, the commission may be supplemented with other personnel.

The composition of the History and Statistics Commission:

Valentin Shcherbachov

Yuriy Lander

Valeriy Valerko

Valentin Zahoruyko

Yuriy Nazarkevych

Artur Valerko

Andriy Perevoznyk

Andriy Kudyirko

Sviatoslav Kudelych

Serhiy Chursa

Andriy Huliy

representatives of UAF's profile directions

Digital Foundation

The digital platform UAF Data Center will serve as the basis for analysts' work, which currently contains:

Over 350,000 matches at various levels.

Almost 400,000 profiles of male and female football players.

Approximately 280,000 official protocols.

Data on 7,000 clubs and 9,000 tournaments.

The Commission's activities will help eliminate "white spots" in the chronicles of Ukrainian football, starting from regional competitions and ending with the official statistics of the national team.

To ensure clear working standards for the History and Statistics Commission, the Regulations on the Methodology of Maintaining UAF Statistical Registers have been developed. This regulatory document is the first official regulation for systematizing the entire football database of the country.

Key tasks of the new commission and the essence of the Regulations

Introduction of a single standard: clear rules for recording goal scorers, assists, cards, and playing time.

Verification of archival data: checking, synchronizing, and eliminating discrepancies between historical sources.

Standardization of registers: unified record-keeping of achievements of players, coaches, referees, and clubs at all levels.

Collaboration with researchers: involvement of leading football historians and analysts.

Expansion of the digital database: enhancing the interactive ecosystem of UAF.

Verification of match protocols

The History and Statistics Commission will verify all match protocols of Ukrainian professional and amateur football starting from 1992. Commission members will check the protocols for various errors regarding substitutions, warnings, ejections, goal authorship. The accuracy of information in the protocols will be verified through all possible sources: match videos, journalistic publications, eyewitness testimonies (referees, players, coaches).

After processing, the protocol will acquire a verified status, and making changes to it will be impossible in the future. Thus, the UAF Data Center will become the only source of verified and reliable official statistical information.

Statistics of annulled matches

An important point in the adopted methodology is the clear definition of the status of annulled matches. It is noted that individual player achievements are separated from team disciplinary violations. Therefore, if the result of a match is annulled (due to a team's technical defeat, withdrawal from the competition, disqualification, etc.), players' personal statistics remain in the achievement register. The following are retained for the players: goals scored, assists, cards received, and the actual number of minutes played on the field. This helps avoid distortion of historical scoring and disciplinary records.

Precedent in the 2013/2014 season

The application of the developed methodology by UAF definitively resolves the historical fairness around goals in matches involving Kyiv's "Arsenal" in the 2013/2014 season, which were completely annulled due to the team's withdrawal from the competition. According to the new Regulations on the Methodology of Maintaining Registers, individual player achievements in such matches are not subject to deletion, affecting the official ranking of Ukraine's top scorers.

In the 2013/2014 season, the "gunners" withdrew from the championship without playing half of the matches, leading to the annulment of all game results involving them according to the then Premier League regulations. This resulted in the exclusion of goals scored by many players.

The new norm separates team sanctions from personal records:

preservation of goals: goals scored in the "Arsenal" goals or by players of the Kyiv club before the withdrawal remain in the UAF Data Center database.

irreversibility principle: if a player made a mark on the field in a canonical, officially started match, their individual achievement is permanently recorded.

Impact on the ranking of Ukraine's top scorers

Thanks to the Commission's decision, Ukrainian football history will rid itself of controversies and technical paradoxes, returning deserved goals to players that were previously "lost" on paper due to club withdrawals. The official recognition of goals in annulled matches affects the list of top scorers in the history of Ukraine's elite division. Maksim Shatskikh (124 goals), Serhiy Rebrov (123 goals), and Andriy Yarmolenko (123 goals) - this number of goals corresponds to the current official protocols from UAF Data Center.

Nevertheless, commission members are aware of the "controversial" goals of the leaders in historical scoring races. However, at present, these goals are substantiated and officially recorded in match protocols. In the future, the commission will have the authority to make changes to archival protocols after performing official verification procedures. These checks will be carried out gradually starting from the first protocol of 1992, which is stored in UAF Data Center, so over time, individual statistical indicators may be adjusted. However, after these adjustments, they will be approved permanently and fully verified.