Dnipro's homespun philosophy

By Jonathan Wilson

In the globalised world of modern football, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are an oddity. As they line up for their second UEFA Cup Group C game at FC Utrecht on Thursday, their entire starting XI will be made up of Ukrainian players, and so too will their substitutes' bench.

Ukrainian legislation
It is not so long ago that a clutch of foreign players were a must-have status symbol in the Ukrainian league, but, with the Ukrainian Football Federation introducing legislation to encourage the development of homegrown talent, Dnipro find themselves in the vanguard of a more back-to-basics philosophy.

Homegrown policy
"We saw that some of the players who came into the Ukrainian championship were just average players who did not strengthen the clubs they joined," Dnipro coach Yevgen Kucherevskyy told uefa.com. "We do not have a lot of money, but we are confident that we are doing our job well. Because of our policy, I think there is sympathy for us from fans across Ukraine."

Russian follies
Kucherevskyy knows better than most the folly of the hunger for the exotic that gripped the bigger eastern European leagues in the 1990s. When he was coach of the Russian club FC Arsenal Tula, he was instructed by the club's investors to give his side a more South American flavour. "They were crazy for foreigners," he said. "But when I looked at the Brazilians who were already at the club, I thought I would go mad.

Brazilian trip
"I went myself and spent 25 days in Brazil, and decided on five players, but then they gave me six more. So I worked for a year with the players. Everybody trained and worked hard but only the five I had wanted were a success. After a year we sold them all, but the other six just went back to Brazil.

Commercial concerns
"I realised that the directors weren't interested in building a good team, but just in doing business with players, so I left," he said. "We don't buy players like that here. If you bring in too many players it only damages the morale of the players who are already here because they think they are under threat."

United example
Stability is a key property for Kucherevskyy. He said: "If you look at Manchester United [FC] in England, they were Premiership champions five times in the 1990s because they had a stable squad. In Ukraine it is not like that, and you find that players who have earned money or achieved success get ideas above their station."

Giant competitors
Dnipro have no such pretensions. Kucherevskyy led them to the Soviet title in 1988, but in Ukraine FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk dominate to such an extent that he knows another league championship success is implausible. "The clubs who are first and second can spend ten times as much as us," he said. "So from a financial point of view when we finished third last season I think you have to say we done very well."

Winning start
Dnipro have made an indifferent start to the new Ukrainian season with just four wins in eleven games, but a 3-2 victory in their opening UEFA Cup group stage match against Club Brugge KV has proved to be a major fillip for Kucherevskyi and his team. "We have lasted longer in the UEFA Cup than any other Ukrainian club," Kucherevskyy said. "So that is a mark of success."