Bolton Wanderers football strips and kits are set to be delivered to the war-torn country Ukraine this month to help the Ukrainian Cerebral Palsy Olympic Football Team.

Yaroslaw Tymchyshyn, Bolton Branch Chair of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, met with Gerry Luczka, a scout for the English Football Association, last week, to receive football equipment from clubs including Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United, Manchester City and Port Vale.

Once Yaroslaw collected the boxes of football equipment, he passed them onto Tim Marsden from Huddersfield who will be transporting them to Ukraine.

Gerry said: “I currently work for the FA, and I travel up and down the country identifying players for our national teams, so effectively I scout for England.

“My involvement with the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee goes back to the 2012 Olympics in London, I was the team liaison officer for the Ukrainian Cerebral Palsy Olympic Football Team who have been world champions, and they travelled into London in 2012 and that was when I initially made my contacts with them.

“I also linked up with them in 2015 for the World Cup that was held in St Georges Park, and I stayed with them for 18 days and they got through to the final and unfortunately got beat one nil by Russia, but we won’t say too much about that.

“But I have kept in touch with the captain and the current assistant manager and since the war began in Ukraine, I ring him on a regular basis just to see how things are and what the landscape is like.

“Unfortunately for them they are funded by the Government and all the grants have been pulled because of the war, so all of the money has been redirected towards the war and the football team is really struggling for resources so I said I would do my best to get some bits of equipment and hence over the last few months I have asked football clubs if they had any items they could donate.

“And I have managed to get about four boxes of stuff, and they are on the way to Ukraine.

“Manchester City have kindly donated 25 sets of shin pads and a lot of bibs, and then Teddy Maldwyn who is the kit man at Bolton Wanderers, said he had some stuff that has been gathering dust, so I have picked that up, I have had footballs donated, and equipment including cones.

“Port Vale have also helped us with donations.

“They are going to be more than grateful to receive all this because at the moment they have next to nothing.”

Yaroslaw said: “Gerry and I met up on Monday, October 16, as I was at our centre for the Conversational English class and our foodbank, Café Dnipro. It was an ideal opportunity to conduct the exchange. 

“I delivered the football strips and kit to Tim Marsden, from Huddersfield, who will transport them to Ukraine.

“When Tim delivers the strips and kits in Ukraine, they will be collected by Taras Dutko who is head of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee. 

“Since the invasion of last year, funding for organisations such as the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee have dried up for obvious reasons.

“Gerry, who initially made contact with Taras in 2012 in the Paralympic games in London, asked Taras how he could help.

“Gerry who is a scout for the English FA, has links throughout the English game, sourced the strips and kit from clubs such as Bolton Wanderers, who were more than happy to oblige. Other teams included Manchester United, Manchester City and Port Vale.”

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