When you choose to come on a trip like this, one of the reasons is for it to be a bit of an “I was there” experience, but that wasn’t exactly factoring in the way the situation has developed. When we booked it felt like one that would be good to say you went to.
I have been following Arsenal for European away games for years. I try to get at least a couple in every season. This has to be my oddest trip yet because of the uncertainty. Not knowing where the game will take place, plus the added layer of not even being sure it will take place, and the potential for war, makes it a very unusual type of football trip.
Before we came out we knew what had gone on in the Crimea but when they started talking about martial law it was difficult to comprehend what the full implications would be. I was a little concerned but there was no official advice not to go, so in my eyes it was fine. We flew to Kiev and on Tuesday night we were sitting in the pub. As mobile roaming is exorbitant, we switched the phone on for a few seconds and suddenly had a series of messages saying the game was being moved from Poltava. We had train tickets to go from Kiev to Poltava but clearly were not going to need them.
We were watching the TV in the hotel on Wednesday morning and there was an English-language channel called EuroNews that broadcast an interview with the Ukrainian president that gave the impression they were preparing for war as part of being ready for every eventuality.
For a moment it does make you think: do you really want to be here for longer than necessary? But from our experience of Kiev it feels like business as usual. We went to the pub and people were out watching Shakhtar in the Champions League. In the city there was no sign of any military and less police than you would see in London.
We are slightly disappointed not to be going to this remote stadium. We were due to be staying in a lodge in the woods in Poltava, on a lake. The photos on the booking website were of a couple of blokes wearing Russian hats in a hot tub. It cost my friend and I £9 each. The whole trip has been more expensive, staying in Kiev instead of Poltava and we also changed our flight home to fly straight back from Kiev rather than travelling to Kharkiv.
The uncertainty has made it a very different kind of trip. Arsenal, in fairness, have called me, sent text messages and emails keeping us roughly up to date. It has been a fast moving situation. We are expecting to use the match tickets we had for Poltava as we haven’t heard anything to the contrary. They have told us to turn up at sectors 1, 3 and 5 so they seem to have reserved a designated area for us at the stadium in Kiev. I can’t imagine how many people will come from Poltava. Are they really going to be able to get all this way?
Come matchday I am hoping for a decent day. First thing, a bit of tourism and later the Belorusian supporters have sorted a pub in Kiev to meet. Then we’ll go to the game; it looks like a young squad and having seen Vorskla before I would be disappointed if we didn’t come away with something.