Yevhen Dykyi: “We want the Ukrainian Premier League to be the best for the fan”

As part of SBC Summit Ukraine 2026 Lviv, the panel discussion “Who pays for sport: the economics of broadcasting, advertising and sponsorship” took place. The participants discussed how money from broadcasting, advertising and sponsorship works in Ukrainian sport, and what opportunities for the industry’s development exist today. One of the panel’s speakers was the president of the Ukrainian Premier League, Yevhen Dykyi. The conversation covered the state of the Ukrainian championship, plans for selling media rights, the league’s interaction with clubs and the role of commercial partners in the development of football.

The UPL in wartime and comparison with pre-war football

How would you generally assess the level of the UPL in the 2026/27 season compared with the pre-war period? What has improved, what has strengthened and what has weakened?

Comparing the current championship with the pre-war one is like talking about two parallel worlds from different realities. The war began in 2013–2014. Before that, the Ukrainian championship was on the rise. Average match attendance was 12–14 thousand fans. Clubs invested significantly in the development of football, and foreign players were coming in. In general, footballers were not afraid to come to our country. Now we have new challenges that we could not even have imagined before. Talking with European partners, we see that they too are amazed at how a championship can be held at all in such conditions. The main challenge today is the security situation, because it is important that all participants in the process stay alive and unharmed. It is also a matter of logistics and operational communication when it becomes necessary to change a match’s start time. Of course, this is not always convenient for fans, but we are forced to do it. So I would say that now it is about overcoming challenges and managing operationally the processes that the full-scale war with our neighbour puts before us.

Selling the UPL’s exclusive media rights

A separate topic of the conversation was the prospects for commercialising the television rights of the Ukrainian championship. In particular, the moderator recalled Forbes information about UPL TV’s plans to move to selling exclusive media rights after the 2026/27 season.

According to Forbes, UPL TV plans to move to selling exclusive media rights after the 2026/27 season. The benchmarks, calculated together with LaLiga specialists, are about 10 million dollars in the first year and up to 20 million in the third. How realistic is this picture for the Ukrainian market, and who could become a potential buyer?

Some of the potential buyers are next to us right now. In principle, we talk to all participants in the process, to all broadcasters. Indeed, we will try, starting from next season, to move away from the current model in which we sell all our rights non-exclusively. The main goal of creating the UPL TV project was to bring all rights together on a single TV channel, to teach the end consumer – the fan – where and how to watch matches, and also to use the resources available for watching broadcasts. We would really like to see such revenue, but we understand that these figures can be discussed when the situation in the country stabilises and the economic situation starts to improve. So, in principle, the plans are as follows: from next year we will launch a tender procedure and move to selling the rights on an exclusive basis.

How the UPL and clubs work on a shared product

The next block of the discussion concerned the league’s interaction with clubs. After all, teams are increasingly developing their own media platforms and working with fans, while the UPL has to form a coherent championship as a shared product.

How do you work with clubs, each of which now has its own media and interests, so that the league also exists and looks like a coherent product?

You know, I would first of all thank the clubs, because recently they have started to pay more attention to promoting their own brand and attracting fans. This work is no longer limited to the stadium. It is round-the-clock work with their fans. The clubs, together with the League, work jointly on all these projects. If the League proposes something, the clubs support it. So I would not say that we are competitors. We are participants in a shared project. The clubs are also interested in the League being whole and strong, and in the end product being one the fan is ready to pay for. All this media story helps both UPL TV and the clubs’ media platforms to make our product more interesting and attract as large an audience as possible. After all, as the partners have already said, when potential sponsors come, they look precisely at audience figures – at the numbers they are ready to pay for.

How to compete with the English Premier League for the viewer’s attention

At the end of the conversation, the participants returned to the question of the audience and competition for the attention of Ukrainian fans. In particular, they discussed the situation when UPL and English Premier League matches take place at the same time.

What needs to change for the Ukrainian viewer to watch the UPL instead of the EPL when the matches are held at the same time?

Good question. First of all – so that we can set match start times more flexibly and not run into the challenges we have now. Today we see that the start of the main English Premier League matches falls in prime time. Unfortunately, in some regions we cannot schedule a Ukrainian Premier League match at the same time. But again, I would like to note the joint work of the Ukrainian Premier League, broadcasters, partners and, of course, our main investors – the clubs. Together we are working to ensure that at every stage there are more and more fans. We need to look for the moments through which we can build the value of the Ukrainian product itself. And so that the fan understands that the Ukrainian Premier League is the best. Despite all the challenges that exist today, football in Ukraine exists, it is developing and it is broadcast. Every year, viewing figures only grow. For this we thank our fans and, of course, all of you for watching Ukrainian football and Ukrainian sport in general.

Sponsors and partners of SBC Summit Ukraine 2026 Lviv

Co-organisers – Mass Sports Agency of Ukraine and Sports Office of the Lviv City Council

Construction partner – system developer RIEL

Business Lounge partner – Jack Daniel’s Gentleman Jack

Accommodation partner – Kostjukowki Apartments. Sports equipment partner – Kappa x KOKOTASPORTS. Mood partner – PRAVDA brewery. Location partner – Barvy Event Hall

Football partner – educational platform Play Vision. Official partner – Ukrainian Karate Federation. Social partner – Shakhtar Social foundation. Exclusive fitness partner – UNI FORCE.

Media partner – media service MEGOGO, Ukraine’s largest media service, which streams exclusive sport, TV channels, films from leading studios and educational courses.

Water partner – Karpatska Dzherelna. Coffee partner – Sky Coffee. Functional partner – DR WITT. Sweet partner – BISCOTTI.

Production partner – NAZHYVO Production. Grooming partners – Barbers, Medosan and Joko Blend. Official partner – restaurant group “Marymo svoieiu spravoiu”.

Technology partner – BotsBand. Style partner – YARMICH. Technical partner – PROOVE. General radio partner – Lvivska Khvylia.

Hospitality partner – IBIS hotel cluster. Digital partner – ROAS marketing agency Red5. Business partner – business park “Europasazh”.

Social partner – Veterans Institute “Architecture of Resilience” of KNUBA. Sports partner – Ukrainian Padel Federation.

Media partners of Sport&Business Club – Epicentr, Avtoradio, Kyivstar TV and Setanta Sports. Advertising partner – MS Outdoor.

Information partners – the TV channels “Mi – Ukraina” and “Mi – Ukraina+”, Marketer, Tribuna.com, Football Hub, Interfax, the websites Sport.ua, SportArena.com, UA.NEWS and XSPORT, the news portal “Korol Danylo”, the platform “Football 2.0”, “Egoist” and PEREHOVORKA. Fashion partner – Fashion TV

Source: Sport Business Media (sportbusiness.media), https://sportbusiness.media/2026/11/01/yevgen-dykyj-my-hochemo-shhob-ukrayinska-premyer-liga-bula-najkrashhoyu-dlya-vbolivalnyka/