Two kings and a queen behind bars

For the next couple of weeks, I’m spending most of my free time in front of the TV. It’s Euro2012, the European football (soccer of course) championship finals going on right now. The event is almost as big as the World Cup, and better quality. Different from the World Cup, all the teams are very good.

The championship is hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Poland is a country in good progress, a young but stable democracy with steady economic growth. Ukraine is a parody on democracy, ruled by a corrupt president. Nobody understand why Ukraine was chosen to host the football event.
 
 However, five years ago when UEFA made the decision, the situation was different. The orange crowds had won the election. Ukraine was making progress. The queen of the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, was prime minister in Ukraine.

In 2010 she lost the presidental election to the oligarch Viktor Yanukovych, after election-fraud. Yulia Timoshenko was charged for abuse of power and sentenced to 8 years in jail. Yanukovych wants keep his poitical rival imprisoned till after the next election. Yulia Timoshenko is considered a political prisoner by USA, EU and Amnesty.

Yesterday Ukraine played their first match in the championship finals, and Yulia Timoshenko probably watched it on TV in her prison cell. Ukraine vs. Sweden, with two football kings on the field, captains of their respective teams; Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andrey Shevchenko. 

Zlatan, the Swedish football genius, scored once.

Shevchenko, the former AC Milan and Chelsea superstar, scored twice. Ukraine won 2-1. Ukraine’s biggest hero, uniting the country across political divides, at least for one night.

There’s nothing like football >:)

(Pictures borrowed from the Internet. The prisoner (top), the loser (center, and the winner (bottom).)