Yunist Stadium (Chernihiv)
Yunist Stadium () is a football stadium in Chernihiv. The stadium is a home arena for Yunist Chernihiv and Yunist ShVSM and it belongs to the Sportive youth school. General description. Origin. The stadium was opened in 1975 and it is located 1.5 km by Stadium Youri Gagarin, 2.5 km by Chernihiv Arena. A number of notable players started at the Youth Academy, playing in this stadium, such as Andriy Yarmolenko, Pavlo Polehenko, Vladyslav Shapoval, Pavlo Fedosov, Oleksiy Khoblenko and Nika Sichinava. In 2015 Andriy Yarmolenko and Berezenko played for the Chernihiv team to mark the opening of  a new football field. Reconstruction. In 2017, work on the reconstruction of the new stadium began. Tribunes for 3,000 seats were made at the stadium, the football field was covered with artificial turf, and the athletics tracks were made of rubber. The basement, where the medical centre, locker rooms and arbitrators' rooms are located, has been repaired. The reconstruction of the Yunost Stadium cost 55 million hryvnias in 2019. In 2019, the Yunost Stadium was completed, becoming a modern sports facility for the children's and youth school of the Olympic football reserve. The football field became one of high  quality artificial turf. There are also rubber athletics tracks, a mini-soccer field, a long-jump track and stands containing a total of 3,000 spectator seats. The basement, where the medical center, locker rooms and arbitrators' rooms are located, has also been renovated. In 2020 Dmitry Adehiro created a mural with the image of Andriy Yarmolenko, during the reconstruction of the building of the Yunost Youth Sports School, just beside the Stadium. Expanded. After the election of Volodymyr Zelensky as President of Ukraine, the sports facility was included in the "Great Construction" and there began an additional stage of reconstruction  of the thermal modernisation of the building itself. Initially, a complete reconstruction of the stadium's basement was carried out, including the installation of: a football field with an artificial surface of the latest generation, measuring 105 x 68 metres; athletics tracks; an electronic scoreboard; and covered stands. A total of 51 million hryvnias were spent, of which: 44 million hryvnias were funds from the State Fund for Regional Development; and 7 million hryvnias were funds from the local budget. As for the "Big Construction", at the expense of a subvention for the socio-economic development of certain areas in  2020, the sports school was overhauled with a total cost of 4.1 million hryvnias. Windows and doors were completely replaced with energy-saving ones, new lighting was installed in gyms, the floor was partially replaced and the facade was repaired and decorated with two murals. In 2020, Dmitry Adehiro created a mural with the image of Andriy Yarmolenko, during the reconstruction of the building of the Yunost Youth Sports School, just beside the Stadium. On 10 December 2020, for World Football Day, a sports complex of a special child-youth school and an Olympic reserve for football "Yunist" was opened . President of the Ukrainian Association for Football Andriy Pavelko was present at the opening ceremony, as were Anatoliy Demyanenko and Oleh Protasov. Museum & New Tenants. In addition, the sports complex now has the Museum of Football History of Chernihiv Oblast, where in which a stand about the same Andriy Yarmolenko took a prominent place. His parents were invited to inaugurate the museum and his mother recollected that Andriy began to play with the ball from the age of 4–5 years. "In the beginning he did not even have a proper ball, so had to play with a self-made one . We were poor and real football was a luxury in those times". Due to the War in Donbas, the club of Olimpik Donetsk had to play in a different stadium and in October 2021 played in the stadium within the Ukrainian First League, against Kramatorsk in the season 2021-22 and started to use it as one of its home stadia. The club also played the 13 November 2021 match against Nyva Ternopil in the stadium, with the option to play there all season. In 2021 a competition for the Andriy Yarmolenko Cup in honour of Andriy Yarmolenko took place  at the Yunist Stadium. Matches. Official Matches. From October 2021 until November 2021, Olimpik Donetsk was granted permission to play in the Yunist Stadium in Chernihiv due to the War in Donbas. Derby Match. On 5 February 2022 the first friendly derby match was held in the stadium, between the two main clubs of the city of Chernihiv.