of all transferring rights and participation of national and club teams in international competitions. Questions about such powers were placed before the relevant authorities during my stay in Zurich in mid February. On 24 February we sent a request to the FIFA asking for an answer. The returning fax did not make us wait long." On 16 February 1992 there kicked off the 1992 Ukrainian Cup which became the first football tournament among professional teams since Ukraine revived its independence. The first round of the 1992 Higher League was scheduled on 6–7 March 1992. On 29 April 1992 the FFU scheduled its first international friendly with the Hungary national football team. The head coach of the national team was originally planned to appoint Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who at that time headed the UAE national football team. Viktor Bannikov did not fail to inform that to the shores of Persian Gulf was sent an invitation on the address of the Maître of domestic coaching corps, and Lobanovskyi gave a prior agreement. But he will be ready to lead the Ukraine national football team only at the end of the term of current contract, to which at that tie remained about a month. Thereby the first coach of national team had to be picked from the members of coaching council that included Anatoliy Puzach (Dynamo), Yevhen Kucherevskyi (Dnipro), Yevhen Lemeshko (Torpedo), Yukhym Shkolnykov (Bukovyna), Viktor Prokopenko (Chornomorets), and somewhat later they were joined by Valeriy Yaremcheko (Shakhtar). As mentioned by Yevhen Kotelnykov (vice-president at that time), the Ukrainian diaspora played a key role in helping the federation and the national team in particular from very beginning. It was diaspora that made possible for the national to play games in the United States. In 1992 the FFU delegation received an invitation to participate in the 48th FIFA Congress that was scheduled to take place in Zurich in the beginning of July. At that forum in particular was to be reviewed an issue of accepting Ukraine and some other newly created countries as permanent members of the International federation. The relevant documents were already reviewed in the FIFA headquarters and approved with minor remarks on some four points. Sometime later arrived a personal invitation for Viktor Bannikov to participate in extraordinary session of the UEFA Executive Committee along with the Committee on conducting continental tournaments. It was about granting our country a possibility already in