Director of Crvena Zvezda: “I don’t want to play with Dynamo Kyiv”

The Executive Director of Belgrade’s Red Star, Zvezdan Terzić, admitted that he would prefer to avoid facing Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League play-off qualification. This was reported by Sportal.

Following the draw for the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off round, Europe’s top club competition determined the Serbian team’s potential opponents as follows: if Red Star manage to beat Polish side Lech in the third round, they will face the winner of the Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) – Pafos FC (Cyprus) tie in the decisive stage.

Terzić stressed that Dynamo are one of the strongest possible opponents, but his reluctance to play against the Ukrainian club is not only due to sporting reasons:

“I’ve said it several times — for a number of reasons, both football-related and non-football-related, I don’t want to face Dynamo. They’re a great team, perhaps one of the best we could have drawn. But there’s also a political aspect — relations between Ukrainians and Serbs are far from warm. We’ve seen Ukrainian fans and officials treat Serbs with hostility, for example before Partizan’s matches against Oleksandriya. I’d like to avoid that tension, but it is what it is.”

It should be noted that Armenia national team defender Nair Tiknizyan plays for Red Star.