CURRENT DEVELOPMENT TRENDS OF AMATEUR FOOTBALL IN UKRAINE

Introduction. Scientists studying the development of football emphasize that professional football is a kind of core or top of the conditional structure of the modern football industry, and its basis is amateur football. In this context, it is clear that amateur football is a necessary prerequisite for the effective development of professional football in the country. The purpose of the study is to analyze and systematize the current state and generalize the ways of development of amateur football in Ukraine, taking into account regional aspects for the period 2018-2023. Research methods: analysis and generalization of data from scientific and methodological literary sources and the Internet network, pedagogical observations, content analysis of materials of the official websites of regional football associations, amateur football associations of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Football Association, the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) for the period of 2018 -2023 years, methods of mathematical statistics. Results. Quantitative indicators of the representation of teams from regional football associations in the group and final tournaments of the Ukrainian football championships among amateur teams for the period 2018-2023 were analyzed. Conclusions. The analysis of the data of the scientific and methodological literature and the global network "Internet" shows that as criteria for the development of amateur football, it is appropriate to use the general quantitative indicators of the representation of amateur football teams from regional football associations in the Ukrainian football championships among amateur teams and the quantitative indicators of the representation of amateur football teams from respective regional associations in the final tournaments of these competitions. According to quantitative indicators of participation in championships of Ukraine, among amateur teams, the leaders are Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (15 teams) and Kyiv City Football Association (13 teams). According to the quantitative indicators of the teams' participation in the final tournaments, the leaders are the representatives of the Sumy and Cherkasy regional football associations, whose teams, in four seasons, participated in the final tournaments of the championship of Ukraine in football among amateur teams three times