Nail Izmailov: We are building a self-sufficiency system for Spartak

The columnist of "Soviet Sport" met with the vice-president of "Spartak".

The Soviet Sport columnist met with Spartak vice-president Nail Izmailov and asked him about the economic and marketing aspects of the club.

"WORKED AND LEARNED"

- Do you really support Spartak from the age of seven?
- Yes, I've been sick since seven. I have been attending matches since 1989. Muscovite himself. Both grandfathers defended the capital during the Great Patriotic War and served here. One was an artilleryman, crew commander, the second a sapper. After the war, they remained in Moscow. And my parents were born here.

- Were you actively ill?
- I've been to matches regularly. Outside including.

- Hard version?
- For everyone. I did not enter the fan environment, but I am familiar with many.

- How did you make your way from a fan to the vice-president of Spartak?
- I worked and studied a lot (smiles). I went to work from the third year of the institute. The experience is very different - from retail, restaurant business, entertainment to construction, investment and banking. Then he received an invitation from Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun. Spartak is involved in the large Tushino-2018 project, which involves the development of the Tushino field. Several functional clusters are planned. Sports is the Otkritie-Arena, a new club base, a multifunctional indoor palace, which will be located next to the stadium, matches, competitions in other sports, concerts, exhibitions, conferences will be held there. Trade and office centers, hotels, a children's entertainment complex, schools, kindergartens, clinics, housing will be built. Actually a city. There is a lot of talk about the fact that all this is for the enrichment of investors. But construction costs are expected to be offset by income from home sales. Permanent income from other facilities will be sent to the club for the stable maintenance of its life and. This will allow Spartak to feel financially confident over time and lose absolute dependence on the state of shareholders.

- So you are building a self-sufficiency system for the club?
- Yes exactly. The same system is being built by the London Arsenal - the Highbury project and the Queensland Road. The Brooklyn Nets basketball, with its megamall, is a similar model. The club, if it wants to live and develop normally, needs constant replenishment of the budget. Relying only on the shareholder's money is inefficient.

- How did you get involved in this?
- I had experience in investment activities, I was engaged in this in one very large financial group. Housing, commercial real estate, mutual funds... I know this area professionally, which is probably why I received an invitation to Spartak four years ago.

Have you watched the Hollywood movie "The Big Short" about the 2008 crisis? If so, you must have understood the dialogues, consisting of 70 percent banking terms.
- There is no time left for cinema, work takes 24 hours a day. But since you advise, I'll take a look.

RESERVATION REQUEST

- You were called to work in construction and real estate, but you are in the football club for the vice presidency. How so?
- The club and Tushino-2018 are a single entity. It all started with the stadium, during the construction of which I managed a kind of management company, that is, I oversaw the construction as a future user of the facility. Now the strategic goal is to create an autonomous life support system for Spartak, to generate income through new and development of old facilities of the club, stadium and territory.

- Is the sale and purchase of players included in this system?
- Ideally, both parts, sports and infrastructure, should be profitable. Players are an asset that is bound to grow in value. True, while few people in Russia manage to achieve this. The vertical "academy - youth team - "Spartak-2" - the basis", which is led by Sergei Rodionov, exists. But we often hear reproaches that our pupils go to other clubs, reveal themselves there, play better than us. So, there is something to add.

- Sergei Galitsky said that he used the classic cladding of the stadium made of travertine stone, because bright modern materials tend to fade. I immediately remembered the "Opening Arena".
- Our lining will not fade, everything is made with a margin. In addition, there are more important parameters. For example, stadium functionality, convenience and comfort, safety and logistics. Or the place where it was built. We are currently building arenas for the 2018 World Cup. In each case, is it calculated that the stadium will become the center of human attraction, the focus of sports and commercial life, the venue for non-stop mass events? Are there those who evaluate these investments professionally and with a perspective? Entire areas with transport and other infrastructure should be developed around the arenas. An illustrative example is England, London, where the growth in real estate prices in football areas in recent years is higher than in other non-football areas. Tushino-2018 has not yet been built, but around the stadium people are already jogging, walking dogs, cycling. Although the nearest residential buildings are on the other side of the busy Volokolamsk highway.

- Those who saw the arenas of the Portuguese Euro-2004, which are not in demand today, will agree with you. But back to the Spartak vertical. Is it hard for the club academy to keep up with the pace of "one a year for the foundation"?
- I'll make a reservation right away: I'm not responsible for the football part of Spartak. This is the estate of Sergei Rodionov. I will answer only because I took part in the development of some innovations. The desired "productivity" of the club system was fixed on paper. The coaches of all divisions are faced with such a task. Since this year, it has, in fact, been regulated. Coaches for performance will be encouraged, bonuses are clearly scheduled. Before there was no systematization. It is the replenishment of the base, and not a place in youth competitions or in the FNL, that is the main thing in preparing the reserve.

TV REVENUE IS ONLY 4 PERCENT OF THE BUDGET

- What are the terms of your duties in Spartak?
- The whole business component and the tools that help to ensure it. That is, a security department, a fan club, commercial and IT departments, a public relations department, a single technical center that ensures the operation of the stadium, the Academy in Sokolniki, the base in Tarasovka and the construction of a new base in Tushino.

- Are you a member of the board of directors of the club?
- No, I'm on the board of Spartak.

- How is the football business different from any other?
- Modern football is a huge business, coupled with the passion and excitement of millions. The profitability of such a business can be very high if the level of management of all participants is appropriate. Globally - no different from many others. It is a symbiosis of different types of business, from retail sales and tickets to real estate transactions. The main product produced is human emotions. They should be such that the fan was pleased to realize his involvement in the club. There are three pillars in the marketing strategy of any football club - sports success, the number of fans and their activity, and the club's budget. They are not directly dependent, but very noticeably affect each other.

- How did Spartak's 13-year absence of titles affect the number of fans?
- We recently launched a large study on this topic, including in the regions. We have developed a methodology, we want to understand the dynamics. As regularly as the number of our subscribers in social networks, merchandising, ticket program, we want to analyze the change in the number of fans. And not only in quantitative, but in qualitative terms. Whether there have been fewer of them over the past 13 years, I don’t know yet. But there are results of the English study. A person begins to get sick at the age of 6 to 12 years and after that in 90 percent of cases does not change club addictions. The main thing that influences the choice of a club is friends, family, environment; then by a wide margin - the team's sporting successes; in third place is some item you like: a scarf, a pen, a T-shirt, that is, merchandising. Liverpool have not been champions of England for 26 years, but it is unlikely that they have lost much in the growth of fans.

We understand that there is a danger of losing the young due to the lack of titles. We are trying to compensate for this. The Spartak Kids program, for example, makes the visit of children and families with children to our stadium memorable and enjoyable. The family sector at every match is almost full. Another example is the huge popularity of shares with our partner Nissan in recruiting children to the Spartak Academy. They did it in different cities. Luck could smile at two or three boys, no more. But in Krasnodar, for example, 2,500 parents came to the wild heat, the event dragged on for several hours!

- Is it possible to compare the economy of Spartak with the leading foreign clubs? Or are they different worlds?
- The filling of the budget is radically different, if we talk about the top leagues in Europe. There, income from the sale of television rights is about 30 percent. Spartak has less than four. Despite the fact that match day revenue, that is, the total profit on the day of the match, we have a similar one - about 25 percent of the budget.

- It's strange: the clubs have a penny from television, but they don't bother the RFPL at all about this.
- Our television shows football for free, nothing can be done about it.

SPARTAK CANNOT EXIT THE POOL

- How is the price of tickets and subscriptions formed?
- After the opening of the stadium, we focused on the figures of the previous season. It doesn't matter where you play: emotions are sold, and they do not depend on the arena. Comfort, convenience, safety, parking, food can change, but the stadium itself is just a box that, if used correctly, can turn into an effective business tool. Therefore, we took the history of pricing in Luzhniki and Cherkizovo as a starting point, increasing the added value by a number of VIP categories. To change the price for ordinary fans would be disrespectful to them.

- Do not change - optimize.
- That's why the analysis of the ticket program is being carried out now. Based on the dynamics, in each segment we will get the opportunity to regulate prices pointwise. Of course, we will take into account the results of the team and the expectations of the fans before the season.

- Then you should sell season tickets for half of the season. After all, expectations before autumn and spring are most often different.
- Dynamic pricing is also in our plans. When not only the result is taken into account, but also the lead time of the sale, the day, the time of the game, the weather, and so on. There are difficulties, but we already had experience in selling season tickets for a series of matches. It is possible that we will return to it.

- Doesn't the lack of a clear calendar for the season bother you? Sometimes the day and time of the start of the match is found out almost a week before the game.
- Here we are hostages of television. The unpredictable program grid dictates the conditions for us too. Transfers of matches for participants in European competitions - too. In England, the calendar is clear a year ahead; there, even grandfathers went to matches according to the current schedule. The British keep traditions, we don’t have constancy in any way. Although the first sprouts have appeared: we see how people in the new season are happy to purchase subscriptions to their homes, know their neighbors, communicate with them in a friendly way. It's important for football. A person, coming to the arena, feels belonging to his favorite team and has an influence on what is happening through his support. This is especially valuable, it is one of those components that allows the team to win.

- It's still not clear. 4 percent of TV is ridiculous money. By leaving the pool, you would receive more.
- Exit the pool means to ruin the entire component of the League. "Real" and "MU" do not leave the pool, which means that not everything is so simple. Besides, we are all in the same boat in a sense.

Dumping Corrupts

- Why do you keep high prices for guest tickets? In response, your fans are also being sold expensive tickets.
- We do not raise the price artificially. In similar sectors, it is the same for foreign and our fans.

- If both clubs made the prices lower, the Spartak sector in the second leg would be fuller.
- Direct exchange is impossible, there is no such practice anywhere in the world. In addition, prices for guests and hosts for identical seats should not differ according to the regulations. We offer a service that has a cost of 1000 rubles. The price of the service at another stadium may be different depending on the convenience, comfort and other factors. Artificial lowering of the price corrupts the consumer. It is possible to distribute tickets for free, but it is unlikely that in the long run this will attract a fan and teach him to support the team in all ways.

- How many season tickets have you sold for this season?
- About 15 thousand. 30 percent arena occupancy.

- Is Spartak a self-sustaining club?
- I would say - the closest to self-sufficiency of the Russian clubs.

- Are there any problems with financial fair play?
- We were admitted to European competitions, so no. A certain budget deficit, subject to a number of conditions, UEFA allows. They look at such details as the relevance of income, for example: the cost of advertising sponsorship contracts should not exceed the market value.

- To what extent has the commercial potential of the new stadium been realized?

There is room for growth. We want to make, for example, free wi-fi in the stands, so that the fans have access to the club's mobile application. It will include news, photo and video content, ticket services, the opportunity to buy goods in the club shop, delivery of drinks and food to a place on the podium, location of oneself and search for acquaintances at the stadium through a personal account. We are finishing a project with four mobile operators, in December a stable 4G signal should appear on the arena. We expect to launch an official online service for the resale of Ticket exchange tickets by fans to each other. If a person cannot go to the match, but he has a season ticket or a ticket, he will be able to officially resell the opportunity to visit the game. This is popular in England and Germany. Despite the fact that Spartak sells about 70 percent of all tickets and subscriptions online.

THE BEST MUSEUM IN THE WORLD

- How else are you fighting for the audience?
- Different ways. We organize children's football camps, hold school tournaments - 15 thousand people came to the final of one of them, which was held in the schools of the North-West Administrative District of Moscow this year. We use the possibilities of media. We work closely with the base of fans, about which we know a lot, starting with who they come to the stadium with, ending with gastronomic and preferences. We congratulate them on the holidays. People are pleased to receive a personal video greeting and an invitation to a match from a team player on their birthday. We connect club partners to the loyalty program. We have been using a customer relationship management system (CRM) for a long time. The ticket program, access control, loyalty program, merchandising, monitoring of relations with our partners, catering and so on are connected to it.

We cooperate with charitable foundations, we recently launched a program with the Leukemia Foundation, we plan to connect organizations that help sick children, orphans and low-income families. We help people with disabilities attend matches. A lot of work in this direction is being carried out by our new employee Alexander Sergeev, who uses a wheelchair himself.

Do you have enough non-football events at the arena?
- Presentations, conferences, test drives, children's events are constantly going on. But we are ready and want to do more. Two concerts are planned next season. More often it is fraught for the field: we cover it with scaffolds, but in our climate this is not very useful for the grass either.

- 13 thousand rubles for a modest autumn jacket in a Spartak store - not too expensive?
- We are dependent on the manufacturer, our margin is low.

- Do you plan to bring the Spartak brand to the international level?
- Mainly by promoting the mobile application. Open fan clubs? But why, given today's Internet capabilities? But what we are planning is a network of branches of the football academy. Bonnies will appear in the cities of Russia, and we want to make one in China. And in the same place to open a club office. In Hong Kong or Shanghai, negotiations are still underway. This will allow to establish a dialogue with a huge country and, possibly, sponsors. Moving to Europe, where the positions of leading clubs are strong, is futile, we will not compete with them. Our fans, on the other hand, get emotions at a distance, watching matches on the Internet. A friend from Los Angeles got to the game in Moscow, calmly buying a ticket in America through an online service and was impressed by the comfort, safety and atmosphere at the Spartak game.

- The club museum leaves a strong impression, especially the technical side. How much did he cost?
- More than 200 million rubles. We have been working on this project for almost three years. I think that they have made the best club football museum in the world.

- What is the situation with the monument to Cherenkov?
- "Spartak" is in constant contact with his family and city authorities. If everything goes as planned, we will announce the collection of donations. The club is ready to pay the cost of the monument. But the fans also deserved such a privilege - to pay for the monument to Cherenkov, thereby paying tribute to the great player and great man.

- The owner of Spartak, Leonid Fedun, recently proposed a series of reforms in Russian football. What work is being done by the club to implement these proposals?

- Now we are preparing letters to all leagues: RFPL, FNL and PFL, we are sending an appeal to the Ministry of Sports and we hope that all our proposals will be considered at the next executive committee.

— Why change the usual structure of a popular game so radically?

- Several goals are pursued here at once, because the proposed reforms are pointwise aimed at improving certain components of the game. But I will single out the main priorities: this is improving the quality of football itself and the growth of spectator interest in the matches of the domestic championship. For this, a proposal was put forward. Thus, the audience will have the opportunity to watch the game in comfortable, safe arenas, and the quality of the TV picture will also increase, which, in our opinion, will affect the overall growth of interest in the Premier League.

— And what about reforming the game grid? It turns out that the current calendar still does not suit Russian clubs?

- Yes, indeed, this story is repeated every year, every season we try to transfer games from cold regions to the summer period, but this is still difficult. I would like such questions to be automatically taken into account when forming the calendar - it is with this approach that it will be possible to avoid a lot of difficulties for both clubs and their fans.

- Your club has also received a proposal to introduce a mandatory bonus system for children's coaches who have trained players for the Premier League, and to tighten the current limit on foreign players. It turns out that Spartak came to the defense of young Russian football players?

“It is important to understand here that spot work will not fundamentally solve the problem. Unfortunately, even if the limit is tightened, new young stars with Russian passports will not appear overnight. So, in addition to introducing a limit, we need to pay attention to children's coaches, football schools, youth and youth competitions. And then, after carrying out reforms in all these areas, we will be able to get the first results and increase the number of potential players for the Russian national team - it's no secret that today the choice of the coaching staff of the national team is not so great.

- And yet your proposals look a little tough, especially for clubs that do not consider themselves to be among the elite of Russian football. Are there any fears that colleagues will not accept your project?

- Yes, we are ready for the fact that many clubs will react to our reforms without much joy. After all, objectively, except for the top teams, few people will find these proposals interesting. But let's look at the situation objectively: we all pursue different goals. For some, the main task is to represent the region in the RFPL, for others it is to show good football, develop schools, and represent the country in European arenas. But we are talking about a global reform of all football in Russia, so sooner or later everyone will come to a common understanding.

• Nail Izmailov: "Our goal is to make the Russian championship better and more popular"

“After 0-7 at Anfield, there was deathly silence in the dressing room”

- You talked about goals and repeatedly noted that Spartak will continue to fight for the championship. But don't you think that the club lost too many points at the start of the season?

- We lost a lot, I won’t deny it, and in general we started the season very vaguely. There were reasons for this - both external and internal, subjective and objective. It was a difficult moment, but thanks to the guys who found the strength to pull themselves together and complete this year with dignity. We are in the top three, we have with Zenit, so I will regard this intermediate result as positive.

- In the fall, a whole information company unfolded around Spartak, mostly with a pronounced negative connotation. How did you manage with thisdeal?

- The thing is that the situation in which we find ourselves is definitely beneficial to someone. Someone who is outside the club.

Inside — to all employees, coaches, players and administration — such stories interfered with productive work. We held several meetings, gathered at the base in Tarasovka, in my office, talked a lot with Massimo Carrera, with the entire coaching staff, and together we developed a mechanism that allowed us to unite.

In addition, we found the strength to return the lost motivation and believe that, despite the gap from the competition, the team is able to fight for the second championship.

- Have you established the cause of the loss of motivation?

- It's psychology. As people say, they went through fire, water and copper pipes, and with them glory, awards, medals and recognition. Alas, the team was not ready to win time after time. But there are also positive moments: once in a stressful situation, the guys became stronger. The last rounds of the Premier League are vivid proof of this.

- And how do you regard the results in the Champions League? It is unlikely that the club management considered the score 0:7 in the final match of the group stage to be satisfactory?

“Today, for our team, this is primarily a tournament that allows us to gain invaluable experience of playing on the international arena and play with eminent rivals. For many guys, such matches happened for the first time in their lives. Having received this invaluable practice, players will continue to progress and grow. I assess the overall performance of the club in the Champions League as positive, besides, even before the start of the season, the task was clearly formulated: to play decently in the Champions League. Worthy - this does not mean reaching the next round or getting into the Europa League. Worthy is to perform at the limit of your capabilities, draw the right conclusions and improve the overall quality of football.

• Reuters

- You were with the team in Liverpool. What was the atmosphere like in the dressing room after the defeat?

- There was dead silence. Of course, we were all hurt - such defeats are not so easy to survive. But, I repeat, for all of us it was first of all an experience, so, if we lose 0:1 or 0:7, the result is the same for the tournament layout. In Liverpool, the team went out to play to win, to fight for the right to play in the tournament further - in such a situation, either hit or miss.

- Were you worried about the psychological state of the players? Many experts said that, for example, Alexander Selikhov should not be bet on the match against CSKA.

- Although Sasha is young, he is a very promising, high-quality and professional player. Still, they saw the match with CSKA - he, and the whole team, were able to rehabilitate themselves for those seven goals in England.

- After the victory over CSKA, Leonid Fedun said that the team would completely make amends only if they beat the leading Lokomotiv with a score of 4:0. It's a joke? Or do you really believe that it is still possible to catch up with the railroad workers?

— Of course, everything is possible, we are the creators of our own success. Without looking back at the opponent, we will take points in each of the remaining ten matches. So every game in the spring is like a final.

“Talks about Promes leaving are irrelevant”

- You resign very quicklysali contract with Giorgi Jikia. Playerwas so interested in extending cooperation, or was the club's management spurred on by rumors about his possible departure to Zenit?

— Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately for many, the team does not work based on rumors and gossip. We live in the real world and in real facts. Jikia is a talented guy, he proved his right to play, and we need him without any doubt. In addition, we discussed the option of extending and increasing payments in case of successful actions on the field a year ago, when he had just joined Spartak.

- It's no secret that in the summer Massimo Carrera told you the names of those players with whom he wants to work. Now such a top list from the coach exists?

I would like to make the following clear: And by the way, in the summer, despite all the rumors and speculation that enveloped the club, they acted the same way. There is a wish of the head coach - these are positions and names, and there are proposals from the selection department. Having collected all these lists together, we begin the discussion. But believe me, the head coach always has the last word, he has to play and work with them, so the whole prerogative for choosing the players is with him.

• Nail Izmailov: "We live in a world of real facts"

What market will you focus on?

- This is equally the RFPL and the European championships. We look not only at Russian players, we also need strong legionnaires.

- Have you marked the lines that need to be strengthened?

— Of course, but I will not tell all the details of future transactions yet. I want to say something else: in addition to attracting highly qualified football players, we really want to develop our own youth, to rely on our pupils, so we will try to strengthen the main squad thanks to their involvement.

— And what is the situation with existing contracts? In the summer, Serdar Taski wanted to leave the club, and even now he honestly admits that he has not yet made a final decision. Will his contract be re-signed?

- He has a contract with Spartak until the end of the current season, the final decision will be made later, during the final negotiations.

- ANDdo they have soil under themRumors that Quincy Promes might leave the team and go to England?

- Not at the moment. And, in general, I really don’t want to destroy the champion squad, which is quite capable of repeating and surpassing its last year result.

• globallookpress.com

“Liverpool cannot forget the performance of our fans”

- Last year, you entered into a dispute with Zenit for the title of the most popular club in the country, and, according to the results of a survey by VTsIOM, the Petersburgers won. Did you request new information?

— At VTsIOM? We don't need it. We receive data at our stadium, at away matches. Our fans are with us always and everywhere. Here everything is clear and understandable.

— The club is actively working with fans. Does the loyalty system for season ticket holders justify itself?

- By and large, the full taste of this program, launched several years ago, we were able to understand only now, during the Champions League matches. The system works: many fans have purchased real tickets for European matches with the accumulated points without spending a penny. In addition, this approach blocks the air for speculators. The fans themselves have rated this system very positively.

- Is Spartak fighting for a new audience?

— Of course, the success of the club on the Russian and international arenas contributes to attracting fans.

- What plans for the development of the club are building "Spartak"?

- The priority for us is the improvement of the children's and youth program. It is in young talents that the future of both Spartak and the Russian team is. Therefore, we pay great attention to this. But we also plan to expand the boundaries, in particular, we are working on entering the Chinese market. We plan to develop football in this country, which will be carried out under the emblem of Spartak.

- After the incident in Maribor, there were no particular complaints about the discipline of the fans of the red-and-whites. How did you manage to achieve this?

— We are in constant contact with representatives of fan movements. Both players, coaches and club management meet with them.

- At the Champions League matches, the fans of the Moscow club were marked by colorful performances.

- Performances performed by Spartak fans in Europe are still remembered with a shudder. I met with the president and director of Liverpool, they cannot forget the image and the inscription on the banner that was posted at the match in Moscow. This made an indelible impression on the British delegation.

- Does the club provide any assistance to fans in creating such banners?

- We help in the matter of interaction with any government agencies, but the fans finance the performance themselves. We are very grateful to them for this. There are no analogues to this in Russia. The performances of our fans are considered not only the best in Russia, but also one of the brightest in Europe.

• Nail Izmailov: "Klopp still can't forget the performance of our fans"

How can you comment on the rocket launcher incident in Maribor?

- This case cannot be attributed either to the shortcomings of the Russian fans, or to the problems on the part of Spartak. The screening system and the general conditions for organizing a match in Slovenia were at a low level, which had never been seen before in Europe. Despite the fact that everything was terrible there, the UEFA inspector (Union of European Football Associations. — RT) gave them a good rating.

- What exactly were the problems?

- Due to problems with the access system, there were one and a half times more Russian fans at the match compared to the quota - the organizers let absolutely all the fans through, and then simply closed them in the arena. How this could happen, it is worth asking the management of Maribor.

- Did Sevilla do the right thing by not allowing Russian fans to the Champions League match?

- according to the letter of the law - the club received a ban from UEFA on the admission of fans from Russia to the stands and began to sell personalized tickets in order to exclude all sorts of violations of this decree in every possible way. As a result, even those who obtained tickets through resellers could not pass the control at the stadium.

- Don't you get the impression that Spartak is under more public scrutiny due to the upcoming 2018 World Cup and foreign media stories about violent Russian fans?

- Spartak is a leader in everything: in football, organization, fan movement, business and work with academies. Naturally, because of this, there is a certain subjectivity in relation to the club, attempts are being made to harm Russia in general and us in particular.

Take, for example, the incident with accusations of racism against the captain of the Spartak youth team. We will defend his rights at a meeting of the UEFA Disciplinary Commission, as we are sure of his innocence.

- Where such confidence?

He does not speak English well enough to say such rude words to a person with a different skin color.

- Is this due to not the most friendly attitude towards Russian sports?

- I think you can draw parallels, because now they look at Russia with a special squint.

“Before the World Cup matches, the stadium is waiting for changes”

— In 2017, the Otkritie Arena stadium hosted the games of the Confederations Cup. Did FIFA have any complaints?

— We work closely with the organizing committee of Russia-2018 and FIFA, we received high marks for hosting the matches of the tournament. The reason for this can be considered a great experience in organizing competitions of the highest level. There are people working in Tushino with vast experience in organizing tournaments, which, perhaps, none of the RFPL teams has.

- Before the Confederations Cup, the stadium was modified, in particular, the number of seats for journalists increased. Will such work be carried out before the World Cup?

- That's right, we will need to re-rotate spectator seats. At FIFA, we will again increase the working areas for media representatives, the so-called hospitality area, and expand the areas for restaurants. There will be changes in the logistics of the stadium, the teams will enter the field in a different way. But do not think that such works will have a negative impact on ordinary viewers. The ticket program has been launched and is being successfully implemented, including for matches at our stadium.

- Most recently, the president of Lokomotiv, Ilya Gerkus, said that the club was seriously thinking about installing a retractable roof over the stadium. Have you ever had such thoughts?

- There will be no rebuilding at our stadium in the near future. By the way, we considered the option with a roof during the development of the Arena Opening project, but so far we have not returned to this issue. Now there are simply no necessary resources, it is very expensive, and Spartak is already not in the best position regarding the financial principle of fair play.

The board of directors of the red and white at the moment, in addition to Rodionov and Leonid Fedun, includes: Sergey Mikhailov (member of the board of directors of Lukoil and chairman of the board of directors of Kapital Asset Management Group), Alexander Matytsin (vice president of Lukoil), Alexander Zhirkov ( chairman of the board of the Lukoil-Garant pension fund) and Andrey Fedun (general director of Spartak Stadium LLC).

Mikhailov Sergey Anatolyevich has been a member of the board of directors of Spartak since 2004.

Mikhailov received 3 higher educations: he graduated with honors from the Dzerzhinsky Military Academy, the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics with a degree in Finance and Credit. One of the main areas of work in the club is the fans. He defines the main task as economic: "The main thing is to sell tickets and subscriptions. Today it is desirable to sell 30 thousand and the entire VIP zone, then the revenue will be about 10 million euros - this is already something." Every year he plays an increasingly important role in making club decisions and was even considered as a replacement for the general director Roman Askhabadze. It is difficult to say something about the possible "sabotage" of Mikhailov, but it is known for certain that Mikhailov's brother is an ardent fan of CSKA. I do not put forward this as the main argument or some kind of evidence, just information for your information.

Matytsin Alexander Kuzmich has been a member of the board of directors of Spartak since 2004.

In 1984 he graduated from Moscow State University and received a PhD in Economics. After 10 years, he received a degree from the University of Bristol. Honored Economist of the Russian Federation, and also awarded two medals, including the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree. What this merit is is not very clear. In 1994-1997, he was the director of the international audit firm KPMG. From 1997 to 2012 - Vice President of the Main Department of the Treasury and Corporate Finance of OAO Lukoil. In the period from 2012 to 2013 - Vice President for Finance of OAO Lukoil. Since 2013, he has been Senior Vice President for Finance at OAO Lukoil. His wife, Lyubov Khoba, is the chief accountant of Lukoil. In 2000, a criminal case was initiated against her and Vagit Alekperov on the fact of fictitious export deliveries of oil abroad. The case was closed, since Lukoil paid the state as much as they said.

As for Spartak, he is considered the most devoted fan of the current board of directors and, at the same time, a fairly sane manager and financier.

Zhirkov Alexander Nikolaevich - Member of the Board of Directors since 2013.

Zhirkov, who graduated from the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University in 1988, has been working in the banking sector since 1993, and Alexander Nikolayevich came to IFD-Kapital controlled by Fedun in 2005. Zhirkov holds the position of a member of the board of directors of the Petrocommerce bank, which is part of the holding, and the main direction of his work is non-state pension funds. Zhirkov is the chairman of the board of NPF LUKOIL-Garant.

He is Fedun's deputy on the club's board of directors. The main pest in today's "Spartacus"! The fact that Zhirkov is a fan (well, or sympathizes / sympathizes) with CSKA (even before appearing in Spartak) is an open secret. And a red-blue pennant (!!!) and a calendar in his office (!!! ) at the "Opening Arena" (!!!) and completely goes beyond the bounds of reason.

Fedun brought Zhirkov to Spartak with one sole purpose - to save money, and save a lot. Zhirkov is not concerned about the sporting success of the club, he is only concerned about total savings. This is indirectly confirmed by Fedun himself: "I have a deputy, Alexander Zhirkov, who often argues with me. He has his own opinion on everything. I want victories, and he wants a balanced budget."

In the first transfer window Zhirkov - and it was the winter transfer window of 2014 - Karpin asked to sign two or three newcomers. However, Zhirkov was radically opposed to transfer spending and as a result, only one player was bought - the German Ebert for 1.4 million euros. Economy mode was launched to its fullest. And the main incentive for his work is the following: the more savings, the greater his salary.

Fedun Andrey Arnoldovich - Member of the Board of Directors since 2013.

In general, Andrei Fedun appeared in Spartak in March 2009, when he took the position of director of medicine and rehabilitation, since he had a medical education. He worked at this place until the summer of 2013, after which his brother decided that it was not worth doing medicine for his own blood, and it was time to count family money and appointed him the general director of Spartak Stadium LLC. Since then, he has been a member of the Board of Directors. It is obvious that he understands football even less than his brother - although it would seem that it is simply impossible to understand football less than Leonid Arnoldovich. This is clearly demonstrated by his recent statements in the press that Spartak has an excellent line-up, in which there is not a single failed line, and that, quote: "probably the coaches are doing something wrong."

Another statement of his stands out: I traveled a lot around the world and I know perfectly well that angry fans attacked coaches, shot at players, but no one ever touched the owners. Criticism of the leadership of “Spartacus” in the stands is an inadequate reaction to what is happening. The club has created all the conditions to win. If the players don't play, ask them.".

With the fact that the players need to be asked, we, of course, agree. But we cannot ignore his knowledge of the untouchability of the owners of football clubs. Of course, we will not give an example of how fans from different countries around the world exert physical pressure on the owners of their clubs - for example, they break through the podium straight into the VIP box or, for example, most recently, fans of Partizan Belgrade were beaten half to death one of the leaders of the club right at the walls of the stadium, but we recall that at one time the protests of Manchester United fans against the Glazer brothers, Newcastle fans against Mike Ashley or Milan tiffozi against Silvio Berlusconi and a dozen more like it were quite loud shares. So the current criticism of Fedun is true, they just "chided" with a finger.

Stupid, unprofessional, ignorant - all these, unfortunately, are the characteristics of today's management team of our club and Andrey Fedun in particular. It is clear that he ended up in the club thanks to his brother and that Leonid Fedun himself wanted to see him in the club. In general, it is surprising how 2 sons of Leonid Arnoldovich are still outside the club. I won't be surprised if after some time he will add them. It’s good that I haven’t thought of taking my daughter to the club yet, even if I took her husband Geraskin. In general, there are great fears that the "team of professionals", which, as Fedun himself says, should lead the club to victories, will not turn into a family business.

But not one board of directors lives today's "Spartak". It is necessary to say a few words about other "heroes of our time."

Izmailov Nail Kamilyevich - vice-president of the club.

In his student years, he combined his studies with work as a bouncer in a bar. After graduation, he was involved in investment projects in the regions. He has been engaged in large investment projects since 2006, working in a company of a large financial group. He worked in the Ministry of Natural Resources - as a specialist in the center of socio-economic analysis. Later he graduated from the Higher Commercial School under the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, MBA strategic management. Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun invited him to Spartak.

One of his main areas of responsibility is the sale of tickets and subscriptions. "The more revenue, the greater his salary," in connection with which Izmailov allegedly wanted to raise season ticket prices in the new season - this opinion is often found among fans. The question is debatable, because he managed to keep even a minimal increase in prices for season tickets for the new season. Although, on the other hand, this is logical, given the low place of Spartak in the standings of the championship that ended.

The question is different - what will be the prices for season tickets if, for example, "Spartak" in a year will break into the Champions League or even win the championship. Last season, Spartak became the most visited team of the championship, including about 25 thousand people came to the home matches of the red-and-whites. The figure is certainly good, but the percentage of the stadium's capacity, which is about 50%, leaves much to be desired. At the same “Zenith” the average attendance of home matches is lower only because “Petrovsky” can accommodate 21 thousand spectators, but the percentage is close to 100%. And if "Spartak" finally becomes a champion, then the fans will rush to buy season tickets for the post-championship season, and then "Demand creates supply" will work, and it is quite possible to expect an increase in season ticket prices up to 20-30%. It is possible that such changes will not affect the fan stand, but the central stands, and especially VIPs, will noticeably increase in price.

But so far, these are all just assumptions and bare speculation, and Izmailov continues to earn pluses in his reputation piggy bank - most recently, he made an attempt to return the historical rhombus to Spartak. Although they initially said that the final decision on this issue belongs to Fedun and the board of directors (after all, it was they who had to agree with Alyoshina on money), but this is already his great merit, because it was he who raised this topic, worked it out (although Izmailov far from the first to raise this issue earlier, but none of his predecessors could bring it to its logical conclusion) and, apparently, will bring it to the final stage - in any case, everyone is talking about returning the "correct" rhombus to Spartak more persistent and specific character.

Trakhtenberg Leonid Fedorovich - director of the public relations department and press attache of the club in the period from 02/17/2010 to 07/25/2012 and from 06/22/2015 to the present.

Trachtenberg worked at Spartak as director of public relations from 2010 to 2012, after which he worked in a similar position at Rostov for 3 years, until he returned to the red-and-white camp last summer. Despite the fact that he is a sincere fan who sincerely worries about our native club and, in fact, has dedicated his life to it, but, alas, this does not negate the fact of his professional stupidity. "Old Fool", "Crazy Fuck" - in these "epithets" the views of fans of different ages and different, let's say, "fan strata" are similar. Sometimes Trachtenberg's stupidity is even funny and touching, but, unfortunately, most often it only causes irritation. And this smack of dope, narrow-mindedness, mediocrity, which you clearly feel when opening another custom-made interview with Mr. Mikhailov, Cheloyants, Fedun Sr. and Jr., reading Trachtenberg’s reports, permeates everything that is connected with the club today, is inherited (or virally - God knows) from year to year. And the hallmark of this oppressive regime was the opuses of Leonid Fedorovich Trakhtenberg on the official website and his unforgettable reports, and his clichés about the "Persian carpet" and "thanks to Leonid Arnoldovich for such a wonderful stadium" are already simply tired.

Atamanenko Alexander Vladimirovich - commercial director from July 2014 to the present.

Atamanenko in 1996 received a diploma of higher international commercial education from the Academic Center for Management, Business and Law of the International Academy of Sciences (San Marino) with a degree in Marketing Director. In 2005, it was certified by the American Educational Institute "American Hotel and Lodging Association" in the direction of "standards of service". In 2008 he completed a full course of training in the direction of "stadium director" in the educational center "Amsterdam-Arena". In 2013 he received the certificate "Spectator Safety Management" in England (Ensuring the safety of spectators). Before Spartak, he worked at Shakhtar Donetsk, where he was in charge of the Donbass Arena stadium and managed it for 6.5 years. Atamanenko was entrusted with the Donbass Arena when it was still under construction, so he also had to participate in the management of a large-scale project for the opening of this stadium, and then lead the project for preparing and hosting Euro 2012 matches. He also fulfills the main tasks set by the investor - obtaining the maximum profit from the stadium. Under him, the Donbass Arena had good financial results - even before the Euro 2012, the stadium's income was more than $ 18 million. Atamanenko believes that this is largely the merit of his ambitious and well-coordinated team - and this is 265 people, not counting the personnel involved for a while holding matches. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Council of the European Stadium and Safety Association (ESSMA), and is also an honorary worker of tourism in Ukraine and has a medal "For Labor and Valor".

In 2014, Atamanenko was invited to Spartak and has been making profits from the Spartak stadium ever since. We have already spoken in detail about the figures and the amount of profit in the 2nd section of this article - "On income and expenses" - and we will not repeat ourselves.

It is gratifying that, at least on the issue of pyrotechnics, he is quite adequate and treats it, if not loyally, then with understanding. Here is what he said after the derby against CSKA in the first round: "Millions watched the Spartak-CSKA match and everyone saw that there was pyrotechnics. But there were no incidents in terms of interference with the safety of the fans and the atmosphere of the holiday football". He also noted that in general it is unrealistic to remove pyrotechnics from the stands and that if a person wants to carry pyrotechnics, he will do it. In general, he does not make any tragedy out of the use of pyrotechnics, noting quite reasonably that fireworks are used throughout Europe, and in some countries it is even legalized.

The only serious mistake in his work is the incomprehensible stewards and other personnel of the Otkritie-Arena, rooting for other teams. I think not everyone managed to forget the scandal after the same match "Spartak" - "CSKA", when, after the second goal of the army team, assistants of the Spartak medical service (porters) jumped up from their seats. Then, fortunately, they were all fired almost immediately after the match. Things are much worse with the stewards so far - some are fired, but others are replaced by the same ones, which indicates the absence of at least a minimum interview when applying for a job (more about the stewards of the Otkritie Arena who support other teams). In general, it remains to be hoped that Atamanenko will focus more serious attention on this problem - after all, this is his area of ​​​​responsibility.

Closing the topic of the leaders of Spartak, one cannot fail to mention one more person who has been on the board of directors for many years. It:

Cheloyants Jevan Krikorovich - Member of the Board of Directors from 2004 to 2015.

The ancestors of Cheloyants moved to Russia from Western Armenia during the genocide, and he was born in Grozny. His father played for the local Neftyanik, who instilled in his son a love of football and Spartak. From then until his last day at Spartak, Cheloyants was almost the only real fan of our team in the club's management. For 18 years he served as Vice-President of OAO Lukoil (1993-2011), is a laureate of the Government of the Russian Federation Prize in the field of science and technology (2007) and an honored worker of the oil and gas industry.

He was included in the Board of Directors of the club in 2004 - shortly after Leonid Fedun bought a controlling stake in Spartak. For a number of years, Cheloyants' work at the club remained out of the media field, although some of his personal actions were still known: for example, in 2004 he offered Nikita Simonyan to take the post of president of Spartak, which he, on reflection, refused. After retiring from Lukoil in 2011, Cheloyants fully focused on working at the club. The scope of his activities can be defined as "organizational" - once, for example, he, together with the general director, even flew to the Spanish training camp of Spartak. In addition, Cheloyants participated on behalf of the club in the meetings of the Russian Premier League and the United Football Championship of Russia and Ukraine. When a discussion arose about whether it is worth placing 4 stars above the Spartak rhombus, Cheloyants publicly supported the team's veterans, who demanded that the USSR championships be taken into account in this matter.

As part of his activities, Cheloyants personally supervised the Spartak "Academy" named after Fyodor Cherenkov, which prepares players for the main team. For young Spartak players, he allocated nominal scholarships, for their mentors - funds for sanatorium treatment, and, if necessary, organized charter flights for the departure of football players for away matches.

On a national basis, he lobbies for the purchase of Armenian football players and their interests - for example, with his direct participation, transfers of Aras Ozbiliz and Yura Movsisyan to Spartak were organized. Both the one and the other, as a result, left the camp of the red-whites just at the same time as their patron. In addition, it was Cheloyants who at one time really wanted to see the midfielder of the Armenian national team Henrikh Mkhitaryan in Spartak, but the matter never came to a discussion of the figures.

Cheloyants also influenced the choice among the candidates for the post of head coach. He was one of the main participants in negotiations with Cherchesov two years ago and even flew to Rostov-on-Don on a private plane, where Amkar, who then coached Cherchesov, played a match with the local Rostov, and at the end of the game took the coach to Moscow. It was from the phone of Cheloyants that the famous SMS was sent, in which Cherchesov was confronted with the fact that he was not suitable for Spartak. He spoke for the candidacy of Alenichev and against the candidacy of Yakin.

When considering individual personnel issues, Cheloyants very often remained in the minority on the board of directors. This, in particular, happened when issues were being resolved about the resignations of head coaches - Mikael Laudrup in 2009 and twice Valery Karpin - in 2012 and 2014. Cheloyants was also the only one on the board of directors who voted for the extension of the contract with Askhabadze, while everyone else opposed.

The rhetoric of Cheloyants often ran counter to the rhetoric of the club, or rather President Fedun. The businessman was active in the press and did not hesitate to criticize some decisions of the board of directors. So, a year before his departure from Spartak, Cheloyants said that there were no positive events in Spartak over the past year after the dismissal of Valery Karpin, with the exception of the opening of the stadium.

Soon Cheloyants was left without a board of directors - in August 2015 Sergey Rodionov took his place. The businessman himself then admitted that he did not understand the reasons for such a decision. After that, it became clear that his position in the club was significantly weakened. After that, he sold 10% of his shares to Leonid Fedun, and he himself became a shareholder of the Banants football club in Yerevan. But even after leaving the team, Cheloyants remained loyal to Spartak, saying: "I've been rooting for this team for 50 years and I want to root for another 50!"

Also, as in the case of Jevan Cheloyants, we cannot pass by the figure Vagit Yusufovich Alekperov .

About a year ago, the well-known TV commentator and journalist Vasily Utkin named Alekperov, and not Leonid Fedun, the real owner of Spartak. Still, this is not entirely true. Yes, he regularly provides personal sponsorship to Spartak (you can say that he finances together with Fedun) and certainly owns an impressive percentage of the shares of the red and white. But football itself with its problems is of little interest to him, and even more so, he has no desire to deal with it - there are enough “Lukoil” concerns here, otherwise he would have personally headed the board of directors of the club long ago. Since Alekperov is not interested in football, it is better for him that Fedun is in charge of the club, depriving him of an additional headache. But his participation, even if somewhat distant, is in Spartak and in the stadium. They just don't talk about it or don't talk about his participation to a lesser extent than it really is.

Populism is a tactic of direct flirting with the broad masses of the people, distributing unfounded promises in order to gain popularity in the election campaign. It is this word that pops up in the head of every fan of the red and white after the release of the next interview with any of the management of Spartak. These interviews contain a lot of bombast, a lot of promises and confidence in a bright future. It is populism that the leadership of Spartak has been engaged in all these years. They do not need any sporting achievements, successes, trophies. Of course, they will not mind if some trophy suddenly falls on their heads, but even without them, everything is going fine for these "leaders": attendance records will not go anywhere, not writing about Spartak in the media is suicide, paper hot dogs for 200 rubles and tea bags for 100 rubles will be sold in tons, if Promes leaves, he will go for a tidy sum to a good club - everything will be fine for them, one might even say - excellent. And everyone understands this: from Fedun to the Kombarov brothers, and the saddest thing is that this suits everyone. And Leonid Fedun continues to attribute all his own mistakes to the players, the conspiracies of the referees, the intrigues of opponents. When Emery came to Spartak, there was a real chance to make a serious step forward for the whole club, but no one needed it: neither the players who bled one of the most talented coaches in the world, nor the management, who did not deign to support the Spaniard in his fight. And it's just great that after leaving Spartak, Emery won the Europa League 3 times in a row (!!!) with Sevilla - I hope that after each of these victories, Fedun was tormented by hiccups for a week.

Then, hiding behind the screen of a brand new stadium, you can annually shuffle coaches and shuffle players for them - only in this case the players are not bought, but only sold and distributed free of charge to the closest competitors. And then in an interview to declare that this was done only in order to introduce young people into the vacant places, comparing Davydov with Messi along the way, admire and call any 2-3 accurate passes in a row “laces”.

At the most critical moments, you can take extreme measures - dismiss the general director, saying along the way that his course was erroneous, that Fedun gave the command to his full disposal, but he failed, but now we will find a real professional in his place and everything will be fine.

In the end, Fedun decides to make up his "team of professionals" from real Spartacists - Alenichev, Titov and Ananko, under the clear gaze of Rodionov and Trachtenberg's breathtakingly delusional enthusiastic comments, burst into Tarasovka, carrying a wagon and cart of the Spartak spirit. And everyone is happy - the Spartak public - with a return to Spartak roots, and Fedun with the fact that Rodionov is actually a non-initiative general director, and the new coaching staff does not seem to need purchases, which means that a large amount for transfers can not be pawned.

All 13 years of Fedun in Spartak are solid mistakes. We can say that Fedun himself is one big mistake. The incomprehensible dismissal of Pervak, the undercover games in the club's management, which brought the same Fedotov (the wife of Vladimir Grigoryevich herself spoke about this in an interview), whom Cherchesov had sat down at one time, the shameful transfer window in 2010, code-named "clean check", when " Spartak, which was tasked with winning the championship, spent as much as 4 million euros on transfers before the season, and the transfer campaign itself (Spartak then signed Drincic, Ari, Golyshev and Sheshukov, and returned Sovetkin, Sukha, Dziuba and Shishkin from leases. Moreover Golyshev, Shishkin and Dzyuba will leave Spartak in the same year), the dismissal of Unai Emery, coaching leapfrog, people in the club’s leadership who are dubious in terms of football - all this is the reason why Spartak has not achieved anything in 13 years with Leonid Fedun. Once again, Fedun signed his own stupidity quite recently, when he said that the 5th place, thanks to which Spartak secured participation in the Europa League next year, is shameful for the red and white. This is true, but for some reason, Leonid Arnoldovich does not consider the task that he himself announced before the 2015-2015 season - and this is 4th place and, accordingly, participation in the Europa League - not shameful.

What is the saddest thing for a Spartak fan - everyone (well, almost everyone) in the management and in the team - absolutely does not care about both Spartak and what is happening in it. For Fedun, the goal has always been the same - the self-sufficiency of Spartak, behind which lies his real goal - to maximize profits either through Spartak or with his help. Now he is betting on the Otkritie-Arena and the 2018 World Championship and, of course, on the Tushino-2018 project. Everything else does not matter to Fedun, and that is why many people from his entourage say that Leonid Arnoldovich simply does not care about the results of the team. The main thing is to arrange everything beautifully, shuffle the coaches and management, spend the minimum possible amount of money on the team, but to keep the fans happy and to divert the rays of hatred from your loved one, while at the same time making profit from parallel projects.

His subordinates do not care about Spartak because they are all only interested in Fedun's money and how to master it better. That is why they strenuously sing in his ears what a great manager, wise leader and sensitive "father" Fedun is, how far-sighted and purposeful he is, how everything is fine in Spartak and what excellent prospects await the club in the very near future. And all this day after day, month after month, year after year.

Absolutely all players, including legionnaires and youth, know everything described above - after all, this has long been no secret to anyone in Spartak. Hence such a disregard for the game and the results of the team among all the players in half of the matches of this season. The game is going well. It doesn't work - well, after the match, let's say that we tried, we ran, but today it didn't work out. SMS from the bank about the salary - that's the quintessence for the players and employees of today's Spartak.

For this situation to change, changes must occur in Fedun's head. Fedun has been at the helm of Spartak for 13 years. Very long and painful 13 years. During this time, "Spartacus" has not won anything (jokers may remember about the "Copa Del Sol"). He must finally understand that the football club was created primarily for victories, and not for the implementation of his business ideas. And that is why he is constantly criticized - as the president of a football club, and not as a prudent accountant. You can be a prudent accountant and live within your means - there is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, it is, in the face of ever-tightening financial fair play, very good. Only at the same time it is still possible to win, because not all clubs spend fabulous sums to win. And for this, it is necessary to completely clear the Augean stables (and in the case of Alexander Zhirkov, the expression about the stable takes on yet another additional meaning) in the management and in their "team of professionals", which in fact are not professionals, but the most ordinary economists who consider and protecting every penny of Fedun. Only in fact, Fedun's money is not protected, but diligently plucked off by each of these bastards, and the official thrift of Fedun's money is done to the detriment of the club. It is also time for Leonid Arnoldovich to stop managing the team according to the principle "Today I want one thing, tomorrow another, and the day after tomorrow I want again the way it was the day before yesterday." So it's time for Fedun to ask himself a question - what does he really want? To enjoy another positive financial report every year, despite the fact that the club has been out of the top three for 4 seasons in a row? Or still win? If he doesn't want this, then it's probably time for him to sell Spartak and give up his place to the fact that he realizes that the football club was created for football and for victories in it, and not for the circulation of money.

After the end of the first part of the season, the deputy chairman of the board of directors of Spartak answered questions from a Match TV correspondent.

- Spartak seriously improved before the break and shares the second or third place with Zenit. But will the breakaway from Lokomotiv allow you to aim for more?

If we have managed to radically change the situation in the table now, why not continue in the second round? Time will tell.

- By what means did you restore the nervous system after 0-7 in Liverpool?

We gathered at the hotel after the game with members of the board and board of directors, discussed the match and went to bed. Here are the means.

- Everything is quiet, calm?

What's the point of making noise? Yes, it hurts, it hurts. We did not have a serious experience of participating in European competitions, which was confirmed by the match with Liverpool. There was a reason to think about what we are doing wrong. Certain conclusions were made, as shown by the game with CSKA. It is clear that the high stages of the main club tournament in Europe are not yet the most achievable goal for us. And the task before the season was formulated as follows: worthy participation in the Champions League.

Alexander Selikhov / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexei Filippov

- What was worthy?

If you do not take into account these 0:7 - yes. Reaching the spring part of the Europa League is worthy. You can’t set yourself unrealistic goals, because this has the opposite effect: realizing that they can’t be fulfilled, people reduce the requirements for themselves and stop fulfilling them altogether.

- But there is another point of view: you would be forgiven for 0:7, if not for two draws with the outsider "Maribor".

Both are offensive. But they are also an experience that has not been there for a long time. Like 5:1 against Sevilla.

- Rate Spartak for the first part of the season.

- “Good”, judging by the current RFPL standings. Although there were many inconsistencies.

- Of all the rivals of Russian clubs in the Europa League, is Spartak the most serious one?

Didn't she work?

In the summer, according to my information, the proposals and conclusions of the selection department were ignored by the coach. Who will look for candidates now?

You have incorrect data. Maybe someone wanted to see problems in Spartak, but in reality there were none. They worked closely together. And someone on the side tried to put unnecessary rumors into rotation. In fact, the mechanism remains the same: some candidates are proposed by the coach, others by the selection department. Then - discussion and choice. Within budget.

- How big is it?

I won't name the amount, of course. But it is important to remember about financial fair play.

Does he push you hard?

Highly. Cruel tool. Limits - but also stimulates to earn more.

- What are the priority lines for amplification?

Defense for sure.

Will Tasky leave?

Taking into account the spring part of the European Cups and the upcoming matches of the Cup of Russia, I would not like to lose anyone from the current squad. It's too early to talk about the rest.

- A significant amount of compensation, prescribed in the contract of Promes, is able to protect Spartak from his departure?

There really is such a sum. But we must understand that this is not a dogma that excludes the negotiation aspect.

Quincy Promes "destroys" Sevilla after a chic individual pass and an accurate shot on target / Photo: © Vasily Ponomarev / Edgar Breshchanov / Sportbox.ru

- Did the club receive official offers to buy Promes?

Not at the moment.

How true is the interest of Spartak voiced by the press in midfielder Patrick Twumasi from Astana?

There is no interest, we are not considering buying it. Yes, and it is unlikely that it would be a gain. Another information "stuffing", of which there have already been many.

- And yet again about the selection. Who will lead it?

The final decisions, like last summer, are up to the head coach. Naturally, within the budget.

- In the summer it was the same. But the selection policy of Spartak smacked of controversy.

Perhaps it seemed that way from the outside. But there is centralization, interactions are debugged, everything will go on as usual.

There were complaints about the behind-the-scenes celebration of the championship. A small hall for their own - and no fans.

A holiday for the fans was at the stadium during the presentation of the championship cup. That's how it was originally planned. 45 thousand people came, people ran onto the field, thanked the team, and the team thanked them. I have not heard that the championship was celebrated on such a scale somewhere else. Everyone was happy. And the awarding of the medals took place in a more intimate atmosphere, which is normal.

- How many of them were, by the way, medals? Really four hundred? Didn't this devalue the champion's prowess?

Far less. We considered it necessary to thank with medals the staff of the club, who gave years of their lives to this championship. Quite natural, in my opinion. It would be wrong to do otherwise: in victory there is a piece of work of everyone who works in Spartak. We definitely did not hand out medals right and left, each of them is well-deserved.

- Why was the restaurant at the Spartak stadium handed over to CSKA fans?

Well, it's not in that steppe at all. It's not really like that. It was a children's birthday with a football theme. A girl who is a fan of Spartak. Children and parents came, supporting different clubs. Someone in a Barcelona jersey, someone with an Ajax scarf, someone in a CSKA uniform. It is strange not that it happened, but that we are discussing it at all.

- With what feelings did you read the interview with the driver of the Spartak bus?

Sorry, but I didn't read the interview with the bus driver.

- Will fire shows at Spartak's home matches remain the norm?

Pyrotechnics are prohibited in stadiums, which means that this cannot be the norm. We do our best to prevent it. Even though it's not easy. At the match with CSKA, for example, the search was carried out by police cadets. Did not help.

- Do you think the fans have the right to demand influence on the club, not being its shareholders?

Fans are our support, we always listen to them. Moreover, we will soon create a platform for fans to vote on certain issues. With feedback in the form of answers to their questions. Hope it works by the end of the season. We live and work for them. Of course, we are interested in their opinion.

You spoke about the emphasis on your own pupils. Are there quantitative "orders", and if so, what are they?

If the world of football worked according to orders, the viewer would not be interested in watching this. The installation of the young into the base should occur naturally. If at least one of the season will be able to replenish the main team, it will be nice.

- Do you often attend Spartak-2 and youth matches?

I do not often, Sergei Rodionov comes to every game. Not a single one is missed.

What about Carrera?

Both reserve teams train in Tarasovka, they are constantly in front of the head coach.

Why does a foreign coach need Spartak youth? Long tedious process. And the result is needed here and now.

Not certainly in that way. The tasks set by the Board of Directors for this season: a worthy participation in the Champions League, getting into the top three in the Russian Championship and winning the Russian Cup. This completely allows you to raise your own pupils to the level of regular base players.

- Do you want to say that Spartak is not faced with the task of defending the championship?

It has been in front of us for many years. And we wandered with this task all over the table, except for the very top. Finally, the understanding came: forward movement is required. And four years ago, the strategy changed. Since then, this is exactly how we have been developing - progressively. For four years we cooked porridge from an ax, built and polished the team until we got the one that wants, can and does what was planned. Because only progressive development provides the team with the future. Within the framework of this idea, graduates of the academy should also develop. They need game practice in the first team - otherwise there will be no progress.

Massimo Carrera during the match between Spartak and FC Spartak-Nalchik / Photo: © Edgar Breshchanov / Vasily Ponomarev / Sportbox.ru

- What form of accountability of the head coach to the club exists in Spartak?

Once every six months, all coaches of all teams report to the Board of Directors. Including Carrera. The dynamics of the growth of players, their potential, possible mistakes of the coaching staff, conclusions from these mistakes are indicated. Standard permanent procedure for several years.

- Does the Board of Directors only listen or set tasks too?

Certainly, both.

That is, Carrera only once every six months has the opportunity to hear: “Massimo, something is storming you in the distance - sometimes 0:7, then 3:0; instability, however?

Sergei Rodionov and I visit Tarasovka at least once or twice a week. So the head coach can hear this much more often.

- What are the reserves for the growth of home attendance?

It's hard to come up with something revolutionary. We should rather talk about strengthening those areas that we have been successfully working on for a long time and, by the way. The quality of the game - one, the work in the media space - two, the improvement of service for fans on match days - three. Much has been done and much remains to be done.

- To what extent will Spartak's life be complicated by the World Championship, the matches of which will be held at the Otkritie Arena?

Complicate - not entirely true. There is a lot of technical work to be done, the regular activities of the services and services of the club, which are now being carried out not on match days, will be interrupted for some time. We will have to take into account a completely different contingent of fans, requiring a different approach. We will give the stadium to the organizing committee, then we will return it, adapt it to club life and continue to operate it. Of the pluses - during the World Cup, the arena will be officially called the Spartak Stadium. For the club and society - a good advertisement.

- Is the problem of agency clans palpable for Spartak?

If there is such a problem, it does not affect Spartak. What does an agent need? Good contract for the ward and commission. We work with different agents, Russian and foreign, we do not skew in someone's direction.

- How many wards of Marco Trabucchi are playing in Spartak now?

Marco is one of those involved in Spartak's transfer deals as an intermediary. Without the slightest heel in his direction. The club definitely does not have “basic” agents.

Denis Glushakov and Massimo Carrera / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf

- Were you shocked when you read Glushakov’s: “Carrera is not a top coach”?

Heading - yes. The essence of what was said - no, because the phrase was taken out of context. Most importantly, the captain and coach have a great relationship, and no headlines can change that.

A photo: RIA Novosti / Vitaly Belousov, RIA Novosti / Alexei Filippov, Vasily Ponomarev / Edgar Breshchanov / Sportbox.ru,

Nail Izmailov is the new vice-president of the Moscow football club Spartak. Where did this sports functionary come from, who became the right hand in the team of the owner of the “red-white” These questions are being asked by many fans today.

Biography of a functionary

Nail Izmailov was born in 1976. He was born in Moscow.

In the early 90s, he became a student at the Moscow State University of Environmental Engineering. Graduated with a degree in Ecology. Later he became the owner of two more diplomas - at the Higher Commercial School, which was based at the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Federation. He graduated from his last school in 2011.

A lot of conflicting facts are known about the youth of Nail Izmailov. For example, they say that, while studying at the university, he worked as an ordinary bouncer in a bar. Over time, Nail Izmailov himself admitted this to a journalist, noting that the work was not without interest. True, in the future this hobby did not receive any continuation. The hero of our article did not become interested in martial arts.

Professional career

Before coming to Spartak, Nail Izmailov changed more than one occupation. His creative path was very diverse.

Since 2006, by his own admission, he has been overseeing several large investment projects, combining this with work in a company owned by a large financial group.

He also has experience in the real business sector. Izmailov Nail Kamilyevich collaborated with duty-free shops, clothing boutiques, and chain food supermarkets. There is an entry in his work book about work in the Federal Ministry of Natural Resources. Still, he is an ecologist by first education. Izmailov served as a specialist in the Center for Socio-Economic Analysis.

He has a master's degree. He defended it in engineering ecology.

Relations with Spartak

When Nail Izmailov became vice-president at Spartak, it immediately struck everyone that, unlike most other leaders of the Red-Whites, he was not trying to measure popularity with St. Petersburg's Zenit.

He himself looks like a fairly experienced and competent specialist and sports functionary. For example, once in a conversation with a journalist, he talked about the fact that in Russia, according to statistics, there are about 20 million fans. And Spartak's matches have some of the highest ratings in the country. So the team can be safely recognized as one of the official state brands. Because the victory of Spartak ultimately benefited the entire Russian football. At least it was economically beneficial for him, because millions of fans all over Russia, who had been rooting for Spartak for many years to no avail, now realized that everything was not in vain.

This success of the “red-whites” in the domestic national football championship has led to the fact that the interest of fans in football has grown even more, there are more fans who are fond of this sport. And all this is especially important on the eve of the upcoming World Cup, which will be held in Russia for the first time.

Responsibilities in "Spartacus"

Spartak vice-president Nail Izmailov in this position oversees an important economic block in the club. He is directly responsible for replenishing the budget, infrastructure facilities, developing a ticket program, and interacting with fans.

Izmailov is in charge of everything related to the income of the football club. These are stores with team symbols and paraphernalia, and trading operations, and sponsorship contracts, and the implementation of rights owned directly by the club, as well as advertising and marketing issues.

Izmailov himself admits that he faces an important task - to develop an integrated approach so that the club can earn money regularly. Only in this case shareholders will be able to compensate for their expenses. In the future, the "red-whites" expect to enter an IPO in the near future and begin to raise real money from the sale of shares. There are also serious plans to expand the infrastructure network. Moreover, in this case we are talking not only about the Russian regions, but also about the far abroad. This, for example, America and China, where they also know and love the Moscow "Spartak".

Most of these plans are now in their infancy. It is interesting which of them will be implemented.