Nail Izmailov: “Spartak’s acquisitions must be of high quality. Nail Izmailov: “Strengthening Spartak is our common goal!” - Where such confidence

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

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

“WORKED AND STUDYED”

- Have you really been a fan of Spartak since you were seven years old?
- Yes, I’ve been sick since seven. I started going to matches in 1989. I am a Muscovite myself. Both grandfathers defended the capital during the Great Patriotic War and served here. One was an artilleryman, a crew commander, the second a sapper. After the war they remained in Moscow. And my parents were born here.

- Were you actively sick?
- I attended matches regularly. On-site including.

- According to the hard version?
- According to everyone. I wasn’t part of the fan community, but I know many of them.

- How did you make your way from a fan to the vice-president of Spartak?
- I worked and studied a lot (smiles). I started working in my third year of college. Experience is very diverse - from retail, restaurant business, entertainment to construction, investment and banking. Then I received an invitation from Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun. “Spartak” is involved in the large project “Tushino-2018”, which involves the development of 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, where matches, competitions in other sports, concerts, exhibitions, and conferences will be held. Shopping and office centers, hotels, a children's entertainment complex, schools, kindergartens, clinics, and housing will be built. Actually a city. There is a lot of talk about how all this is to enrich investors. But construction costs are expected to be offset by income from home sales. Constant income from other facilities will be directed to the club to ensure its stable functioning. This will allow Spartak to feel confident financially over time and lose absolute dependence on the fortune 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 and Queensland Road project. The Brooklyn Nets basketball center with its megamall is a similar model. If the club wants to live and develop normally, it needs constant budget replenishment. Relying only on shareholder money is ineffective.

- How did you get involved in this?
- I had experience in investment activities, I did 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 film “The Big Short” about the 2008 crisis? If so, you must have understood the dialogues, which consisted 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.

DISCHARGE FOR RESERVE

- You were called to work in construction and real estate, but you are in the vice presidency of a football club. How so?
- The club and “Tushino-2018” are a single whole. It all started with the stadium, during the construction of which I led 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 opportunities of the club, stadium and territory.

- Are the purchase and sale 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, so far few people in Russia have been able to achieve this. The vertical “academy - youth team - Spartak-2 - base,” led by Sergei Rodionov, exists. But we often hear reproaches that our students go to other clubs, open up there, and play better than us. This means there is something to add.

- Sergey Galitsky said that he used the classic stadium cladding made of travertine stone, because bright modern materials tend to fade. I immediately remembered Otkritie Arena.
- Our cladding will not fade, everything is done with reserve. In addition, there are more important parameters. For example, the functionality of the stadium, convenience and comfort, safety and logistics. Or the place where it was built. Construction of arenas for the 2018 World Cup is currently underway. In each case, is the expectation made that the stadium will become a center of human attraction, the center of sports and commercial life, and a venue for non-stop public events? Are there those who evaluate these investments professionally and with perspective? Entire areas with transport and other infrastructure should be developed around the arenas. An illustrative example is England, London, where the rise 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 their dogs, and riding bicycles. 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 let's return to the Spartak vertical. Is it really difficult for a club academy to maintain the pace of “one student per year for the base”?
- Let me make a reservation right away: I am not responsible for the football part of Spartak. This is the patrimony 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 written down on paper. Coaches of all departments face this task. As of this year, it is essentially regulated. Trainers will be rewarded for their implementation, and bonuses will be clearly outlined. 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 most important in preparing the reserve.

TV REVENUE IS ONLY 4 PERCENT OF THE BUDGET

- What are your responsibilities at Spartak?
- The entire business component and the tools that help 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 on the board of directors of the club?
- No, I am on the board of Spartak.

- How is football business different from any other?
- Modern football is a huge business, associated 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, it is no different from many others. This is a symbiosis of different types of business, from retail sales and tickets to real estate operations. The main product produced is human emotions. They should be such that the fan feels good about his involvement in the club. There are three pillars in the marketing strategy of any football club - sporting success, the number of fans and their activity, and the club's budget. They are not directly dependent, but very noticeably influence 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. Just as regularly as the number of our subscribers on social networks, merchandising, and ticket program, we want to analyze the change in the number of fans. And not only in quantitative, but in qualitative terms. I don’t know yet whether there have been fewer of them over the past 13 years. But there are results of an English study. A person begins to get sick between the ages of 6 and 12 years and after that, in 90 percent of cases, he does not change his club habits. The main things that influence the choice of a club are friends, family, environment; then, by a large 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” has not been the champion of England for 26 years, but it is unlikely that it has lost much in the growth of fans.

We understand: there is a danger of losing young people due to 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 section is almost full at every match. Another example is the enormous popularity of promotions with our partner Nissan to recruit children to the Spartak Academy. This was done in different cities. Luck could smile on two or three boys, no more. But in Krasnodar, for example, 2,500 parents came in the wild heat, and the event lasted for several hours!

- Is it possible to compare the economy of Spartak with leading foreign clubs? Or are these different worlds?
- The filling of the budget is radically different if we talk about the top leagues in Europe. There, revenue 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, is similar for us - about 25 percent of the budget.

- It’s strange: the clubs have pennies 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 LEAVE THE POOL

- How are the prices for tickets and subscriptions determined?
- After the opening of the stadium, we were guided by the figures of the previous season. It doesn’t matter where you play: emotions are sold, and they don’t depend on the arena. Comfort, convenience, safety, parking, food may 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 VIP categories. Changing the price for ordinary fans would be disrespectful to them.

- Don't change - optimize.
- That’s why the ticket program is being analyzed now. Based on the dynamics, in each segment we will be able to regulate prices in a targeted manner. Of course, we will take into account the team’s results and the fans’ expectations before the season.

- Then you should sell season tickets for half the season. After all, expectations before autumn and spring are 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, day, game time, weather, etc. 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.

- Does the lack of a clear calendar for the season bother you? Sometimes the day and time of the start of the match is determined almost a week before the game.
- Here we are hostages of television. The unpredictable program grid dictates conditions for us too. Postponements of matches for European Cup participants are the same. In England, the calendar is clear for a year in advance; there even grandfathers went to matches according to the current schedule. The British keep traditions, but here we have no consistency. Although the first shoots have appeared: we see how people in the new season are happy to purchase subscriptions to their favorite places, know their neighbors, and communicate with them in a friendly manner. This is important for football. When a person comes to the arena, he feels a sense of belonging to his favorite team and has an influence on what is happening through its support. This is especially valuable; it is one of those components that allows the team to win.

- And yet it’s not clear. 4 percent from TV is ridiculous money. If you left the pool, you would get more.
- To leave the pool means to destroy the entire component of the League. “Real” and “Manchester United” do not leave the pool, which means that everything is not so simple. Besides, we're all in the same boat in a way.

DUMPING CORRUPTS

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

- If both clubs had made prices lower, the Spartak sector in the return match would have been fuller.
- Direct exchange is impossible; such a practice does not exist 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 costs 1000 rubles. The price of the service at another stadium may be different depending on convenience, comfort and other factors. Artificially lowering prices corrupts the consumer. You can give out tickets for free, but it is unlikely that in the long run this will attract fans and teach them to support the team in all ways.

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

- “Spartak” is a self-sustaining club?
- I would say - the closest to self-sufficiency among Russian clubs.

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

- How has the commercial potential of the new stadium been realized?

There is room for growth. We want to provide, for example, free Wi-Fi in the stands so that 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 store, delivery of drinks and food to a seat in the stands, locating yourself and searching for friends at the stadium through your personal account. We are finishing the project with four cellular operators; a stable 4G signal should appear in the arena in December. We expect to launch an official online service for the resale of Ticket Exchange tickets by fans to each other. If a person is unable to go to the match, but has a season ticket or 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 season tickets online.

BEST MUSEUM IN THE WORLD

- How else do you fight for an 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 schools in the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow this year. We use the power of media. We work closely with the fan base, about whom we know a lot, from who they come to the stadium with, to gastronomic and preferences. Happy holidays to them. 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 (CRM) system for a long time. It includes a ticket program, access control, loyalty program, merchandising, monitoring relationships with our partners, catering, and so on.

We interact with charitable foundations; we recently launched a program with a fund to fight leukemia, with plans to connect organizations that help sick children, orphans and low-income families. We help people with disabilities attend matches. Our new employee Alexander Sergeev, who himself uses a wheelchair, is doing a lot of work in this direction.

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

- 13 thousand rubles for a modest autumn jacket in a Spartak store - isn’t it a little expensive?
- We are dependent on the manufacturer, our margin is small.

- Are you planning to take the Spartak brand to the international level?
- Mainly due to the promotion of the mobile application. Open fan clubs? But why, given modern Internet capabilities? But what we are planning is a network of football academy branches. Bonnies will appear in Russian cities, and we want to make one in China. And open a club office there. In Hong Kong or Shanghai, negotiations are still ongoing. This will allow us to establish a dialogue with a huge country and, possibly, sponsors. There is no prospect of moving to Europe, where the leading clubs have a strong position; we will not be able to compete with them. Our fans already get emotions from a distance, watching matches on the Internet. A friend from Los Angeles went to a game in Moscow, having calmly bought 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 on the technical side. How much did it cost?
- More than 200 million rubles. We have been working on this project for almost three years. I think we have created 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 a fundraiser. 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 a great player and a great man.

Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the capital's Spartak, Nail Izmailov, in an interview with RT, explained what goals the leadership of the red and white pursues, proposing the RFPL to carry out fundamental reforms. He also shared his transfer plans, told how the team managed to get out of the crisis situation, and revealed details of the relationship with the fans.

“Our goal is to make the Russian championship better and more popular”

The owner of Spartak, Leonid Fedun, recently made a proposal to carry out a number of reforms in Russian football. What work is being done by the club to implement these proposals?

We are now preparing letters to all leagues: RFPL, FNL and PFL, sending an appeal to the Ministry of Sports and 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 being pursued here, because the proposed reforms are specifically aimed at improving certain components of the game. But I will highlight the main priorities: improving the quality of football itself and increasing spectator interest in domestic championship matches. For this purpose, a proposal was put forward to reduce the participants in the national championship to 14 teams. Thus, viewers will have the opportunity to watch the game with their own eyes in comfortable, safe arenas, and the quality of the television picture will also increase, which, in our opinion, will affect the overall growth of interest in the RFPL.

What about reforming the gaming grid? It turns out that the current calendar still does not suit Russian clubs?

Yes, indeed, this story repeats itself every year, every season we try to move games from cold regions to the summer, but so far this has been difficult. I would like such issues to be automatically taken into account when creating the calendar - it is with this approach that a lot of difficulties will be avoided for both clubs and their fans.

Your club also received a proposal to introduce a mandatory bonus system for children's coaches who trained players for the RFPL, 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, having carried 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 is no secret that today the coaching staff of the national team does not have much choice.

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

Yes, we are prepared for the fact that many clubs will not be particularly happy about our reforms. 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.

“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 an unacceptable number of points at the start of the season?

We lost a lot, I won’t deny it, and overall we started the season very poorly. 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 finish this year with dignity. We are in the top three, we have an equal number of points with Zenit, so I will regard this interim result as positive.

In the fall, a whole information campaign developed around Spartak, mostly with a pronounced negative connotation, how did you manage to cope with this?

The whole point is that the situation in which we found ourselves is absolutely beneficial to someone. Someone who is outside the club.

Internally, for all employees, coaches, players and administration, such stories prevented them from working productively. 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 developed a mechanism that allowed us to unite.

In addition, we found the strength to regain lost motivation and believe that, despite the lead from competitors, the team is capable of fighting for a second championship.

- Have you determined the reason for the loss of motivation?

This is psychology. As people say, we went through “fire, water and copper pipes” and with them fame, prizes, medals and recognition. Alas, the team was not ready to win over and over again. But there are also positive aspects: having found themselves in a stressful situation, the guys became stronger. The latest rounds of the RFPL are clear proof of this.

How do you assess the results in the Champions League? It’s unlikely that the club management called 0:7 in the final match of the group stage satisfactory?

Today, for our team, this is primarily a tournament that allows us to gain invaluable experience of performing on the international stage and playing with famous opponents. 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 club’s overall performance in the Champions League as positive; moreover, even before the start of the season, the task was clearly formulated: to play well in the Champions League. Worthy does not mean reaching the next round or getting into the Europa League. Worthy is to perform to the limit of your capabilities, draw the right conclusions and improve the overall quality of football.

- You were with the team in Liverpool, what was the atmosphere in the locker room after the defeat?

There was deathly 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 and foremost an experience, so whether we lost 0:1 or 0:7, for the tournament situation the result is the same. In Liverpool, the team came out to play to win, to fight for the right to continue playing in the tournament, in such a situation it was either hit or miss.

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

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

After the victory over CSKA, Leonid Fedun said that the team would fully make amends only if it beat the leading Lokomotiv with a score of 4:0. Is this a joke or do you really believe that you can still catch up with the “railroad workers”?

The board of directors of the red and white currently includes, in addition to Rodionov and Leonid Fedun: Sergei Mikhailov (member of the board of directors of Lukoil and chairman of the board of directors of Capital Group Asset Management), 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 - 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 at the club is the fans. He defines the main task as economic: “The main thing is to sell tickets and season tickets. Today it is advisable to sell 30 thousand and the entire VIP zone, then the revenue will be approximately 10 million euros - this is already something.” Every year he plays an increasingly greater role in making club decisions and was even considered as a replacement for general director Roman Askhabadze. It’s difficult to say anything about Mikhailov’s possible “sabotage,” but it is known for certain that Mikhailov’s brother is an ardent CSKA fan. I don’t put this forward 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. Ten years later he received a degree from the University of Bristol. Honored Economist of the Russian Federation, and was 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 – director of the international auditing firm KPMG. From 1997 to 2012 - Vice President of the Main Directorate of Treasury and Corporate Finance of OJSC Lukoil. In the period from 2012 to 2013 - Vice President for Finance of OJSC Lukoil. Since 2013, he became senior vice president for finance at Lukoil OJSC. His wife, Lyubov Khoba, is the chief accountant of Lukoil. In 2000, a criminal case was opened against her and Vagit Alekperov for fictitious oil exports abroad. The case was closed because Lukoil paid the state as much as they were told.

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 Moscow State University in Mechanics and Mathematics in 1988, has been working in the banking sector since 1993, and Alexander Nikolaevich came to IFD-Kapital, which is also controlled by Fedun, in 2005. Zhirkov holds the position of member of the board of directors of the Petrocommerce Bank, 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 Spartak! The fact that Zhirkov is a fan (well, or sympathizes/sympathized) with CSKA (even before appearing in Spartak) is an open secret. And the red and blue pennant (!!!) and the calendar in his office (!!! ) at the Otkritie Arena (!!!) and completely goes beyond the bounds of reason.



Fedun brought Zhirkov to Spartak with one single goal - to save, and to save a lot. Zhirkov is not concerned about the club’s sporting successes, 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 view on everything. I want victories, and he wants a balanced budget.”

In Zhirkov’s first transfer window - and it was the winter transfer window of 2014 - Karpin asked to buy two or three newcomers. However, Zhirkov radically opposed transfer spending and in the end only one player was purchased - the German Ebert for 1.4 million euros. The economy mode was launched to the fullest. And the main incentive for his work is the following: the greater the savings, the greater his salary.

Fedun Andrey Arnoldovich - member of the board of directors since 2013.



In general, Andrei Fedun appeared at Spartak in March 2009, when he took the position of director of medicine and rehabilitation, since he had a medical education. He worked in this position until the summer of 2013, after which his brother decided that it was inappropriate for his own blood to practice medicine, and it was time to count the family money and appointed him general director of Spartak Stadium LLC. From the same moment he became a member of the board of directors. It is obvious that he understands even less about football than his brother - although, it would seem, it is simply impossible to understand less about football than Leonid Arnoldovich. This is clearly demonstrated by his recent statements in the press that “Spartak” has an excellent lineup, in which there is not a single failed line and that, quote: “The coaches are probably missing something.”

One more statement of his stands out: " I have traveled a lot around the world and know very well that angry fans attacked coaches and shot at players, but no one ever touched the owners. Criticism of the Spartak management in the stands is an inadequate reaction to what is happening. The club has created all the conditions for winning. If football players don’t play, ask them.”.

Of course, we agree that the players should be asked. But we cannot ignore his knowledge of the untouchability of football club owners. We, of course, will not give examples of how fans from different countries around the world exert physical influence on the owners of their clubs - for example, they break through the stands straight into the VIP box, or how, for example, just recently fans of Partizan Belgrade beat them half to death one of the club's leaders right outside the stadium, but we remind you that protests by Manchester United fans against the Glazer brothers, Newcastle fans against Mike Ashley, or Milan tiffos against Silvio Berlusconi and a dozen more similar ones were quite loud at one time shares So the current criticism of Fedun is just a “reprimand” with a finger.

Stupid, unprofessional, ignorant - all these, unfortunately, are characteristics of today's management team of our club and Andrei 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’s surprising how Leonid Arnoldovich’s 2 sons still remain outside the club. I wouldn’t be surprised if after some time he adds them too. 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 affair.

But today's Spartak does not live by the board of directors alone. It is necessary to say a few words about other “heroes of our time”.

Izmailov Nail Kamilievich - vice-president of the club.



During his student years, he combined his studies with work as a bouncer in a bar. After completing his studies, he was involved in investment projects in the regions. He has been involved 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 for socio-economic analysis. Later he graduated from the Higher Commercial School under the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, MBA in Strategic Management. Leonid Arnoldovich Fedun invited him to Spartak.

One of his main areas of responsibility is the sale of tickets and subscriptions. “The greater the revenue, the greater his salary,” in connection with which Izmailov allegedly wanted to raise prices for season tickets in the new season - this opinion is often found among fans. The issue is controversial, because he managed to contain even the 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 completed championship.









The question is different - what will the prices for season tickets be if, for example, Spartak makes it to the Champions League in a year or even wins the championship. Last season, Spartak became the most visited team in the championship, including an average of about 25 thousand people coming to the red-and-white home matches. The figure is certainly good, but the percentage of the stadium’s capacity, which is about 50%, leaves much to be desired. For example, “Zenith” has a lower average attendance at home matches only because “Petrovsky” seats 21 thousand spectators, but the percentage is close to 100%. And if “Spartak” finally becomes the champion, then fans will rush to buy season tickets for the post-championship season, and then “Demand creates supply” will work and we can expect an increase in season ticket prices of up to 20-30%. Perhaps such changes will not affect the fan stand, but the central stands, and especially VIP stands, will noticeably increase in price.

But so far these are all just assumptions and mere speculation, and Izmailov continues to earn advantages for his reputation - most recently he made an attempt to return the historical diamond to Spartak. Although initially they said that the final decision in this matter rested with Fedun and the board of directors (after all, they were the ones who had to agree with Aleshina on money), this is his great merit, because it was he who raised this topic and worked on it (although Izmailov is far from the first who raised this issue earlier, but none of his predecessors were able to 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” diamond to Spartak more persistent and specific character.

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



Trakhtenberg worked at Spartak as director of the public relations department from 2010 to 2012, after which he worked in a similar position at Rostov for 3 years, until he returned to the red-white camp last summer. Despite the fact that he is a sincere fan who cares deeply about our native club and, in essence, has dedicated his life to it, but, alas, this in no way cancels 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 layers” are similar. Sometimes Trachtenberg's stupidity is even funny and touching, but, unfortunately, most often it only causes irritation. And this taste of stupidity, narrow-mindedness, mediocrity, which you clearly feel when opening the next commissioned interview with Mr. Mikhailov, Cheloyants, Fedun Sr. and Jr., reading Trachtenberg’s reports, permeates everything connected with the club today, is passed on by inheritance (or virally - God knows) from year to year. And the calling card of this oppressive regime were 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” were simply tired.

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



In 1996, Atamanenko 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 Hotel and Lodging Association in Service Standards. In 2008, he completed a full course of training in the direction of “stadium director” at the Amsterdam Arena educational center. In 2013, he received the “Spectator Safety Management” certificate in England. Before Spartak, he worked at Shakhtar Donetsk, where he was the head of the Donbass Arena stadium and led 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 head the project for the preparation and holding of Euro 2012 matches. It also fulfills the main tasks set by the investor - obtaining maximum profit from the stadium. Under him, the Donbass Arena had good financial results - even before Euro 2012, the stadium's income was more than $18 million. Atamanenko believes that this is largely due to his ambitious and well-coordinated team - and this is 265 people, not counting the temporarily hired personnel 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 since then has been making profit from the Spartak stadium. We have already spoken in detail about the numbers and amount of profit in the 2nd section of this article - “On income and expenses” - and we will not repeat it.

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

The only serious flaw in his work is the incomprehensible stewards and other staff of the Otkrytie Arena, cheering for other teams. I think not everyone has yet forgotten the scandal after the same match “Spartak” - “CSKA”, when after the second goal of the army team the 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 still much worse with the stewards - some are fired, but others like them take their place, which indicates the absence of at least a minimum interview when hiring (read more about the Otkritie Arena stewards who support other teams). In general, we can only hope that Atamanenko will focus more serious attention on this problem - after all, this is his area of ​​​​responsibility.

Closing the topic of Spartak managers, one cannot fail to mention one more person who was on the board of directors for many years. This:

Cheloyants Dzhevan Krikorovich - member of the board of directors from 2004 to 2015.



Cheloyants' ancestors moved to Russia from Western Armenia during the genocide, and he was born in Grozny. His father played for the local Neftyanik, and 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. He served as vice president of OJSC Lukoil for 18 years (1993-2011), is a laureate of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology (2007) and an honored worker of the oil and gas industry.

He was included in the club's Board of Directors in 2004 - shortly after Leonid Fedun bought a controlling stake in Spartak. For a number of years, Cheloyants’ work at the club remained outside 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 focused entirely on working for the club. The scope of his activity can be defined as “organizational” - once, for example, he and the general director even flew to Spartak’s Spanish training camp. In addition, Cheloyants participated on behalf of the club in meetings of the Russian Premier League and the United Russian and Ukrainian Football Championship. When a discussion arose about whether it was worth placing 4 stars above the Spartak diamond, Cheloyants publicly supported the team 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 Fedor Cherenkov, which trained players for the main team. For young Spartak players, he allocated personal scholarships, for their mentors - funds for sanatorium-resort treatment, and, if necessary, organized charter flights for football players to fly to away matches.

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

Cheloyants also influenced the choice among candidates for the post of head coach. He was one of the main participants in negotiations with Cherchesov two years ago and even flew on a personal plane to Rostov-on-Don, where Amkar, which 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 Cheloyants’ phone that the famous SMS was sent, in which Cherchesov was confronted with the fact that he was not suitable for Spartak. He supported 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 questions about the resignations of head coaches were being decided - Michael Laudrup in 2009 and Valery Karpin twice - in 2012 and 2014. Cheloyants was also the only one who voted on the board of directors to extend the contract with Askhabadze, while everyone else opposed.

The rhetoric of Cheloyants often ran counter to the rhetoric of the club, or more precisely of President Fedun. The businessman was active in the press and did not hesitate to criticize some decisions of the board of directors. Thus, a year before his departure from Spartak, Cheloyants said that no positive events had occurred over the past year at Spartak 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, Sergei Rodionov took his place. The businessman himself then admitted that he did not understand the reasons for this decision. After this, it became clear that his position in the club had weakened significantly. After that, he sold 10% of his shares to Leonid Fedun, and he himself became a shareholder of the Yerevan football club Banants. But even after leaving the team, Cheloyants remained faithful to Spartak, saying: “I have been rooting for this team for 50 years and I want to root for another 50!”

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



About a year ago, the famous TV commentator and journalist Vasily Utkin named Alekperov, and not Leonid Fedun, as the real owner of Spartak. Still, this is not entirely true. Yes, he regularly provides personal sponsorship to Spartak (one might say that they finance it together with Fedun) and certainly owns an impressive percentage of the red-and-white shares. But football itself with its problems is of little interest to him, and even more so he has no desire to engage in it - there are enough “Lukoil” worries here, otherwise he would have personally headed the club’s board of directors long ago. Since Alekperov is not interested in football, it is better for him that Fedun is involved in the club, depriving him of additional headaches. But his participation, even if somewhat distant, is both 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 actually is.

Populism is a tactic of directly flirting with the broad masses of the people, making unfounded promises in order to gain popularity in the election campaign. It is this word that pops up in the head of every red-and-white fan after the release of another interview with any of the Spartak management. 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 don’t need any sporting achievements, successes, or trophies. Of course, they won’t 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. Promes, if he leaves, 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 everyone is happy with this. And Leonid Fedun continues to blame all his own mistakes on the players, the conspiracies of the judges, and the machinations of his opponents. When Emery came to Spartak, there was a real chance to take a serious step forward for the entire club, but it turned out to be of no use to anyone: neither the players, who dumped one of the most talented coaches in the world, nor the management, who did not deign to support the Spaniard in his struggle. And it’s just wonderful that after leaving Spartak, Emery won the Europa League with Sevilla 3 times in a row (!!!) - I hope that after each of these victories, Fedun was tormented by hiccups for a week.

Then, behind the screen of a brand new stadium, you can annually shuffle coaches and shuffle players under them - only in this case the players are not bought, but only sold out and given away for free to their closest competitors. And then in an interview they state that this was done only in order to introduce young people into the vacancies, simultaneously comparing Davydov with Messi, admiring and calling “lace” any 2-3 accurate passes in a row.



At the most critical moments, you can take extreme measures - fire the general director, simultaneously declaring that his course was wrong, that Fedun put the team at his complete 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 form his “team of professionals” from real Spartacists - Alenichev, Titov and Ananko, under the clear gaze of Rodionov and Trachtenberg’s breathtakingly delirious enthusiastic comments, burst into Tarasovka, carrying behind them a carriage and cart of the Spartacist spirit. And everyone is happy - the Spartak public - with the return to Spartak's roots, and Fedun is happy with the fact that Rodionov is in fact an uninitiative general director, and the new coaching staff does not seem to need purchases, which means that a large amount of money may not be pledged for transfers.

All 13 years of Fedun at Spartak were continuous mistakes. We can say that Fedun himself is one big mistake. The incomprehensible dismissal of Pervak, behind-the-scenes games in the management of the club, which brought the same Fedotov (the wife of Vladimir Grigorievich herself spoke about this in an interview), whom Cherchesov once caught up with, 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 Drinčić, Ari, Golyshev and Sheshukov, and returned Sovetkin, Sukhi, Dzyuba and Shishkin from loans. Moreover, Golyshev, Shishkin and Dzyuba will leave Spartak this same year), the dismissal of Unai Emery, the coaching leapfrog, questionable football people in the club's management - all these are the reasons why Spartak has not achieved anything in 13 years under Leonida Fedun. Once again, Fedun admitted his own stupidity quite recently when he said that 5th place, thanks to which Spartak secured participation in the Europa League next year, is shameful for the red and white. This is indeed true, but for some reason Leonid Arnoldovich does not consider the task that he himself voiced before the 2015-2015 season - which is 4th place and, accordingly, participation in the Europa League - shameful.



What’s saddest for a Spartak fan is that everyone (well, almost everyone) in the management and on the team absolutely doesn’t care about Spartak or what’s happening in it. For Fedun, the goal has always been the same - the self-sufficiency of Spartak, which hides his real goal - obtaining maximum profit either through Spartak or with its help. Now he is betting on Otkritie Arena and the 2018 World Championship and, of course, on the Tushino 2018 project. Everything else doesn’t matter to Fedun, and that’s why many people around him say that Leonid Arnoldovich simply doesn’t care about the team’s results. The main thing is to arrange everything beautifully, shuffle 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 a profit from parallel projects.

His subordinates don’t care about Spartak because they are all only interested in Fedun’s money and how to better use it. That is why they strenuously sing in his ears about how Fedun is a great manager, a wise leader and a sensitive “dear father”, how insightful and purposeful he is, how good everything is at 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 foreign players and youth, know everything described above - after all, this has long been no secret to anyone in Spartak. Hence the disregard for the game and the team’s results among all players in half of the matches this season. The game is going well. It doesn’t work - well, after the match we’ll say that we tried, we ran, but today it didn’t work out. SMS from the bank about salary is 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. A very long and painful 13 years. During this time, Spartak did not win anything (jokers may remember 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 - precisely 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, in the conditions of constantly tightening financial fair play, this is very good. Only in this way can you still win, because not all clubs spend fabulous sums to win. And to do this, you need to completely clear the Augean stables (and in the case of Alexander Zhirkov, the expression about the stable takes on another additional meaning) in the leadership and in your “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 is diligently pinched off by each of these lures, and the official frugality of Fedun’s money is done to the detriment of the club. It’s 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 it again as it was the day before yesterday.” So it’s time for Fedun to ask himself a question - what does he really want? To rejoice every year at yet another positive financial report, despite the fact that the club has remained outside the top three for four seasons in a row? Or should I still win? If he doesn’t want this, then it’s probably time for him to sell Spartak and give up his place to someone who realizes that a football club was created for football and for winning in it, and not for turning around money.

Alexander SAMEDOV (left) and LOUISE ADRIANO appeared in Spartak at the request of Massimo Carrera. Photo Alexander STUPNIKOV, FC "Spartak"



What do they think about this at the club? It is with this question that we turned to.

- How would you comment on the current tournament situation?

First of all, I would like to note that we should not make premature conclusions about our team’s chances both in the national championship and in the Champions League. There are 26 rounds of the domestic tournament ahead, and more than a month before the start of the international tournament. And if in the near future we establish the true reasons for our relative failures at the start of the season, then the situation can be corrected long before the intermediate finish, when the RFPL goes on a break and the group matches in the Champions League end.

- But Spartak finished the last autumn segment of the championship in first place, which is hardly worth talking about now.

Yes, and before the winter intermission we were five points ahead of our closest competitors. And this despite the fact that we did not yet have a defender, midfielder and striker. Moreover, the last two were acquired at the request of Massimo Carrera.

As for Dzhikia, his candidacy, proposed by the club, was naturally agreed upon with the team's head coach. Well, Carrera received such football players as, as they say, as an inheritance, and a number of others. Moreover, the last three were invited just in last year’s summer transfer window. These are the players who managed to win gold medals. And thanks to the fact that they were able to be preserved, in the current off-season, an experienced, well-played, disciplined team with well-established relationships was preparing for the next start.

She proved her strength by winning another trophy - the Super Cup. And this victory was achieved without one of the key performers - Zobnin, who, unfortunately, received a serious injury during the Confederations Cup.



Massimo CARRERA is waiting for newcomers. Photo by Alexander FEDOROV, "SE"



- What vision of the tournament prospects did the club have before the start of this season?

Of course, we clearly understood that winning the championship is not easy, but retaining the title of the best team is many times more difficult. And therefore, back in May, they asked the head coach to identify positions that, in his opinion, required strengthening. These positions have been named. Let me emphasize - these are positions, not names, as Carrera said on Tuesday at a press conference in Tarasovka. Most likely, these turned out to be translation difficulties, since Carrera began to name the names themselves a little later.

- And what names did Massimo name?

Among the players subsequently named were the following: , . Some of them were acquired - today you already know who, but some, for various reasons, were not. Although the club did everything possible to fulfill all the wishes of the head coach, who led the team to the championship and who had to prove the consistency of this success in the new, that is, already begun, season.

By the way, at a certain period the head coach was interested in the services of a midfielder and striker. And there was a high probability that both of them would move to Spartak. But at the last moment Carrera changed his mind.





- At what stage is the search for newcomers now?

It would be a big mistake to consider that it is completed - it is being carried out around the clock and, above all, on the basis of the wishes and recommendations of the head coach, who has been given a full carte blanche. The club has allocated funds for necessary purchases.

And as further confirmation of this, on Thursday I’m flying out for negotiations with one fairly authoritative football player whom Massimo would like to see in Spartak. By the way, the clubs have already reached an agreement, but the last word belongs to the player himself. Moreover, this is not the last candidate of those whom Carrera names today and whom the club expects to acquire.

Yes, of course, Spartak needs strengthening. But I repeat that, in addition to this, a comprehensive analysis of the game in the opening matches of the championship is necessary. Since our team was capable of defeating Dynamo and Ufa with the squad that won gold last season. Even in the absence of Zobnin.

However, we should not forget that the guys, who are now firing one critical arrow after another, figuratively speaking, just yesterday gave us a lot of pleasure with their play and victories, including over their main competitors - and. I would not want the attitude towards Spartak to become an illustration of the famous saying “From love to hate - one step.”

- What are your expectations from the upcoming tours?

In order to defend the title in Russia and perform well in the Champions League, any team - and Spartak in this case is no exception - needs support. We are talking about every player and, first of all, about the head coach. The coach who hid the gold medal in his pocket at the awards ceremony. Probably also in order to make room on the chest for the new award won with Spartak.