MUTKO: OUR FOOTBALL CANNOT BE ALL RIGHT WHILE SPARTAK
IS BAD
Yesterday Sport Express had its birthday - we are 17 years old. Our
Olympic delegation received lots of congratulations including from the
Russian minister for Sport Vitaly Mutko, who visited our press centre
yesterday and did not refuse to answer some questions.
- What is your attitude towards the play of Spartak in
the match against Dinamo Kyiv in the Champions League?
- That was bad, in a few words. Nobody wants Spartak to play football
like that. This club has a special place in our history and in our minds,
that is why our football cannot be all right when Spartak is so bad. They
have dominated for many years in the Russian championship and it is obvious
people do not want a club with such traditions to lose, at home, and with
such a humiliating score. The play of Spartak disappointed me very much.
- Are you glad for Yuri Syomin on the other hand?
- I am glad for him as a man and a manager with whom I get well on. But
my happiness for Spartak if they had won, would have been much more significant.
Moreover after the Russian championship of this year we will have 6 teams
representing Russia in European tournaments. And if all of them turn out
to be noncompetitive as Spartak did against Dinamo Kyiv, that would mean
all the efforts of the last years have been in vain.
- Let's turn to the Olympics. When the Chinese team have more than 20
gold medals already, we have only 3. What do you have to say about it?
- I react calmly. We should not make a tragedy out of it. Firstly 'our'
kinds of sport are ahead: freestyle wrestling, boxing, artistic and rhythmic
gymnastics, synchronized swimming, track and field athletics. We are capable
of winning something in these disciplines. I think we should be happy
to win all kinds of medals, not only gold ones. Silver and bronze medals
are also a good result. I have visited many competitions in the first
week of the Olympics and am ready to say that our silver in the 4x200
m men's freestyle relay is a great achievement for our swimmers.
On the other hand I understand the anxiety of our correspondents, supporters.
I was disappointed with our women's water polo team for example. But until
the Olympics are over let's resist giving any prediction, trying to analyze.
Today we met in the Olympic village with the sportsmen and coaches, congratulated
the medal winners. We are all a team. We should support each other in
victories as well as in loses. I hope we will see our athletes win and
will be happy for them. Though I agree that I wished to hear the Russian
anthem more often.
- Do you still believe that we can win 28 gold medals as was planned before
the journey to Beijing?
- My point of view is that you cannot plan any medals in sport. To predict
is something different. But predictions can be based on deep knowledge
of the subject and not just on arithmetic calculations. We can judge only
the performance of our sportsmen at the recent World and European championships
and other big tournaments. The Olympics are absolutely different. The
people prepare for four years, they can miss out two World championships
but win the Olympics. How can we explain the fact, that the Chinese weightlifter
who lost to our Russian girl managed to lift 31 kg more than her opponent?
Returning to your question I can say that in the medal race we should
finish in the first three.
- The Beijing Olympics for you as Minister for Sport are the first one.
What are your impressions?
- I have got plenty of impressions. The first one and the most general
is that I as mainly a football man have understood that sport is very
diverse and that it has strong impact on people. Another important revelation
is that we have lots of talented sportsmen. We need leaders in every kind
of sports. Such as we had earlier, e.g. Salnikov, Popov, Karelin. I can
name only Isinbaeva out of our current team. You see, the Americans have
Phelps. This guy is so confident and he pushes the whole team. And unfortunately
we have lost our leaders in some sports.
