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Russian football enters new era
By Mark Tutton for CNN
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Andrei Arshavin has become Russia's first
football superstar since the Soviet era. Photo: Getty
Images
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LONDON (England) - CNN - When CSKA Moscow lifted the UEFA
Cup in 2005, becoming the first Russian team to ever win a European trophy,
manager Valeri Gazzaev described it as "a landmark victory for Russian
football."
Three years later, Zenit St Petersburg won the trophy as well, a month
before the Russian national team reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008.
After years on the margins, Russian football was back in the limelight.
Jonathan Wilson, author of "Behind the Curtain, Travels in Eastern
European Football," told CNN that the recent successes mark a new
era in Russian football.
But he added that the revival only takes clubs back to the level they
were at in the 1980s.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian football went
through a crisis. Football clubs that had been previously been funded
by state bodies, such as the police force, trade unions, or the army,
had their money supply cut off and suddenly had to find new ways of funding
themselves.
Wilson said that under communist rule Spartak Moscow had been funded by
a trade union representing catering workers and were less directly dependant
on state support than other Russian clubs.
When the Russian Premier League was formed in 1992, Spartak found themselves
in a better position than many of their rivals and stormed to nine of
the first 10 Premier League titles.
While Spartak flourished, the rest of the Premier League was in desperate
need of money. That funding was to come from Russia's oligarchs -- the
"New Russians" who made their fortunes buying energy companies
at fire-sale prices and benefited from soaring oil revenues.
The oligarchs and energy companies now play a vital role in funding Russian
football. Zenit St Petersburg is backed by Gazprom, the world's biggest
producer and exporter of natural gas and Spartak Moscow has oil and gas
company Lukoil as its primary sponsor.
CSKA Moscow's 2005 UEFA Cup triumph was financed by Sibneft, whose majority
shareholder at the time was Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich's cash meant the club could afford to sign quality foreign
players, including Brazilian internationals Daniel Carvalho and the free-scoring
Vagner Love.
The introduction of foreign talent has been one of the features of Russian
football's renaissance. In 2005 Dynamo Moscow were able to pull off a
coup by signing FC Porto's Champions League winners Maniche and Costinha,
and last year Zenit St Petersburg were reported to have paid a league
record $40 million for Portuguese midfielder Danny.
There are so many foreign players in Russia that Premier League regulations
now limit clubs to fielding no more than six foreign players at a time.
What are your views of Russian football? Sound off below.
But the injection of money into the Russian game isn't only useful for
buying foreign talent. "The oligarchs' money has meant that teams
can keep hold of their own players for longer than would have once been
the case," Wilson told CNN.
"When Russian players leave Russia it's not for the money, it's for
the exposure, for the glamour, or a chance to win the win Champions League."
One reason for the influx of foreign talent is that Russia's youth football
infrastructure collapsed with the end of the Soviet Union. But Wilson
says the Russian youth setup is also having a revival -- and it's once
again down to the oligarchs' money.
Abramovich funds Russia's National Football Academy, which, along with
providing plastic pitches for young footballers, is also responsible for
paying the wages of national team coach Guus Hiddink.
Dutchman Hiddink led Russia to the semi-finals of Euro 2008, with the
team having never made it past the first round of international competition
prior to his appointment in 2006.
Marc Bennetts, author of "Football Dynamo", about the state
of Russian football, is based in Moscow.
He told CNN that Hiddink's arrival was a turning point in the national
team's fortunes.
"Hiddink really shook up the national football team. He left out
some of the veterans and began picking players who were young and fresh,
like Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko," he said.
In Arshavin Russia has found its first football superstar since the Soviet
era. He signed for English club Arsenal in February 2009 and has made
an instant impact in the English Premier League.
The area where Russian football has yet to make an impact is the Champions
League with no Russian team progressing beyond the group stages since
Lokomotiv Moscow in 2004.
That lack of success is often attributed to the fact that the Russian
football season runs from March to November, with heavy snow making winter
football impossible.
That means when Russian clubs play Champions League group matches in September
and October, they are nearing the end of their domestic season and their
players are fatigued.
Bennetts says one cloud on the horizon is that Russian football's dependence
on energy companies means the global economic crisis and low oil prices
could have a negative impact on the sport.
But if the oligarchs keep supplying the roubles, there's no reason why
Russian football won't continue to blossom.
CNN.com,
19 May 2009
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