Halfway through the Russian season, the FNL League is missing one of Caucasian teams as financial problems forced FC Zhemchuzhina-Sochi to withdraw. Ekho Kavkaza correspondent Oleg Kusov has spoken to FC Zhemchuzhina-Sochi coach Stanislav Cherchesov about the reasons and sequences of this unfortunate event and other problems that Russian football experiences.
- We had certain problems with payments in the beginning and have not been paid anything during the last four months. Thisisthereason.
- Specialists were naming Zhemchuzhina-Sochi one of the main candidates for promotion to the Premier League. And indeed, your team was even topping the table for some time, which is evident of the good selection of players and right direction chosen by the coaching staff. Now, after the team has been closed, are these professionals – both coaches and players – going to not have anything to do this year?
- Indeed, we were topping the league for some time and stayed in the leading group of teams afterwards. We performed very well during the training camps and the selection of players was appropriate. Another thing is that I was not quite happy because we did not have players for certain positions and, which is even more important, we had an excess of players, which was at times preventing us from maintaining the correct training process. Many of our players have already found new clubs and made their first appearances. It was just today that our goalkeeper Marek Cech, who now appears for FC Viktoria Plzen, sent me an sms with gratitude for the great work. Smolnikov appears for FC Rostov and Rukhaia – for FC Spartak Nalchik. I do as much as possible to help them, providing unbiased information about players to interested parties so that other coaches could make their decisions. As for the coaching staff, it is not quite so easy to shift from one job into another. When you are fully absorbed in your work in Zhemchuzhina, you cannot disperse. I am not used to working in one club and thinking of others. It has now been ten days and thing are calming down. I am flying to Moscow on August 22 to hold a couple of meetings. By the way, I got a call from a foreign club about three days ago. I had to decline that offer because I am not ready to work for that club. Their objectives are not too ambitious and the country is not yet well known on the football map. Just don’t ask me which country is that.
- The situation with Zhemchuzhina has exposed a very serious problem in the Russian football. A club starts playing well and then there is no money all of a sudden. Football clubs are closed and fans are losing teams they love. What do you think about this problem in the Russian football? Maybe it is time to change something?
- This question should be addressed to the management, because things would not have been so bad if a team would withdraw upon completion of a season. In the worst case it can be replaced by some other team. But it is a totally different situation when this happens in the course of a season. Force majeure can be different. And I believe that there should be some kind of a guarantee. When a team is applying for participation, there should be guarantees that it would be able to complete the entire season. We are not talking about Zhemchuzhina alone, we are talking about any club. When we come to a team as players or coaches and sign our contract, we do not have the opportunity to check the club’s balance statement, solvency and debt load. Hopefully we will arrive at a point when licensing of professional clubs is for real and clubs are not audited solely for debt load, but also for liabilities they are undertaking for a certain season and which they must be fulfilling. It is particularly important that certain conclusions are made. As you rightly noticed, the players would find new teams and coaches would also find employment, but situation with club fans is much more dramatic.
- We wish that you get interesting offers soon. And we also hope that you will be our sport expert this season. Let us start with it right now, what is your forecast for the Russian FNL League?
- This is a very specific tournament. Many teams are performing in a similar manner and too much depends on the team’s readiness on the very day of the game. And then, both players and referees are sometimes making mistakes which, although unprejudiced, have their affect upon the results. The teams which have the greatest chances for promotion are Alania, Mordovia, Shinnik, Ural, Sibir, Nizhny Novgorod. I would definitely like that Alania promotes, because this is the first team in my professional career. And I also wish that they are promoted into the Europe League.
