Vladimir Abramov , sports agent:
- In terms of class, such a striker is needed for the national team. But what kind of Welliton will be naturalized if he cannot connect two words in Russian? How can such a person be included in the team? Vladimir Dal (a Dane, by the way) said: “A Russian person is one who speaks Russian, thinks in Russian, lives in Russia and studies the history of his country.”
Vladimir Radionov , ex-secretary general of the RFU:
- What will it look like if we invite people to the Russian team who simply do not know how to speak Russian?
- And if the same “Spartak” Welliton represented the colors of the club, which is the base for the national team?
Do you mean Zenith? This changes the situation somewhat. In this case, he would be, as they say, native. After all, there are a lot of St. Petersburg guys in the team, and he would not have had problems in the team. And the football community would perceive it differently. But the very essence of the matter, which I spoke about above, this will not change.
Alisher Aminov , President of the Football Development Fund, Candidate of Economic Sciences:
- I am extremely negative about the issue of naturalization. You can't make toilet paper out of a Russian passport. After all, as soon as you open a loophole, not only positive moments will flow. Our talented players will be closed to big football.
Alexander Bubnov , defender of the USSR national team:
- All statements by the President of the RFU Fursenko about the naturalization of football players are pure unprofessionalism. At the same time, he still manages to declare that we will become world champions in 2018. How can we talk about this when our youth team, whose players will be in the “juice itself” by the mentioned date, has now deafeningly lost to the Romanians?
Evgeny Lovchev , player of the USSR national team:
— I regard naturalization as an inevitable fact. I assure you that in ten years no one will remember the ongoing disputes. We have already gone through this both in basketball and in Dynamo futsal, where, with the help of Gryzlov, three players were given passports, violating all imaginable and unimaginable laws.
- Are such frauds possible in big football?
- And how is it fundamentally different from the mini? But this requires the desire, first of all, of the leaders of the clubs. Karpin returned to Russia and Spartak recently, he does not have the proper influence, support, proximity to the president.
- That is, if Welliton belonged to a club with more serious leverage, naturalization could have happened earlier?
“Probably could.