Translated material
End of the triumvirate
The President changed the sports management structure
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday signed a decree “Issues of the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy of the Russian Federation.” According to the decree, the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports, which was headed by the famous hockey player Vyacheslav Fetisov, is abolished. The functions of Rossport were transferred to the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy created this year. The head of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, President of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko, by presidential decree, is also included in the State Anti-Drug Committee.Mr. Mutko made it clear that Rossport would soon be disbanded during the Beijing Olympics in August. Then, in an interview with Vremya Novostei, answering a question about the division of powers of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Rossport and the Ministry of Sports, he bluntly said that “such a three-level system has not justified itself.” The sports official did not hide the fact that there were disagreements between Rossport and the ROC, and especially emphasized that for the good of the matter, “we need to remove ambitions, stop blaming each other.” “The opportunities we have been given and the challenges we face are still inadequate. There are many unresolved issues and problems in children's, mass, and student sports. There is no system,” Mr. Mutko summed up then.
On the one hand, for a long time, ROC and Rossport were unable to establish cooperation. On the other hand, Rossport failed to build the model that the head of this organization, Vyacheslav Fetisov, spoke about before the start of the Athens Olympics in 2004. In his opinion, it was necessary to take the model of American sports as a basis. Make sure that educational institutions - secondary schools, universities - become centers for sports and extracurricular activities. It is clear that if various sports sections and clubs appeared on the basis of schools and universities, with which professional coaches worked, this would create equal starting conditions for everyone who wants to play sports, regardless of the financial situation of their parents, would solve many social problems and would feed for elite sports. However, there was no constructive dialogue between Rossport and the Ministry of Education. As a result, plans to reorganize children's sports remained on paper.
The very fact of the appearance of the Ministry of Sports was perceived unequivocally by many sports officials. At the same time, Vitaly Mutko has repeatedly emphasized that the reorganization of the sports industry in order to streamline the management system is overdue. “Personally, I submitted my proposals on the structure of sports management to the president of the country a long time ago,” Mr. Mutko did not hide. In fact, the talk was about transferring the functions of Rossport to the ministry.
Advisor to the head of Rossport, Dmitry Tugarin, said that the abolition of the department did not come as a surprise to anyone. According to him, since 2002 the status of the organization has not been raised, as a result of which it has not been possible to solve serious problems.
Apparently, key positions in the Ministry of Sports will be taken by yesterday’s athletes, who are well aware of the essence of the issue. Thus, the department for state policy and development of elite sports has already been headed by two-time Olympic champion swimmer Denis Pankratov.
The introduction of the head of the Ministry of Sports to the State Anti-Drug Committee is directly related to the topic of doping in sports. According to Nikolai Durmanov, a well-known expert in the field of doping, in Russia about 40 doping drugs are included in the list of narcotic drugs for the distribution of which criminal penalties are provided. “And they actually go to jail for this,” he said. So Mutko’s department will oversee all the “painful” points of our sport. By the way, a number of employees of the disbanded Rossport have already been offered corresponding positions in the ministry. And Vyacheslav Fetisov will most likely become a senator.