The prime minister became the president of the hockey team

Prime Minister becomes president of hockey team
Prime Minister of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin became president of the major league hockey team "Ak Bars". This became known yesterday after an extraordinary meeting of the hockey and sports club.

The elections of the new president took place without the direct participation of Farid Mukhametshin, since he was on a business trip in London at the time. However, the Prime Minister gave written consent to the presidency in advance. After a short discussion of Mukhametshin’s candidacy, the meeting decided that “there cannot be two opinions” and unanimously elected the prime minister as president of the Ak Bars sports club.
According to local hockey experts, the election of Farid Mukhametshin to this post is far from accidental. At one time, he headed the hockey federation of the city of Almetyevsk and has long been an ardent fan of Ak Bars. In addition, Farid Mukhametshin heads the supervisory board of Ak Bars Bank, the general sponsor of the Kazan team. Last season, the Ak Bars hockey players, who had never dropped below second place in the standings, unexpectedly dropped out of the further struggle of the Russian championship already in the first series of playoff games. This season, Farid Mukhametshin is focused only on victory.

ANDREY J-GOGOLEV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 113 dated July 18, 1997, p. 11