THEIR VICTORIES ARE PRICELESS

Heroes of the Winter Games in Turin have not yet received bonuses from the Russian Olympic Committee

“But will the promised bonuses be paid to our heroes of the Olympics in Turin?” The editor deleted this final phrase from the text dedicated to the end of the 2006 Games: “How many athletes can be deceived? Where will they go - will they give ... ". How...

“But will the promised bonuses be paid to our heroes of the Olympics in Turin?” The editor deleted this final phrase from the text dedicated to the end of the 2006 Games: “How many athletes can be deceived? Where will they go - will they give ... ".

As it turned out, officials can deceive our champions endlessly. From athletes, they need medals and victories, which they perceive as their own and then wash with pomp. They forget about their obligations to pay five-figure sums in US dollars to the winners and prize-winners as soon as the Olympic flame goes out in a large silver bowl ...

Our first world champion in women's singles, Maria Butyrskaya, can write a whole detective story about how she sued the leadership of her federation for underpaid prize money, which was transferred to one of the banks and “supposedly by accident” was frozen there ...

This time, the story with bonuses began for good health. Almost immediately after the Olympics, at the suggestion of President Putin, each medalist received a car (men and women were given different brands of cars) and a special grant. Following Rossport and regional structures unfastened the Olympians tidy sums in rubles exempted from paying taxes. For some athletes (Evgeni Plushenko and Larisa Kurkina), local authorities, with the support of businessmen, even improved their living conditions. The sports society "Dynamo" did not sell the heroes either, transferring the prearranged amounts to the athletes who were in it.

And on October 3, 2005, Leonid Tyagachev and the head of Fedcominvest, Alexei Fedorychev, signed a protocol of intent to conclude an agreement, according to which Fedcom Media was to invest $ 110 million during 2006-2014, having received the right to appoint official sponsors of the ROC. And on December 22, 2005, at a meeting of the Olympic Committee, Alexei Fedorychev was elected a member of the ROC executive committee with an advisory vote.

It was supposed to accrue bonuses from this money to athletes in the amount of 50, 30 and 20 thousand dollars for gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. What was announced noisily and snobbishly.

But there is no money. At the moment, the agreement between ROC and Fedcom Media has not yet been signed. The stumbling block, according to our sources, is the unwillingness of the Olympic Committee to transfer some powers to its future partner.

It is worth recalling, probably, both Fedorychev and Tyagachev, who, by the way, stated that bonuses would not be included in the amount of the contract with Fedcom Media, how Albert Demchenko had to sell his old car in order to prepare for the Games; how, for Svetlana Zhurova, who received 2.5 thousand rubles, who had nothing to feed her child, the six-time Olympic champion Lidia Skoblikova, who also lives by no means in the mansions of the lords, bothered ...

This time, the Olympians, led by skier Vasily Rochev, did not want to endure and are preparing a letter to the highest authorities ...

But perhaps the sports officials are not up to it - they are probably busy now with an important task - drawing up a secret medal plan for Beijing 2008. I am afraid, however, that some of those who will have to carry out this plan will go to China without much enthusiasm, knowing that they will not receive special preferences for the ruined health and brilliant rounds mined for the whole country.

Andrey USPENSKY

Help "New"

Alexey FEDORYCHEV is a businessman. Lives in Monaco, has Russian and Hungarian citizenship. Chairman of the Board of JSC Fedcominvest. Owner of a controlling stake in FC Dynamo (Moscow).

Fedcominvest was incorporated in 1994 on the Isle of Man and is headquartered in Monte Carlo. Specializes in the export of sulfur and fertilizers from Russia and Ukraine to Europe. The company owns a number of port terminals in the south of Russia and Ukraine, several cargo ships. The turnover of Fedkominvest is about a billion dollars a year. It is the title sponsor of AS Monaco.

Fedcom Media: Managing Director - Kirill Ignatiev, Chairman of the Board of Directors - Alexei Fedorychev. Former owner of the rights to television broadcasts of football matches of the Russian Premier League. We were unable to find its office in Moscow (probably, they searched badly, however, even the Moscow representative office of Fedcominvest does not know about its existence), the site was also not found (we searched diligently - in two search engines).

Comments

Irina RODNINA, three-time Olympic champion in figure skating, chairman of the Central Council of the All-Russian Voluntary Society "Sports Russia"

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time our athletes have been deceived. Either the federation has problems, or the bank, or something else. In this situation, the federal authorities, oddly enough, fulfilled their obligations. The money promised by the Olympic Committee has not been paid. I'm not saying this because I feel bad for him, it's just the way the situation develops.

- In your opinion, why did this happen?

- It seems to me that the whole point is that the ROC does not conduct its financial activities transparently. And then - if you make any promises, then you need to fulfill them. No one was pulling the tongue.

In addition, for each Olympics, the International Olympic Committee allocates money to the national Olympic Committee. For example, we received quite a large amount for the Games in Athens. Our sportsmen after all show not such bad results.

And in general, if we talk about the reporting of the ROC, then quite ridiculous figures were named at the re-election meeting. At what plan? The International Olympic Committee allows you to spend no more than 6 percent on your needs. The report of our Olympic Committee indicated more than 60 percent. Moreover, this is explained by the fact that they help the national Olympic federations. But then it turns out that the federations receive such pennies that absolutely do not correspond to the amounts they declare.

In addition, athletes prepare for competitions exclusively with federal money. And for the victories and participation of our athletes at the Olympic Games, ROC receives compensation.

- Can the athletes themselves somehow influence the situation or is it already useless to fight?

“The opportunity is definitely there. But money issues are always difficult to solve. Right now we have created a trade union of athletes. True, he has not yet begun to act. And the Arbitration Court, which is, unfortunately, is an appendage of the Olympic Committee. And therefore, athletes prefer to resolve all issues in ordinary district courts, thereby expressing distrust of the Olympic Arbitration Court.

But the whole problem is that the Olympic federations, signing agreements with the ROC, undertake to address all disputed issues to this Olympic Arbitration Court, which, by the way, cannot be considered a full-fledged arbitration court, because the people working there do not have the right to conduct an international activities. Such a system exists only in our country.

- Do you know of similar incidents abroad when athletes were deceived?

- No. And then we call it “deception”, and abroad “breach of contract”. There, before the start of the competition, all obligations of the parties are clearly spelled out in the contracts.

Gennady SHVETS, head of the press service of the Russian Olympic Committee

- Leonid Tyagachev did not give any promise to pay money to our Olympians. This whole situation was inspired by the department of Vyacheslav Fetisov. He personally promised the Olympic champions to give prizes of one million dollars. Even then I said that this is complete nonsense and this will not happen.

The Olympic Committee, as an extrabudgetary organization, sometimes has the opportunity to allocate additional funds for rewards. So it was after Athens, when Leonid Tyagachev, having agreed with the head of Nafta-Moscow, Suleiman Kerimov, jointly gave the Olympic champions prizes of 50 and 100 thousand dollars.

- This time the ROC decided to negotiate with Fedcom Media ...

— Yes, in October 2005 there was a press conference on the occasion of the signing of a protocol of intent to sign an agreement between the Russian Olympic Committee and Fedcom Media represented by Alexei Fedorychev. According to this contract, ROC was to receive $110 million over 8 years.

At this press conference, one of the journalists asked: "Will the athletes - laureates of Turin be encouraged with additional prizes?" Tyagachev forwarded the question to Fedorychev. To which Alexei Mikhailovich replied: “Good. Let's do it." This is despite the fact that the treaty was to come into force only after Turin. That is, the money had to be from Fedcom Media. But in the end, this treaty was not ratified. It is still being discussed, there are a lot of controversial points. So ROC didn't get a dime. Accordingly, the issue of bonuses was dropped.

And in general, everyone forgot about it for a long time. Tyagachev himself stated that Alexey Fedorychev would transfer the money according to the contract and then bonuses would be paid. And Vyacheslav Fetisov took this phrase and “got it out of the chest” and began to say that they always fulfill their obligations, but the Olympic Committee does not.

Look, according to the results of Turin, the athletes were already sufficiently encouraged. They were paid government bonuses, they were presented with cars for 60 thousand dollars. Through the local authorities, they received apartments. So there were a lot of gifts. Everyone was happy.

- However, now athletes are expressing dissatisfaction with the fact that the ROC, for its part, did not fulfill its promises.

- Yesterday, Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova called Leonid Tyagachev and said that she had nothing to do with this scandal. She expressed gratitude. And in general, as after Turin, athletes have never been encouraged. It can be said that a golden rain fell on them. And all these conversations just turned out to be needed by someone. It turned out to be an extremely unpleasant situation.

- If the contract is nevertheless signed, will bonuses be paid to athletes from these 110 million or will it be some kind of additional amount?

— No, from this money. As promised by Alexei Fedorychev.

So, it turned out the following. After a conversation with Irina Rodnina, it turns out that the Olympic Committee is to blame, which for some reason does not pay the millions promised to our athletes. We call the ROC. There, everyone blames Alexei Fedorychev and hints at the “black” PR from Rossport.

We decided to turn to the "last resort" that can shed light on all this confusion. But Fedcominvest told us they didn't know how to contact Fedcom Media.

In the federations, which, in theory, should protect their athletes, the situation turned out to be quite calm. They explained to us that they had heard about the problem, but they advised us to call on Monday. It turns out that our athletes will again have to fight for their money on their own.