Translated material
Planned feast
The Russian national team will hold a friendly match in a restaurant
Today, when all the Russian team's opponents in the European Championship group will play test matches, Hiddink's team will gather for dinner to celebrate the end of the first training camp this year. Two dozen Russian players gathered for four days in Turkey to take a break from pre-season training and quarrel between the head coach of the national team and club mentors. It appears that both goals have been achieved.Generally, difficult times have come for Guus Hiddink. Frankly saying that he likes working in our country, carelessly promising to sign a contract with the RFU until 2010 and recklessly rejecting all offers of cooperation from outside, Hiddink immediately became closer to the Russians. And having found himself in the close circle of “his own”, at one moment he ceased to be a sacred idol, every word of which is perceived as a divine revelation, and a request acquires the status of an order. And now club coaches do not consider it shameful to enter into confrontation with the coach of the national team.
Stanislav Cherchesov took the toughest position. The head coach of Spartak, who in a week will play in the 1/16 of the UEFA Cup with Marseille, did not want to let the players go to the national team and directly stated that Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vladimir Bystrov, having returned from Hiddink from Turkey, may not find their names in the starting lineup. Later, Dick Advocaat doubted the advisability of inviting Zenit players, who will also play in Europe in mid-February, Valery Gazzaev flashed a rare joke for himself: they say, he does not quite understand where he sends his players - to a friendly game or to a friendly dinner . The coaches of foreign clubs did not even enter into controversy with their colleague Hiddink, but simply did not let go of Alexander Kerzhakov from Seville, Marat Izmailov from Sporting and Ivan Saenko from Nuremberg.
All Hiddink could do was swallow this attitude towards himself. Formally, he had no right to demand mandatory attendance of players - FIFA regulations clearly state that clubs are obliged to release players two days before a friendly match. But in this whole story, it remains unclear why on February 6 the Spanish national team plays with the vice-world champions the French, the Swedes meet with the Turks, and Greece even plays two matches - with the Czechs and Finns. That is, all the Russians’ rivals in the Euro 2008 group are busy with something, and the Russians communicate with each other. And the entire training plan for the Russian national team, as well as the list of sparring partners published the other day, somehow does not inspire respect. While the Spaniards, in addition to playing with the French, have meetings with world champions Italy, the Swedes have seven matches at once, including with Brazil, the Russians will play with Romania, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Lithuania and, possibly, in Austria with some local weak club.
Hiddink, in order to smooth out the situation and not conflict with the RFU, seemed to say that he did not need the game in early February. But he did this after it was impossible to change anything one way or another, tactfully keeping silent about the fact that for every friendly game the opponents who were not interested in holding it had to pay. Why, by the way, this gathering was needed, Hiddink also did not specify - the players in Turkey held several light training sessions, passed physical readiness tests, which they had already completed a few days earlier in the clubs, and held a meeting.
Throughout all these days, Hiddink tried to remain calm. The Dutchman can be understood - at a time when a new contract is being negotiated, it is inappropriate to once again put forward any demands. But there is also a significant hitch with the contract itself. The RFU has already become so bold that it does not hesitate to take a tough position in negotiations with the Dutchman - and here they are already so accustomed to Hiddink that they are no longer afraid to test his patience.
The Russian Football Union, however, has other things to do now. Recently, the principle of distribution of tickets for matches with the participation of the Russian national team at Euro 2008 has been increasingly discussed. In total, UEFA allocated 17,996 tickets for Russian fans. Of these, 5962 tickets are allocated for the match Spain - Russia (June 10) and Russia - Sweden (June 18) and 6072 tickets for the match Greece - Russia (June 14). They will be divided into three categories. The denomination of tickets of the first category will be 110 euros, the second category - 80 euros, the third - 45 euros. The RFU will add 25-30 euros to each ticket.
UEFA allows adding no more than 10 euros, but this instruction was circumvented by explaining that additional funds would be needed to organize the sale procedure. It will be implemented as follows. First, the RFU will select tickets for its partners and sponsors, football leagues and clubs. Approximately a third of the tickets will go to the All-Russian Fans Association (VRF), which promises to distribute them through fan associations.
And the last part will be played out in a kind of lottery. Starting next week, the RFU promises to post a questionnaire on its website that a potential buyer must fill out. At the same time, the deadlines for accepting applications from fans will be published, for whom a personalized ticket will become the basis for obtaining an Austrian visa, and will also give the right to free travel in public transport in Austria and Switzerland for the duration of the European Championship.