Business plan for cups

Zenit won the first European trophy planned by Gazprom

St. Petersburg Zenit returned the UEFA Cup to Russia . Yesterday, the Russian team at the St. Petersburg airport with a military band was met by Governor Valentina Matvienko and the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller, who had flown in a little earlier from the same Manchester, where the historic final for St. Petersburg took place. The rest of the residents of St. Petersburg greeted the players, head coach Dick Advocaat and the silver cup on Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square and near the Petersburg Sports Complex. The city was preparing for the second sleepless night in a row.

And the first congratulations began to appear an hour after the final whistle at the City of Manchester arena, which recorded a confident victory for Zenit over the Scottish Glasgow Rangers - 2:0. News agencies quickly conveyed the warm words of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who, in his own words, watched the UEFA Cup final on TV. Two hours later, when it was already deep night in Moscow, congratulations to the St. Petersburg team came from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Yesterday, words of welcome poured in on Zenit from all sides. And even the Russian Orthodox Church did not stand aside. “A success has been achieved that is remarkable even against the backdrop of the successes of Soviet football and surpasses them. And this suggests that Russian club football is becoming one of the strongest in Europe,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told Interfax.

The second European trophy of Russian clubs was celebrated even on a larger scale than the first. Three years ago, when CSKA won Russia's first UEFA Cup, State Duma deputies seriously proposed recognizing May 18 as an official holiday - Russian Football Day. If the wave of congratulations to Zenit does not subside, the old initiative may be remembered again, moving the red day of the calendar to May 14. Perhaps this was taken care of in advance.

Two and a half years ago, when Gazprom bought a controlling stake in Zenit, the then head of the club, Sergei Fursenko, in an interview with the concern’s corporate magazine, promised to win three UEFA Cups in the next ten years. “During this period, it is planned to enter the top ten strongest clubs in Europe, win the UEFA Cup three times, and win the Russian championship more than once,” he said, adding that the club “must become” break-even. And about a month ago, Zenit sports director Konstantin Sarsania admitted that winning the European trophy is in the business plan for this year. The footballers and the country's highest paid coach, Dick Advocaat, did not disappoint: the first UEFA Cup was won on schedule.

Perhaps for the first time in Russian football, officials dared to plan for sporting success, and the Russian club was seriously considered the favorite of the European tournament, at least in its final stage. And this despite the fact that Zenit was on the verge of failure several times. Last December, the fate of the Advocaat team depended on the opponents in the group who played among themselves. In February, Zenit was hanging by a thread, fighting off the powerful Spanish Villarreal with nine men. In March, only a guest goal by Andrei Arshavin in a completely lost match in Marseille allowed the St. Petersburg team to advance to the next stage. And only after Dick Advocaat’s team swept away the formidable German clubs Bayer and Bayern, football Europe recognized Zenit as an equal. This, by the way, is also a serious test. And in Manchester, having confidently defeated the Scottish Glasgow Rangers, the St. Petersburg team overcame it too.

“I can’t help but admire Zenit. He was great throughout the playoffs,” - Scottish Rangers coach Walt Smith, even in a difficult moment for himself, when his club was one step away from a second European trophy, but could not do it, could not and did not wanted to deny the superiority of the Russian club.

Now Zenit is expected to play in the Champions League in the fall. This will most likely be a slightly different team. Dick Advocaat said yesterday that he has no doubt that Andrei Arshavin, recognized as the best player in the final, will leave Russia and move to a foreign club. And the Dutchman himself, whose contract expires at the end of this year, has not yet decided whether he will extend the agreement. But no one has yet canceled Zenit’s business plan for the coming years.

Andrey VDOVIN