Factories to football

Oil and gas companies will help Krylia Sovetov

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has agreed on new sponsors for the Krylya Sovetov football club, which will save the team from bankruptcy. As the governor of the Samara region, Vladimir Artyakov, said yesterday in an interview with local television, the Wings will be provided with financial support by five oil and gas companies - Rosneft, Transneft, Mezhregiongaz, SIBUR and NOVATEK, which may also enter the capital of the club. “These and a number of other companies will support the football club on a long-term basis, and some of them will become its shareholders,” said Mr. Artyakov. It is noteworthy that three of the named companies, Rosneft, Transneft and SIBUR, last season, on the orders of the Prime Minister, already had to provide emergency financial assistance to the Tomsk football club Tom.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin came to the Prime Minister on Wednesday with a list of potential sponsors for the Samara club. “In the coming days after your approval of our plan, we will work and try to find a solution agreed upon with the RFU, the Samara region and the teams of these enterprises,” he told the prime minister. Vladimir Putin then made it clear that the club needed to be supported, “despite all the difficulties.”

It is still unclear how support will be distributed among oil and gas workers. According to Igor Sechin, the team needs $20-30 million for this season - “depending on their plans, transfers, number of players, foreign players, and so on.” This off-season, Krylya Sovetov conducted quite active negotiations with a number of players who should replace the team leaders who left Samara (the latter include, for example, Jan Koller and Jiri Jarosik). According to Vremya Novostei, Krylia Sovetov presented the country's leadership with a bill for $130 million, of which about $80 million are the club's current debts. The companies identified as sponsors of the Samara club did not comment on Mr. Artyakov’s message yesterday. Vremya Novostei's interlocutors, however, made it clear that the companies do not intend to become shareholders of the club.

Krylia Sovetov has consistently experienced financial difficulties over the past few years. However, at the end of 2007, when the team came under the control of Russian Technologies, the fans breathed a sigh of relief. The state corporation announced ambitious plans to create a sports holding and supported them with expensive transfers. However, when the consequences of the crisis for the structures included in Russian Technologies finally became clear, general enthusiasm noticeably diminished. Since the middle of last year, the club's players have stopped paying salaries. At a time when the club’s debts were growing every day, “Wings” managed to be remembered for a controversial away match with “Terek” Grozny. The result of the game, in which the Grozny team won, became the subject of attention of the prosecutor's office, and the federal TV channel "Sport" considered it necessary to show it again, but without commentary.

On the eve of the start of the new season, it became completely clear that Russian Technologies did not have the opportunity to finance the club, and there was a real threat for Krylia not to pass licensing and not be allowed to participate in the championship. Yesterday, when the situation had already been successfully resolved, the state corporation issued a statement. It says she is "very concerned about the situation with the club" but is grateful to "the athletes who proudly wear our corporation's logo on their jerseys while winning prestigious matches against worthy opponents." However, now Russian Technologies has other priorities: “extraordinary and priority measures are being taken to bring a number of enterprises that are part of the state corporation out of a difficult financial situation, where hundreds of thousands of residents work, including the Samara region.” Because of this, “the diversion of financial resources involved in the production process and the social sphere can disrupt the emerging positive trend of revival and aggravate the already difficult social situation.” Nevertheless, Rostekhnologii realizes that “it cannot be done alone” and “is taking concrete measures to involve the largest Russian companies in solving this problem.”

Let us remind you that events developed according to a similar scenario last year around Krylya Sovetov’s neighbor in the standings, Tom. The team also faced serious financial problems, due to which it could cease to exist. After the intervention of Vladimir Putin, large companies represented in the region had to provide financial support to the club. These included Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, SIBUR, NK Alliance, Transneft, Inter RAO UES and IDGC Holding. 300 million rubles allocated. the club had enough to pay off its debts to the players, finish the season with a good result (9th place), and strengthen itself in the off-season. At the same time, Tom management states that the budget for this year is 800 million rubles. already approved. True, Vremya Novostey's sources in the companies say that so far the government has made it clear that only Wings of the Soviets need to be supported, but in the case of the Tomsk club there is no such instruction yet.

Kirill MELNIKOV