Change of eras in Russian football

The Dutch era in the Russian national team has ended (although few of us are sure that after some time some Hiddink will not appear here again from somewhere in Dagestan oblivion), the no less “bright” era of Fursenko at the head of Russian football has also ended. In other countries, the vast majority of fans may not even know the name of the main manager in the local football federation. With us, everything is personalized. Every victory has its own name. Every defeat has its own hero. Fursenko was ready, as Koloskov once was, to “jump off” responsibility, citing the fact that he was not the main ideologist of victories and defeats, but a certain supply manager. They say that the national team lives in a good hotel, trains at the base where the coach indicated, and you, they say, are still dissatisfied with something. It’s not me, they say, who goes out onto the field, and it’s not for me to show the result.

But here, no matter how you look at it, it still turns out that Fursenko is “Mr. Firstly, the choice of base was simply beyond the bounds. Do you know the name of the place where our guys trained? Selujovik. This is in every sense of the word... sorry, my upbringing does not allow me to use the word Zazhopinsk, but I really want to.

Let me make a small lyrical digression. In my youth, when I didn’t think about becoming a sports journalist, I studied such a specific science as folklore. Among other things, he traveled to remote northern regions and collected samples of oral folk art. And so, as a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Philology of the Pedagogical University (in the same year with me, by the way, Vasily Utkin and Dmitry Fedorov, who were by no means planning to become sports journalists at that time, also studied), I went as part of the next folklore expedition to the Arkhangelsk region. At that time (and it was the summer of 1991), many issues could not be resolved centrally from Moscow. The scheme was ordinary, quite Soviet: you come to the regional center, take papers there to the appropriate office, get tickets to the regional center, and so on. And now some kind of late-Soviet mess happened; tickets for the ship from Arkhangelsk to Mezen turned out to be impossible to get with any administrative resource. But a kind lady in the regional committee unfolded a map in front of us and said: show us any other direction in the region - we’ll do it.

We are despondent. Well, how can you determine deposits of folklore from a map of administrative-territorial divisions? And then my gaze accidentally landed on the very edge of geography: almost on the border with the then Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic there was a strange geographical object with a delightful name - Nyukhcha-Zanyukhcha. There is taiga in all directions, there are practically no roads. It is possible to fly only on the An-2. The origin of the name, which was absurd at first glance, was actually explained simply: on the banks of the beautiful northern river Nyukhcha (the name is Finno-Ugric, I won’t bore you with other etymological details now) a village of the same name grew up. In the 19th century, it completely grew (more than 600 households) and the residents who moved across the river formed a second village - Zanyukhchu. But the Bolsheviks, obviously out of economy, set up one village council for two villages in the 20s. This is how an absurd word formation appeared on the cards, which no one could have thought of before - Sniffing-Zanyukhcha.

By the way, we were not at all disappointed with our expectations. They recorded so many songs, stories and much more that they were later enough for several theses and even dissertations. But I remembered the name for the rest of my life. It was the edge of geography in so many ways. And when I want to designate some distant place, which is long and difficult to get to, I’m not talking about South Butovo, like many Muscovites, but about Sniffing-Zanyukhchu.

So, Seluyovik is the same Sniffy-Zanyukhcha. Only perhaps closer to the European expanses. It takes an hour and a half to get from the hotel one way. The only alternative is the train. And a field that bears little resemblance to the best examples of sports facilities. And the name is appropriate: Seluyovik is a village by village. I specifically found time to go. There was little in this place that reminded us of a football festival. The prices for vegetables in a small market near the railway platform worried the local public more than the Euro football battles thundering somewhere, as if on another planet.

So only a deeply short-sighted person can be proud of the choice of a hotel and the choice of such a base. This is the first thing. And if we take “secondly”... Everything this man did during the short year and a half of his reign looks like a destructive tornado. Moreover, tornadoes are at least a manifestation of natural forces, which is difficult to completely predict, warn, etc. This is a riot of nature that a person is not always able to cope with. But everything that happened in the bowels of the Russian Football Union was subject to a certain logic. The logic of destructive actions, the logic of vicious self-confidence. But it is known that a cautious professional is better than an active amateur. Sergei Fursenko turned out to be just such an incompetent, but terribly assertive person. It will take us a very long time to sort out and unravel all this.

I don’t want to now analyze the haste of the transition to the “autumn-spring” system. The transition was initiated by the owners of several leading football clubs (it is clear that in a country where it is winter for six months, the vast majority of functionaries were categorically against such revolutions), but even they, having seen how it was done, with what blatant incompetence and complete In the absence of at least a minimally thought-out set of steps and accompanying measures, they quickly distanced themselves from this topic. In this case, for me, as a person observing the bacchanalia that was happening in the house on Taganka, what is more important is not what decisions were made (after all, everyone has heard about this without me), but how exactly they were made. In principle, only on the basis of everything that I want to talk about below in this chapter, an entire book can be compiled. Therefore, mercilessly stepping on the throat of my own song, I will outline the situation only in large strokes, without going into details.

No matter how much they scold any of the leaders in any position, there is always a chance that sooner or later they will have to remember him in benign tones. This happens when the incompetence of each subsequent leader will radically exceed the incompetence of the previous one. This happens in many industries. This is what happens in the football industry. When it seemed that nothing could be worse than Koloskov, Mutko appeared. And it was then that many inhabitants of the RFU began to remember Vyacheslav Ivanovich almost with nostalgia. When Fursenko appeared four years later, it became clear that Mutko was only a flower. The real berry has just appeared. But hardly anyone will say about Fursenko: it’s a pity, it turns out he was a good, creative, adequate person. No, he brought the very position of head of the RFU to the point of absurdity. No one can be worse in this position (Honestly, I know several politicians who could become worse, but I hope that they will not be trusted to lead the football elite).

He is a rather sincere person in some ways. He really says what he thinks. But sometimes you need to understand that there is a difference - saying some things in the circle of people close to you, in the inner circle of family and friends, dreamily talking about something, sitting in a rocking chair and looking at the fluffy snow falling outside the window, or urbietorbi, the city and the world, that is, realizing that tomorrow it will be published, dissected, commented on... And if it seems stupid, it will be ridiculed.

But the person “created” something like this over and over again, and then was surprised at the public reaction. Over and over again I stepped on the same rake and didn’t learn anything.

Here is a man sitting and arguing: in order for the championship not to be boring, it is necessary to introduce playoffs. I understand that Sergei Alexandrovich sincerely wants to do something, and he wants to do it well. But you can at least glance at the pan-European practice - how do they play there, with or without playoffs? It is clear that in more than five dozen championships you can find any examples, but for us, it will still be not Greece and Turkey that are important and decisive, but probably the five leading championships? Even if you don’t have the opportunity to look for yourself, is it worth at least asking those closest to you to evaluate the situation?

But apparently, this environment does not exist. The scorched earth policy is what it's called, I think? From the very beginning, from the very first days of his reign at the top of the football industry, Sergei Fursenko said:

- I have support at the very top. I won't listen to anyone. I will carry out all changes decisively.

The only person whom Fursenko not only listened to, but slavishly bowed to was the well-known Karine Sergeevna Gyulazizova. Little is known about this character to the general public. I have already said everything I could about it in my book “Football will kill Russia.” It was this fact that outraged the then head of the RFU at that time. When they asked him why he declared war on Radio Sport (an absurd war, connected only with refusals of accreditation for events - what else could an independent media deprive the department of), he - as they say, off the record - said:

- I can still forgive attacks on me, criticism of my actions. But attack her?! I can't forgive this.

History is silent about exactly how this happened, but the fact remains: either a psychologist, the head of a center with the unclear name “Axis of Time”, or an astrologer, or a charlatan magician, or a sorceress-numerologist Karine Gyulazizova was able to entangle the weak with her networks , a psychologically unstable person Sergei Fursenko. Moreover, this happened quite a long time ago, back when Fursenko had just started working at Zenit. She did this, creating a certain guilt complex in him.

As psychologists explain, a guilt complex in its most classic form can manifest itself in the relationship between mother and child. A stupid parent can reproach her son for trifles: “If it weren’t for the need to sit and study with you, I would have found myself a husband long ago”; “If you weren’t so rude, my heart, head, etc. wouldn’t hurt so much.”… As a result, sooner or later the child will develop a guilt complex towards his mother. He will reproach himself for being so bad and that it is because of him that his beloved mother suffers and suffers. Even if it’s not really his fault.

How it happened that Karine Sergeevna was able to develop this guilt complex in Sergei Fursenko is not clear. The details are not known to me, nor to my immediate circle, nor to the inhabitants of the RFU. The only time someone allegedly heard her say the phrase: “I lost my child because of you!” But this story did not develop for everyone.

I once asked the former general director of the RFU, Balashov, whether an amorous story between Fursenko and Gyulazizova happened once and became the reason for such an incomprehensible rise of this strange character. He was just surprised:

- What are you talking about, Nikolai? Have you seen her?

From the Kovalchuk brothers, well-known oligarchs, whose protégé many considered Sergei Fursenko, the head of the RFU once received a direct (there is simply nowhere more direct) instruction:

“We’re not getting into anything, do what you think is right, but let this “shaggy” woman never be here again.”

Fursenko, of course, did not refuse his patrons, but he did not kick Gyulazizova out either, but seriously discussed with her the question of where and how to hide her now.

I’m not interested in whether any of the charlatans (whatever you call him: fortune teller, astrologer, sorcerer, etc.) believes in the miraculous power of what he does, or does not believe - the main thing is different: he definitely “squeezes out” your client everything that can be squeezed out financially. And Sergei Fursenko sat tightly on this hook. I don’t know where he brought her all these wads of money from. It was their money or not theirs. But he often unmotivatedly rushed home or to the office and returned from there with thick wads of money just for his witch.

The October match between Russia and Andorra has ended. Having reached the last round, the Russian team was able to secure access to the decisive part of the tournament only in the last game. Karine did not congratulate Fursenko on his victory, she only said with difficulty, allegedly through force:

- I did this 6:0 with my last strength, I sent positive energy onto the field the whole game, I had no strength at all...

Fursenko did not go to congratulate the team, no even minimal celebrations were organized - he had no time for the players. He took off and returned after some time, carrying a plump envelope. The main thing is to thank Karine. She’s the one – not the players! - it turns out that she provided these magical (with Andorra!) “six-zero”!

For me personally, not now, when on July 4 the executive committee of the RFU obediently raised its hands in voting on the resignation of Sergei Fursenko, but it was then that everything became finally clear with this man. Goodbye, Sergei Alexandrovich!