Roman Abramovich stops financing Russian football. The National Football Academy Foundation, which the entrepreneur sponsored, is winding down its activities, as its tasks are considered completed. During its work, the foundation managed to build almost one and a half hundred football fields in Russia, finance the development of the Yuri Konoplev Football Academy, and also pay for the contract of former head coach of the Russian national team Guus Hiddink.

The National Academy of Football (NAF) appeared in 2004. The fund's budget was initially estimated at $50 million a year (at that time the budget of a wealthy Russian club), and was subsequently reduced. Forbes estimated Abramovich's total expenses on supporting Russian football at $150-200 million, and if this estimate is correct, it turns out that on average the entrepreneur spent about $20 million a year.

The NAF obviously made the biggest expenses in the first years of its existence: we are talking primarily about the costs of building football fields in the regions for children’s and youth schools. The sports complex of the Konoplev Academy in the suburbs of Togliatti also required investments.

The center for training young football players has already produced results: several of its graduates have achieved some success at the adult level. The most famous student of the Konoplev Academy is Alan Dzagoev. Recently, Artur Yusupov, who plays for Dynamo Moscow, received a call to the Russian national team, and Igor Gorbatenko managed to play for Spartak, although he failed to gain a foothold in its composition. Dmitry Ryzhov’s career at CSKA developed in a similar way.

The Konoplev Football Academy is the longest-running of Abramovich’s Russian football projects; the entrepreneur spent 180 million rubles a year on it. At the beginning of 2012, the NAF transferred the academy to the balance of the Samara region, so that now the costs of training young football players will be paid from the regional budget. However, the academy is able to earn some money itself - by selling players to professional clubs.

Another major project of the Abramovich Foundation was paying for the contract of the head coach of the Russian national team - first Yuri Semin, and then Guus Hiddink. I didn’t have to spend very much on Semin, and most importantly, it didn’t last long. The Russian national team under his leadership failed in the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament, and Hiddink was offered the post of head coach of the team. His salary (seven million dollars a year) made up a significant portion of the NAF's expenses.

Igor Semshov, Guus Hiddink and Alan Dzagoev during an open training session of the Russian national team Photo: Vladimir Fedorenko / RIA Novosti

The Russian team led by Hiddink won bronze at Euro 2008 and then failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Gazprom gained control of the Russian Football Union, which undertook to finance the contract of the next coach (he became Dick Advocaat). Since then, the Russian national team has no longer needed Abramovich’s money.

Finally, the pre-season Channel One Cup organized by the NAF with the participation of leading clubs from Russia and Ukraine deserves mention. The tournament took place in Israel from 2006 to 2008, and then was cancelled.

In fact, it turns out that by the summer of 2013, all projects of the Abramovich Foundation were either implemented or closed. The fact that the patient is more likely dead than alive is indirectly indicated by the state of the official website of the NAF: the latest news on it (about the trip of Tolyatti coaches for an internship at Chelsea) dates back to January 2011, and the English version of the site has not been updated at all since 2008- th. The last financial report on the fund's activities appeared in 2010.

In fact, a formal decision to close the NAF will simply consolidate the existing state of affairs. The fund was winding down its projects gradually, so now that Abramovich completely stops funding, Russian football will hardly notice the absence of his money.

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