Every second Russian (52%) is ready to sign a petition to dissolve the Russian national football team. These are the results of a survey conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) published on the organization’s website.

“Information about collecting signatures for a petition for the dissolution of the Russian football team spread quite widely: at the time of the survey, 59% of citizens had heard about it. Moreover, 52% of respondents expressed their readiness to sign the document, another 3% reported that they had already put their names under the petition ", says the VTsIOM report.

However, less than half of Russians (40%) believed that the initiative would somehow influence the situation in Russian football, while 53% were of the opposite opinion.

The survey results also indicate that Russians consider the football players themselves to be to blame for the failure of the Russian football team at the European Championships in France. Every third Russian (38%) considers the players of the Russian national team to be spoiled. Inability to play and poor preparation of players was noted by 34% of respondents. Only 14% of respondents believe that the coach is to blame for the team’s failure at the championship.

However, every third (34%) believes that in order to change the situation in Russian football, the authorities need to recruit a new team of players, change the salaries of players and coaches (6%), and develop the capabilities of young people (5%). In total, 71% of respondents followed the European Football Championship, of which 26% of Russians watched broadcasts of matches, another 45% learned the results of matches from friends or from news broadcasts.

1,600 people took part in the VTsIOM survey on July 16-17, 2016.

Earlier, a petition for the disbandment of the Russian national football team gained popularity on the Internet: by Wednesday it had been signed by more than 900,000 people. According to the intentions of the creator of the petition, it should be sent to the President of the Russian Federation, the State Duma and the Government of the Russian Federation. On July 2, the government office accepted it for consideration and forwarded it to the Ministry of Sports.

More than half of Russians would like to disband the Russian national football team – VTsIOM