To be ready for battle, the world of Russian football must unite. Football players, coaches, managers, journalists, fans – we are all in this together and there will be no other. Therefore, one must not only look for shortcomings only to oppose the system, as it often happens, unfortunately, not only to identify problems, but to overcome them together. And overcome, improve.
In any difficult situation, the need to consolidate efforts becomes concrete, and the sooner the football community understands this, the easier it will be for us to rake.
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Broken international relations are mainly reflected in the institution of national teams, which are deprived of the opportunity to live their lives to the full. For what?
The elimination of Russian clubs from European competitions is a blow, of course, but still not a knockout. To be honest, we didn’t have such a quota in international tournaments. And not to say that the few teams that have tried to conquer Europe have been lucky in recent years.
But the championship of Russia turned out to be a self-sufficient tournament. In terms of plot, audience interest, quality of play, and many other parameters for comparison, it does at least as well as its predecessors. And in some ways, in my opinion, even superior. For example, the emphasis on winning is characteristic of almost all games. With very rare exceptions. Or a noticeably increased influx of young talent into RPL clubs – isn’t that an indicator? Of course, the indicator! Also, most importantly, allowing you to look to the future with optimism.
In a word, the Russian championship is still full of intriguing events, significant meanings and is quite well provided financially. As well as the cup tournament, which takes place in a new format, which we are just beginning to get used to, to dig into the nuances and fix the surprises, but which has already managed to justify itself.
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But the teams are more difficult. It’s not so easy to find rivals under the current conditions. Particularly worthy rivals, most of which are scheduled for months or even years ahead. The RFU is doing a lot of work in this direction, knowing full well that the teams should receive game training anyway. Even if the choice, to put it mildly, is not rich. Hence the pronounced leaning towards the Asian federations which, unlike the European federations, are not subjected to too harsh political pressures and have a certain margin of manoeuvre.
As I have said many times, Russian football has more opportunities than it seems at first glance. The awareness of the simple fact that football is an appropriate tool for rapprochement has not disappeared. There are no rivals in Europe – we are looking for them in Asia, Africa, South America. There are no national teams – we are looking for clubs. There is no way to train an opponent in Russia or come to visit – why not think about organizing a commercial tour abroad or a “home” tournament? From the current situation, in my opinion, it is necessary and possible to derive maximum benefit. There is potential for that.
I am also sure that today, at the moment, there is a direct sense in creating a second team, if we are talking specifically about the national level. I have already expressed this idea and I consider it necessary to repeat it: such an approach is justified in all respects.
First, a new motivation for players is guaranteed. Especially for young people, who don’t even fit into the expanded list, because it still has limitations. Secondly, the motivation of an alternative coaching staff, which could compete with the first team staff. Thirdly, the interest for the matches of the national teams of Russia, I think, will be significantly higher than for the matches with Kyrgyzstan, Iran or Iraq. With all respect and sympathy for them.
What if you organized a tournament with the participation of two national teams, a youth team and, say, an RPL legionnaire team? With appropriate media support, with a prize fund, prizes, competitions and other professional “body kits” that increase the motivation of football players, the importance of matches and the level of public interest. Absolutely confident in the potential of this idea.
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The characteristics of the current moment, in addition, allow us to focus on the main issues specific to our football. In times of well-being, we talked a lot about them, but everything ended up talking. In recent years, the RFU has taken important steps in the right direction, but these efforts are still not enough.
I mean, firstly, the development of youth football. This seems like an obvious, glaring problem. She’s on the surface. This requires specific actions related to raising the level of infrastructure support, improving the material base and training management staff. It is very important to understand, in addition, how the work of a children’s trainer is evaluated. The usual criteria need to be radically changed from ‘what place has the team taken’ to ‘what type of players has the coach brought up’. The main measure of success should be the skills acquired by young footballers, not the points scored. Level of training, unoccupied places.
The second point is the education system. This also applies to coaches working in youth football and those claiming to be professionals. I will not detail the problem, if only because it has been talked about a lot, including in the pages of our magazine. Roadmaps have been written for a long time and brought to the attention of the football community. They contain reminders of the educational system developed in the USSR, when the Soviet coaching school was rightly considered one of the most powerful in the world. When professional footballers were involved in solving problems, they fully understood not only the essence, but also knew exactly how to solve them.
Here I will quote Professor Vyacheslav Varyushin, who initiated the creation of the Higher School of Economics and headed it for a long time: “You cannot live in the past, but cancel a positive experience in the archives is even more nonsense. Blindly copying experience is stupid and irrational. You have to get the best out of it, the useful and the important…”.
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And the third problem that cannot be ignored is the high turnover of the coaching staff. Since the start of the 2022/23 season, there have already been 16 resignations in RPL. The record from ten years ago (18 layoffs) is very low, but this is not the case when it is necessary to aim for a record.
So, in my opinion, it’s not about the coaches. At least – not only in coaches, in their level, in unscored points, unmet expectations, etc. The root of the problem is management. Among the managers working in the professional leagues, there are many random people who got into football not by the call of their hearts, but by force of circumstance. Just because “the food is good” in football doesn’t mean you can turn around.
So random people solve random questions. Questions out of your own pocket, roughly speaking. Today the task is to find a coach who can be manipulated for selfish interests, tomorrow – a group of players “under the coach” for a lot of money, and the day after tomorrow you can find a reason for dismissal and another restructuring of the team.
The problem is far from new, but against the background of the difficulties that our football is going through, it seems particularly clear. It seems to me that the time has come to think about changing the approach to the selection of management personnel. Why not use the license? Special skills and knowledge exams for people applying for leadership positions in professional clubs? Even if the club is private.
You have to look at the root of the problem. Look, see and understand that Russian football does not belong to individuals, but to the whole country.
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