From the match between the Max-Internet and Blagoveshchensk-V teams, the Amur Region Championship on …
General Director of FC Blagoveshchensk Vladimir Semenov: Return Professional Football – Real to the region
From the match between the Max-Inter and Blagoveshchensk-V teams, the Amur Region Championship in football started last Sunday. On Tuesday in Blagoveshchensk, the city championship began in this sport. Sensation – that football life in the Amur region is in full swing! “If it were really so,” in the eyes of the general director and the current player of FC “Blagoveshchensk” Vladimir Semenov, anxiety for the future of Amur football. “For the title of champion of the 2018 region, only five teams are fighting this year.” Why so little? Will the Amur residents play the third Far Eastern League? When will the match of the winner of the DV Cup with an opponent from the second division take place? The answers to the questions were looking for Amur Truth.
Photo: Andrey Ilyinsky
Championship in a truncated version
The championship of the region is the main tournament where the players stand on the wing and grow to the level of the team of the masters. Logically, it should be the most massive football, which is in a hemisphere from professional. In the old days, 16-18 teams competed in such championships. Not only all the cities of the Amur region, but even large villages, exposed their players. And they played well. Why, today, when the region on the rise and sports began to pay more attention, participants in the competition of regional scale of only five?
– Only three cities were able to put their teams for the championship of the Amur Region this year: Belogorsk and Raichikhinsk – one at a time, Blagoveshchensk – three. There will be no such strong opponent as Dynamo, ”the head coach of FC“ Blagoveshchensk ”Evgeny Shkilov regrets. – The city of Shimanovsk could not put his team. Everyone refers, in particular, to financial problems. What surprised: even free, where several large federal objects are being built, where two teams used to play and where there is their own children's sports school, could not put up a football team.
Today, more teams are involved in the regional tournament among veterans than existing football players of flowering age. In addition to city teams, there is no one to play in the region – this is the problem.
Who are the stadiums for?
In recent years, a lot has been done for the development of sports. The state allocates hundreds of millions of rubles on subsidies, in particular for the purchase of artificial coatings for football fields and equipment for the youth schools of the Olympic Reserve. At schools, stadiums are covered with artificial lawn. At the same time, not only in Blagoveshchensk, there are good football fields with an artificial coating in Belogorsk, and in Raichikhinsk, and in the free … There is a paradoxical situation: the stadiums are being built, and the teams disappear – even where they were.
3 strategic programs for the development of football were adopted in Russia. The first was until 2016, the second was called Football-2020, and recently the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation published an updated version of the National Strategy for the Development of Football in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. “We have a strategy, we are building fields for children, but when will professional football revive in the region?” – Football fans of the Amur region raise the problem.
– If children's football in the Amur region is gradually developing at the expense of private schools, then the adult, by and large, is dying, – states Vladimir Semenov. – Of course, you can only develop children's football and at the same time not have a single professional team. But tell me, what should talented boys strive for then!? We will lose these guys – they will leave for other cities where there are professional football teams. Which is exactly what we are seeing today. Everything should be integrated: we need to work with children and develop adult football. And we don't have a team of masters, football teams don't even participate in the third league. This is a big problem for Amur sports. And so the outflow of the population from the region is large, and even parents take promising children to other cities where there are professional football teams. In the issue of reviving a professional football team on the Amur, all football fans place great confidence in the new governor and the regional government.
Photo: Andrey Ilyinsky
What will happen to the third league
The general crisis situation in the Far East also affected football. It has not yet been determined in what format the games of the second, professional league will be held. There is no clarity with the third – the amateur league, which the Far Eastern Football Federation proposed to make cluster from this year.
– It is assumed that the third league will be divided into two zones, that is, in addition to the Far East Cup, the teams meet two more times a season. And the principle is this: we met in Ussuriysk, played the first round, counted the points and parted. A month later we met again in Birobidzhan, played with each other, summed up the points of the first and second rounds, determined the championship podium, – explained the head coach of Blagoveshchensk. Why these cities in particular? Because they are located in the center of the Far East and it is easier to get to them.
Photo: Andrey Ilyinsky
“Under the bridge at the exit from Blagoveshchensk, there is still an inscription: “Return the Amur football team.” Ask whether it is realistic to return professional football to the region? I think it’s real,” says Vladimir Semenov. – Now the salaries of the players of the second league have become more modest. About 30-35 million a year will be enough to support the team of the second division, if you play with local guys and only occasionally invite professionals. Our club has young talented football players – Sych, Voyakin, Sychov, Kiselev, Korobeinikov, who are ready to play in the team of masters even tomorrow – but there is nowhere to go.
Some football clubs of the Far Eastern region have already confirmed their participation in the Third League. The leadership of FC Blagoveshchensk is still thinking.
“We have not yet given our consent, because the format itself, how to hold the championship, raises questions: this“ bush ”is unprofitable for us,” says Vladimir Semenov. – There is a certain plus – game practice. And the minus is that we play in another city and our fans do not see us. That is, the popularization of football in our area does not occur. We played a tournament somewhere, so what? If the goal were, as in the Cup of the Far East: we went to Birobidzhan to win in order to bring the second league professional team to Blagoveshchensk. And here all matches will be away. Where is the feasibility of we spend large sums that our fans do not see us?
– Vladimir Sergeevich, you are the main sponsor of FC Blagoveshchensk, supporting the club at the expense of your own business. If it's not a secret, how much did the team’s trip to the Cup of the Far East result in?
– About a million rubles. I think the costs of the third league will be much more. The point of spending money and not playing at home? Who will we play for?! Only fifty people came to the final match of the Cup of the Far East in the same Birobidzhan. Even when their local team entered the field, we did not see mass support. And in Blagoveshchensk, when we fought for the Cup of the Far East, thousands of people came to all matches. We love football.
– In the capital of the Amur region, they have not seen professional football for a long time. The victory of FC Blagoveshchensk at the DV Cup gives fans such a chance. When will the long -awaited match take place?
– We will play with FC Sakhalin – this is the club of the second league, which took first place in the second league of this year. The exact date of the meeting has not yet been defined. I can only say that the match will take place in early August.
