Football club “Chernomorets” is gaining momentum

Already taken care of

Recently, the football club “Chernomorets” has received a new sponsor. They became a local businessman, politician, president of the Delo group of companies Sergey Shishkarev. It is worth noting that the entrepreneur is already an investor in several clubs, however, handball clubs – Krasnodar Kuban, women’s and men’s CSKA. He also heads the Russian Handball Federation for many years.

The appearance of an investor of this level is a serious event for a football club that has been chastising its founding since 1907. In the recent history of domestic football, Chernomorets was for some time the main team of the Krasnodar Territory, from 1995 to 2001 they represented the top league of Russia. Then there was a fall into the lower divisions and even a relegation to amateur football. Then the club was revived and played mainly in the third division by strength, even managed to get into a match-fixing scandal. Today the team plays in the football national league-2. It is headed by former Chornomorets footballer Eduard Sarkisov. After ten rounds, the Novorossiysk team have eighteen points and are fourth in the standings. Although they have one game left.

On the occasion of finding a new sponsor, a press conference was organized in the administration of Novorossiysk. The event coincided with the celebration of the 115th anniversary of Chernomorets. A match of veterans was also organized, in which, in addition to Rinat Dasaev, Alexander Filimonov, Yegor Titov, Dmitry Alenichev, the Boot brothers, Roman Gerus, Shishkarev himself took part.

At a press conference, the new sponsor said that it was not easy for him to take the team. Shishkarev already took on the club at the beginning of the 2000s, but then it did not work. As they said, the businessman failed to find a common language with the authorities in the city. Shishkarev tried to take the football Kuban under his wing. The company, which is part of Shishkarev’s holding, gave the club a loan. As the entrepreneur later said, he wanted to create a multiclub from Kuban on the principle of Western analogues, when football, volleyball, handball, basketball and other teams are united under one brand. But nothing happened.

Now Shishkarev is again trying to realize his plans, but already in his native Novorossiysk. His plans are Napoleonic.

Club as a center of attraction

In August of this year, the businessman assembled the Chernomorochka handball club. For Novorossiysk, this is a completely new sport. Now it’s football’s turn.

Andrey Kravchenko, mayor of Novorossiysk, became the new president of Chernomorets. The financial support of the club was the transport and logistics complex of Shishkarev.

At a press conference, State Duma deputy Sergei Altukhov said that professional sports today cannot survive without capital investments and stable funding.

– Although the board of directors is not involved in sports, but only signs papers, a lot also depends on it. I was approached more than once by the city authorities, the club’s management. We have been looking for opportunities to improve the financing of the club for a long time. And I hope that we managed to find a solution,” Altukhov said.

Valentin Klimko became the general director of Chernomorets. On account of the football manager, he worked as the director of the youth team of FC Spartak, worked in the Armavir Torpedo. Klimko was also a member of the leadership of the Rostov football club, as well as the coaching staff of the national football team. The specialist was born in Novorossiysk, he started working here.

At a press conference, Klimko was asked when to expect a successful performance from Chornomorets. The general director believes that this will happen only after there is a uniform and parallel development of the club’s infrastructure that meets the requirements of the RFU. Chornomorets needs a base for personnel training – a football academy. The path to the heights of domestic football, according to Klimko, is difficult and not instantaneous for Chornomorets.

Shishkarev himself has not yet announced what position he will hold at the club. – even with a carcass, even with a stuffed animal, the main thing is the result. Haven’t thought about it yet,” said the main sponsor.

Later, however, the businessman promised to be “the creator of the process.” He said that he was going to build all the necessary infrastructure in Novorossiysk for both football players and handball players. For this, a land plot is selected, which the businessman is going to acquire in order to build a stadium there. In Novorossiysk, this is not an easy task. It is difficult to find a plot of this size in the city. Yes, and its price may be too high when the owners find out who the buyer is. But the city administration helps the businessman in this matter. True, there is another option – the reconstruction of the stadium “Central”. Now both ways are being calculated.

According to the investor, the new arena should accommodate twelve to eighteen thousand spectators. Perhaps it will be a sports complex that will house both a football field and a handball hall. I remembered in this regard the stadium of FC Krasnodar. That is, ideally, the sponsor of Chornomorets wants to create good conditions for fans and Novorossiysk residents, so that the facility becomes a point of attraction, a tourist attraction.

Is it likely to become a champion?

The businessman also announced that a women’s football team would soon be created on the basis of the club.

– I will not hide, this is a very exciting day for me. It was a difficult choice: seventeen years have passed since I was with Chernomorets, seventeen years have contained a lot of events. When deciding to return to Novorossiysk football, I was aware of the fact that it obliges me to a lot. I do not want to voice all the goals set, but you can guess that our ambitions are related to achieving maximum results. It’s hard for me to imagine that in the coming years Chornomorets will be the champion of the country in the top division, but we set the maximum goals, including returning to European competitions,” the entrepreneur noted.

According to Shishkarev, “Chernomorets’ budget will be sufficient to solve all the tasks.” “Chernomorochka” already this season is going to become the leader of the handball major league. Further leadership in the Super League. For the football team, the number one task so far is to reach the Premier League.

Of course, for Novorossiysk football fans, with the arrival of Shishkarev at Chernomorets, hope dawned. The city may return to the days when it was regularly visited by grants from domestic football and Europe (in 2001, the team played in the first round of the UEFA Cup against the Spanish “Valencia”). Apparently, the new sponsor is supported by the city authorities. It was reported at the press conference that the leadership of the Krasnodar Territory also supported the new project. True, such approval can have an ambiguous effect. A striking example of this is FC Kuban, in the past, many associated the active participation of the regional administration in its life with constant leapfrog on the coaching bridge, and with a change in the club’s management, as well as with large debts, which eventually led the club to bankruptcy. True, Kuban had to fall down the football hierarchy. “Chernomorets” is still below, so obviously it will not be worse.