Rebound from the red-whites – Newspaper Kommersant No. 153 (7354) of 08/23/2022

Russia’s most popular football club, Spartak Moscow, took an interesting turn on Monday. The club has changed its formal owner: LUKOIL announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of FC Spartak Moscow, as well as the Otkritie-Bank Arena stadium. Note that the club was already controlled either by LUKOIL or its affiliated structures or persons. A noteworthy point is that Leonid Fedun, who has been in charge of the red-and-whites since 2004 and was considered their owner, is leaving all posts in FC Spartak and “will not take part in the management of the club.” Be that as it may, this is the end of an era in the history of the club.

On Monday, LUKOIL reported that it acquired 100% of the shares of Spartak-Moscow Football Club JSC, as well as the Otkritie-Bank Arena stadium (the home arena of the red and white). The report also notes that Leonid Fedun, the president of Spartak and a shareholder of LUKOIL, is leaving his post.

“In connection with the withdrawal from the shareholders of the club, Leonid Fedun resigns as president, member and chairman of the board of directors of FC Spartak Moscow JSC and will not take part in the management of the club,” the company noted.

LUKOIL was also assured of its desire to continue the active development of the club infrastructure. “In particular, conditions will be created for the transfer of the Academy. Fyodor Cherenkov in Tushino. The company will also act as an investor in the construction of a universal sports hall and a hotel for athletes and fans in Tushino,” LUKOIL said in a statement. At the same time, LUKOIL, it follows from the company’s statement, will remain the key sponsor of the red-and-whites. “The company expects that its initiatives, together with the continued sponsorship of LUKOIL, will further strengthen Spartak’s position and lead it to new victories,” the company said in a statement.

The decision of Mr. Fedun to give up his leadership position in Spartak generally fits into the trend laid down by Vagit Alekperov, the main shareholder of LUKOIL. Back in April, after British sanctions were imposed on him, he left the post of president of the oil company. And at the end of June LUKOIL left and Leonid Fedun, who held the post of vice president in the company. According to the official version – “in connection with the achievement of retirement age and family circumstances.” However, at the same time, the press service of Mr. Fedun noted that his resignation was not connected with the club. “It has nothing to do with football. I will continue to deal with Spartak – to do everything so that our club, no matter what, lives and develops, ”Leonid Fedun said.

Note that the controlling stake in Spartak Leonid Fedun has gained in 2004 (from Andrey Chervichenko for about $70 million).

Although he has since been considered the owner of the club rather conditionally, due to the opacity of the team’s ownership structure. It was assumed that the main owner of the team is Mr. Alekperov – according to Forbes, he owned more than 30% of the shares of Spartak. In 2015, Mr. Alekperov in Perm, during a meeting with students of the Perm Research Polytechnic University, said that LUKOIL (the company has been a sponsor of the club for many years) gives Spartak “only $ 6 million a year.” This, in his opinion, was “an insignificant burden for the oil company.” Mr. Alekperov also noted that private individuals bear the main costs of maintaining the team. “All other costs, which amount to more than $60 million a year, are borne by individuals: me and Fedun,” Vagit Alekperov said.

Based on Vagit Alekperov’s assessment, it turns out that he and Mr. Fedun have spent more than $1 billion on maintaining the team since 2004. This is a lot, but before the records, for example, of Roman Abramovich to strengthen Chelsea (bought in 2003 for £140 million, sold for £4.25 billion in 2022 under pressure from the UK authorities) falls short. Not surprising, given that, unlike Roman Abramovich, who successfully worked on turning the English middle peasant into a European grandee, Leonid Fedun did not show such global ambitions.

In 2004, when Mr. Fedun took control of Spartak, the red-and-whites, who experienced their best period in the 1990s (they became Russian champions nine times from 1992 to 2001), were not in the best shape. The team finished the championship only eighth. Partly because the club could not afford the costs, which by that time were calmly withstood by competitors – Lokomotiv, CSKA, Rubin, Zenit.

The injection of fresh money, however, did not give the expected result. During the entire tenure of Leonid Fedun as president of Spartak, the red-and-whites won only three awards.

Of these, only one is really valuable – the championship title in the 2016/17 season. In addition, there were also the 2017 Supercup of the country, as well as the 2022 Russian Cup. The team did not differ in achievements in the European arena either – reaching the quarterfinals of the Europa League in the 2010/2011 season was the maximum. But it all ended badly there – Porto beat Spartak with a score of 10:3 on aggregate.

We also add that under Leonid Fedun, Spartak could not achieve the stability of the coaching staff.

For 16 years, the post of head coach of the team was occupied by 16 specialists (not counting acting ones) – ten foreign and six Russian. That is, on average worked coaches in Spartak for no more than a year. Such leapfrog amid the lack of results could not but affect the attitude towards the team bosses. In addition, the club most often did not guess with the acquisitions of players. Yes, superclubs are programmed to buy a lot and sell a little, but in the case of Spartak, the work on the transfer market was supposed to be profitable. In reality, if you take into account at least the top 10 largest transfers in the history of Spartak under Fedun, it turns out that the red-whites lost about $55 million.

“It seems to me that this decision (about the departure of Fedun.— “b”) only some people who firmly believed in Fedun did not believe, everyone understood that this was coming, – Andrey Chervichenko, the ex-owner of Spartak, told RIA Novosti. – Everyone was aware of the transfer of the club, and this stage approached its finish line. As well as Fedun’s football career. What’s next for Spartak? In my opinion it will be better. Because there will be no voluntaristic decisions of a person who does not understand football, more competent and more correct people will work. A longtime fan of Spartak, a famous tennis player, the first Grand Slam tournament winner in Russian history (Roland Garros 1996) Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who had previously refused to attend the Spartak stadium, said on his Twitter that “now with a clear conscience I will go to the next home match.”

“Yes, there are a number of trophies! – Alexander Mostovoy, two-time champion of the USSR as part of Spartak, told TASS. – But really, a lot has been done for Spartak, for the team as a whole. I think that fans and players should be grateful to Fedun, because the team has never been seen in scandals in terms of the money issue, everyone has always been satisfied, during this time a large number of people have passed through the club, everyone was satisfied and earned decently.

Alexander Petrov