Shamil Gazizov: “We have already reached the bottom, it will be easier to push off further”

Having lost the final match in the national championship in the First League, Ufa took 16th place and dropped to the second division. Shamil Gazizov took all the blame for this on himself and admitted that the decision to leave the club came to him a few months ago.

Black clouds over FC Ufa have been gathering for a long time. At the end of last year, when the republic entered the government, the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov, expressed his dissatisfaction with the game of football players. He admitted that he “does not want to watch how they play, and that the players do not show that they want to break forward.”

– It’s not for me to decide whether to be a club or not, I have to do everything I can, – commented Radiy Khabirov. – This is the property of the republic. You can blame as much as you want for the lack of funding.

According to the head of the region, over the 10 years of the club’s existence, the republic has invested seven billion rubles in it.

“Now is not the time when you can invest billions in them,” the head of the republic emphasized. – But the club should be.

At the end of April, in order to keep the club debt-free, the management even had to sell the bus.

Recall that Shamil Gazizov headed the Ufa club in the summer of 2012. Under his leadership, Ufa overcame the path from the FNL team to the elite of Russian football, made its debut in European competition and for many years was one of the strongest and most stable clubs in the Russian Premier League. In July 2020, Shamil Gazizov was appointed General Director of the Spartak club, but in March 2021 he returned to FC Ufa.

– I think that the captain of the ship should be the last to leave, – he commented at a press conference. – I wanted to do it beautifully, I believed that we would win the last game and stay in the first league. At the match, I said goodbye to the sectors of active support, and then to the team. Such a decision was made, thanks to the republic for giving me time to engage in football creativity and all my skills, abilities, dreams, many things to translate into reality. Some things worked out, some things didn’t, but it’s just a matter of time.

Over the 12 years of the club’s existence, football in Bashkiria has been raised to a new level. Now the club has a big movement forward, there will be an update in all structures. In Ufa, according to Gazizov, there were many people with a great football history, from whom they “ate and learned.”

– It’s bad that professionals leave the team, – continues Gazizov. “These are the people we have raised over the years. This is a piece goods. I hope that those who come to the club will be worthy. We have already reached the bottom, it will be easier for them to push off.

Also, Mr. Gazizov regrets that at one time, when the team flew out of the Premier League last year, he did not insist on his decision to go straight down to the second division.

“That would have been the right move, but I didn’t do it for a number of reasons,” he said. – The most important task then is not to create debts. I credit myself and the management with the fact that during this time we do not owe anyone, we have paid off almost everyone. If we have debts, then they are today’s. We do not have a hole of 500 million rubles that could be. It was then necessary to make a tough decision: there was enough money to pay off all the players, let them go and then try to move on.

Recalling the beginning of work in the club, Mr. Gazizov says that he came with thoughts of victory, so that “there would be the best club in the republic, the best stadium in the city, the best children.” With the same thoughts, he leaves now.

Speaking about the future of the Ufa football club, he expressed the hope that a person from the republic would come to his place, and “not a Varangian”.

“Whether people of a good level will come, I don’t know,” he said. – I hope they will be worthy people and improve the results.

Shamil Gazizov announced the candidacy of the coach, whom he would personally recommend, and asked the founders of the club to listen to his opinion.

– The team now needs Igor Kolyvanov, – said Gazizov. – He treats the city, the republic, the club very well. This is a man who will pull us all out with his simplicity and charisma.

Note that Igor Kolyvanov headed FC Ufa from May 2012 to October 2015. Under him, the team reached the Premier League.

Shamil Gazizov said that after leaving the club, he would continue to do business, which he had seriously abandoned at one time.

“We need to clean it all up, there will be no free time,” he admitted.

It also became known that the head coach left the club after Gazizov Arslan Khalimbekovwho has led the team since October 2022, and head coach Nikolai Safronidi. Defenders’ leases expired Vadim Konyukhov And Alexandra Mukhinaas well as midfielders Andrey Nikitin And Alexey Evseev.