The money of the owners of RPL clubs "leaks" to foreign specialists
52-year-old Englishman Paul Ashworth has been appointed sports director of Spartak Moscow. South African Fadluragman Davids from the Orlando Pirates may soon become the new assistant to the head coach of the Moscow Lokomotiv German Josef Zinnbauer. "MK" is trying to figure out why the leading domestic clubs, despite all sorts of punishments, sanctions and prohibitions that our football has recently been subjected to, continue to invite Western "legionnaires".
The Russian team was not allowed to the draw for the European Championship 2024, scheduled for October 9 in Frankfurt am Main. Earlier, our team was thrown out, there are no other words, from the qualifying tournament of the 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar in November. Russian football clubs have been excluded from all UEFA competitions "until further notice". FIFA and UEFA allowed foreign players and coaches to leave our teams, suspending contracts unilaterally. Our referees Sergei Karasev and Sergei Ivanov have not yet received fees for their February matches in the Europa League and the Conference League, UEFA refers to some difficulties with bank transfers. FIFA is also delaying the transfer of money under the Heritage program for the 2018 World Cup, held in Russia and recognized by the entire football community as the most successful tournament of recent times.
Why are we listing all this again? Then, to understand why our clubs continue to invite foreign specialists to work. Especially from countries that are "unfriendly" to us.
In early September, MK wrote that the blockade of Russian football by FIFA and UEFA actually failed - during the summer transfer period, foreign players arrived in Russian teams, and not of the worst level. Even despite the fact that it cost some of them a place in the national teams of their countries. Deciding to punish athletes for political rather than sporting reasons for their choice.
And it's really wonderful. After all, sooner or later all sanctions and bans will be lifted and we will again participate in international competitions. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the level of domestic football, without giving yourself any concessions. And make the highest demands on those foreign specialists on whom the team leaders will spend money. Because every foreigner who comes here takes the place of our Russian specialist. So, a priori, he should be head and shoulders above all domestic candidates.
But what is really happening?
Who are you, Mr Ashworth?
On September 26, Spartak Moscow on its website announced the appointment of 52-year-old Englishman Paul Ashworth as their new sports director.
On the website of the Russian Premier League, in the personal file of the Englishman, it is indicated that from February 28 to September 25, 2005 he was the sports director of Rostov. I even managed to visit acting. head coach in the match with Rubin in the sixth round and Amkar in the seventh round that season. After that, in an interview after his resignation to Eurosport, he even claimed that he was asked to “surrender” the match with Rubin. But he refused. Then there was the Riga "Skonto", "Ventspils" from the Latvian city of the same name, the Kazakh "Astana". And here is Russia again.
Opinions about Ashworth, who, according to some media reports, were taken to Spartak on the recommendation of Sberbank Vice President Alexander Bazarov, differ among specialists and reputable journalists.
Spartak without Fedun, you say? Paul Ashworth, you say? Well, they don’t knock from below, but simply break the floor ... To be honest, I have already managed to forget the name of this amazing football salesman. “What I had to remember under such circumstances is beyond good and evil,” Ivan Zhidkov, editor-in-chief of the St. Petersburg Internet portal Sports Day after Day, wrote on his Telegram channel.
Others, in particular the head of one of the leading agency companies in Russia, German Tkachenko, believe that one should not be so categorical about the Englishman, and call for giving him time to work at Spartak. Will it suddenly work?
Pirates in Lokomotiv
Almost simultaneously with the news of Ashworth's arrival at Spartak, information appeared in the media that another Moscow club, Lokomotiv, could soon announce the appointment of South African Fadluragman Davids as an assistant to the team's head coach, German Josef Zinnbauer. Local newspapers are already writing that he is preparing for a "shocking" transition and will soon announce his new job.
Unlike Ashworth, Russian football fans are almost unfamiliar with Davids. But he is well known to Zinnbauer, with whom he worked for a year and a half in the Orlando Pirates from Johannesburg.
There were quite a lot of players from South Africa in our football, including the legendary Jacob Lekheto, Macbeth Sibayi and Matthew Booth. But it is difficult to remember the South African coaches on the move. It will be all the more interesting to see how an old acquaintance will help Zinnbauer pull Lokomotiv out of the basement of the standings. Where the railroad with each round fails lower and lower.
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So is it worth worrying about just two new foreign employees at RPL clubs? After all, other foreign specialists work in other teams. And quite successfully.
Actually, yes. After all, they did not come to us as masseurs. And for leadership positions in leading domestic football teams. When many of our equally reputable and experienced coaches are out of work. And the sources of funding for Spartak and Lokomotiv are not private. Therefore, the demand based on the results of the work of Ashworth and Davids can be serious.
Newspaper headline:
Football is being boarded
