Football players of “Alania”

Vladikavkaz “Alania” got only one point in the first two rounds of Russian championship, but the players were not reproached by the fans.

Vladikavkaz “Alania” got only one point in the first two rounds of Russian championship, but the players were not reproached by the fans. During the five years of “Alania’s” beeng on the lower levels they started to miss the big football and are ready to forgive a lot. Even a weak game on the start. “Alania”-the champion of 1995 is still remembered in Vladikavkaz. The coming of Vladimir Shevchuk, a member of the trainer staff of Kiev “Dinamo” let the Ossetian fans believe in the success. Nowadays the team’s success in this season is considered as fixing on the prime league. But it is not spoken of it aloud, because a former champion is not one to think of its survival.

     This is the third appearance of the main North Ossetian team in the prime league of Russian football. Every time fans meet a completely new team in terms of its name, principles of choice of players, manner of the game. It is difficult to speak of the traditions of Vladikavkaz football. In 1970 Ordzhonikidze “Spartak” played in the higher league of the country which consisted of first of all local players. The team showed an interesting football. It was trained by Andrey Zazroyev, Musa Tsalikov and Kazbek Tuayev. But it took the premier place and returned to the first league. In 1991 the North Ossetian “Spartak” (Vladikavkaz) played in the Russian championship again under direction of Valery Gazzayev, who gathered in Vladikavkaz, as the people used to joke, a combined CIS team. For the third time “Alania” got an opportunity to return to the higher league almost occasionally, due to breaking up the club “Moskva”. Now, as in the times of Gazzayev, mostly the outer players play in the team. Moreover, some of them are members of national combined teams. Someone has even called “Alania” of Vladimir Shevchuk the “World combined team”. Brothers Bazzayev and the goalkeeper Dmitry Khomich (who came back to Vladikavkaz from Nalchik) are the only local players in the core of the team. “Alania” got the prime league license only a few days before the beginning of the championship. During the low season it has been gossiping that Samara “Krylya Sovetov” or the capital “Moskva” could cease to exist, so that “Alania”, which had been the third in the prime league last year, could take someone’s place. The rumour was confirmed, but it was too late. The membership of the last year, which had been formed especially for the prime league ran away. So Vladimir Shevchuk had to create practically a new club as he arrived.

     Modern football requires big money. The former experience of the financing of “Alania” may not be used any more. In 1970 the players of Ordzhonikidze “Spartak” were hired as so-called “snowdrops” to different construction industries and  motor works. The rewards for the matches were paid by trade unions. Football players could not be called poor people in these times, but they retired early being by no means rich. In the middle of 1990s the Ossetian football was helped by vodka. The alcohol industries brought huge amounts of money to the economy of North Ossetia under the circumstances of wild Russian market. To spend a part of the money for the football was a technical question. Nowadays North Ossetia is an entirely subsidized republic.

It is not occasional what the head of the supervisory board of the team, the prime minister of the republic said, “We are not guilty for the participation in the championship”. He had to become the head manager of “Alania”. Only 5 million dollars were found in the budget of the republic to support the team, while a team of the prime league requires, according to the specialists, at least 20 million dollars. The team appealed to sponsors, but the results of these talks are not known to the public yet. Nikolay Khlyntsov said, that he is very obliged to Vladimir Shevchuk,  for he had not made his own terms. Finally they managed to create a team. The last invited players – an Angolan Zuela – had came to Vladikavkaz two days before the championship started. Vladimir Shevchuk confessed that when “Alania” had played its first game, the players hadn’t even know the names of each other.

Oleg Kushaty, exclusively for VC