Vitaly Mutko on the summer Olympic Games in London, football, Fursenko, and himself

The Minister of Sport of Russia gave a press conference at which he spoke about the most urgent issues of Russian sport.

On May 21, 2012, an order was signed, according to which the Ministry of Sport, Tourism, and Youth Policy was turned into the Ministry of Sport of Russia. The ministry takes on the responsibilities for developing state policy in the sphere of physical culture, standard-setting, organizing the preparations of national teams and developing physical culture and sport in our country. I want to say that in recent years, since 1991, it is the seventeenth reorganization. I can say that it is difficult to develop the sector when the management structure is being changed every 2-3 years. The most important thing is that the Ministry of Sport has remained in the structure of the Russian government. This is a sign of stability. I hope it means we have been doing good work in the last 4 years. Physical culture and sport are becoming a greater part of the social sphere influencing the life of our society. In recent years we have built about 13 thousand sports facilities. Today the number of sports facilities in the country is 253 thousand. Today we have about 8.5 thousand children's sports schools. 3.5 million children are involved in this system. It includes 310 thousand staff employees working on a permanent basis. And their number is growing. We have 14 universities within the structure. About 9 thousand specialists in the sphere of sport and physical culture graduate from them annually. We have about 30 Olympic Reserve Training Schools. And lastly, about 20% of citizens of our country participate in sport regularly. I am very proud and happy about the fact that physical culture has such great importance today.

In London, 302 sets of medals in 37 sporting disciplines will be awarded. We will definitely participate in 34 disciplines. Unfortunately, we didn’t qualify in men's or women's football, men's or women's grass hockey, men's water polo or men's handball. Today we have 415 sportsmen in our team. At the moment 4 disciplines continue to qualify. On July 2 our basketball players begin to fight for licenses in Venezuela. We wish them success. We have an opportunity in beach volleyball. Our girls have qualified. As for the guys, in a few days we will open the World League on Poklonnaya Hill. And the guys will have a chance to win a license for the Olympic Games at home. There are some other disciplines. For example, in archery our girls got the license, but the guys missed out, unfortunately, and their 5th-6th place didn’t allow them to qualify. On July 3-6 we will have the Athletics Championship of Russia in Cheboksary. In theory, we can gain several licenses there. Therefore, we expect our team will include 440-450 sportsmen in 34 disciplines. The complete squad will be determined on July 11 at a joint session of the executive council and the board of the Ministry of Sport. All the crucial points have been settled. The final stages have been developed for each team, even for each athlete. I think 8 national teams will prepare in the UK, 8 – in other foreign countries, and 17 will prepare in Russia. The farewell ceremony will take place on July 21. And on July 25 at 18:00 the Russian flag will be hoisted in the Olympic village.

Our athletes have shown not bad results over three seasons. We maintain good positions in summer disciplines. We rely on our traditional kinds of sport – wrestling, boxing, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and 5-6 disciplines in athletics. We are glad that such disciplines as Olympic weightlifting, canoeing and kayaking, and artistic gymnastics are regaining their traditions. These are the kinds of sport which are progressing seriously, and I think our athletes will be serious rivals. We have a good diving team. In general, the average age of the team is 26 years. More than 50% of the athletes believe Russia will find itself among the three top national teams. But we should be honest – we cannot catch up with the US and China in these Olympic Games. The reason is simple. According to our calculations, America will have 16-17 guaranteed medals. Soon the Swimming Championship of the USA will be held, you will see what results they will show. China has such disciplines as badminton, table tennis and diving, due to which the Chinese will get 16-17 guaranteed medals. And our start is difficult. We have only three guaranteed medals. In other disciplines we have to fight for them. We have no such discipline as table tennis for China. 29 Chinese sportsmen take the first 29 places in the world qualification. And it doesn’t matter what country he represents. That is that.

I must say our main competitor will be the UK. And Germany. Even though there are 10 more countries down to Japan, our main rival for third place is the UK. And it will be very difficult. The number of medals which we and the UK win is almost equal. In Beijing they won 19 medals, while we won 23 medals. In recent seasons we have won 19, 23, 24 medals. They won 14 medals last season. But there were two traditional UK disciplines – cycling and rowing. We have 5-6 disciplines where we have direct competition. For example, Tatyana Chernova competes with her colleague from the UK in the women’s heptathlon. I think in such disciplines our rivalry will be formed. You know they say that a home Olympic Games gives you 30 extra points.

We will work and do our best. The team is at the final stage and lacks nothing. We seriously monitor every detail. I think we will assess our potential one more time, and on July 11 we’ll see the situation clearly. Of course I'm not speaking about team sports. However, we have strong teams as well. We have the very good women's water polo team. They are the world leaders. But it depends on preparation… I remember in Beijing they were defeated by the Chinese, while we expected gold medals. We have a strong women's handball team. We rely on them too. We have one of the best basketball teams – the girls are European champions. Our volleyball team is one of the strongest teams in the world. Unfortunately, the guy volleyball players got injured. But we hope for their recovery. We do expect medals from our basketball team. I hope our national team will show good results due to your support.

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The Minister of Sport of Russia, Vitaly Mutko, also commented on the resignation of the head of the Russian Football Union, Sergey Fursenko

Sergei Aleksandrovich Fursenko took the decision to resign on his own. In principle, I can only say that in general, and I've already said it, if there is a head of a certain federation and the results of a season or a certain cycle are lower than the objectives that had been set by a federation, state or society, he should draw certain conclusions and explain why they had not been reached, try to understand the reason. If today heads of federation are able to make the situation better, we entirely support them in their work and we will continue supporting them in the future. If he decided that he was not able to change the situation and took this decision, he should be only respected and supported. Certainly, we are not going to persuade or convince him.

But I would like to say one thing: it is certainly not connected to the performance of the national team, in my opinion. In fact, anything can happen in football or sport and it is clear that the main reason for such a performance of the team was not the absence of functional vigour, although it was evident – the absence of functional as well as physical vigour. If you like, I could say even a certain methodological and tactical vigour. We could not see how we could win over Greece. But the Germans showed how they wanted to do it by changing three players of the first team. Because one just has to prepare for such championships. That is all. What has been done by previous coaches as well as other coaches and former players…

But I think this is not the main reason and that there are more serious reasons related to the development of football, the direction it is moving in, what its priorities and values are. We all became confused concerning football: what are we going to develop, build and do? There is no clarity if you know what I mean. There is unity in the football sphere. Because of two clubs, it is possible to shift to autumn-spring. I have already said that autumn-spring is not at all for Russia. I cannot imagine how one can play in December in Novosibirsk. I would like to send someone there to have a look. It is certainly better not to send men there. But in fact there are decisions which should be logical and clear. And particularly on the eve of the European Championship switching to a cycle in which in fact only one and a half seasons were played… We all remember how Real and Barcelona did not enter the Champions League due to a small mistake by the football organizers in Spain, in my opinion. They organized El Classico for Real and Barcelona on the eve of the championship, when everyone was run into the ground physically and emotionally. Later they participated in the semi-finals and both great teams lost. Certainly, there are questions here apart from this match and the state and I don't think it is the main reason, since today the Dutch, Swedes and Poles, the hosts, are also not through to the semi-finals. There are a number of other reasons.

Simply, I think we should put football on a normal footing and explain to society and the whole football community what we are doing, what plans and perspectives we have: not just wake up in the morning and say "autumn-spring" and the next morning – a code of honour. I will not continue enumerating. We simply have to understand. In 2005 we gathered a conference of the Russian Football Union and adopted a strategy for the development of Russian football. There were certain stages: children's schools, the material basis, modernizing the training of coaches, reducing the legionnaires' limit. This whole system should work. The state in this regard is ready to support football, the Russian Football Union.

I would like to say once again that we are unique, we are the only country that has a state program for the support of our country's football. Each year we allocate 1.5 billion rubles for the development of football. We build 30 fields for each youth sports school. Today we are building training grounds. This year we will open a roofed football training ground in Yekaterinburg. We have opened a wonderful training ground in Novosibirsk – those who haven't seen it, should go see it. At the moment we are building a training ground in Sakha, Yakutia, we will have training grounds in all the major football centers. Certainly, it is a program. In Bronnitsy we are finishing construction of a center for all country's national teams – youth national teams, junior teams, women's teams. There will be 12 fields for three teams, a very strong methodological center. These are certain programs and the state is ready. Moreover, if we look at the Football World Cup, all the investments we are planning to direct… And I will tell you that the cost of those seven stadiums will be about 70 billion rubles. This state money will be allocated. It does not matter how much will be paid from the federal budget, how much from the regional budget – that is all secondary. In general, the state will invest 70 billion rubles and we will build modern stadiums. This basis offers the Russian Football Union a lot to do. Today there is very interesting work in this direction. But it requires a lot of work. Work – and that is it. Unite the people, the public, not to work in order to please one or two clubs, but remember that there are two divisions, 1500 children's schools, fans.

You know, it is very hard work. It is very public work; everyone knows about football, everyone is a football expert. Everyone knows what the line-up should be. I remember how we were losing against England and during the interval everyone told me everything they thought. I said: "But wait, there will be a second half too." I poured myself something, asked one big official if I could. He said that if it was going to help, I could do it. I toasted for the second half, said that we were going to score two goals. We scored two and he said: "You knew that!" I didn't know anything, it's just football. It is very difficult. I think that it was difficult, very difficult for Sergei Aleksandrovich Fursenko, because all around everyone considers themselves to be pros, the pressure is incredible, the fans are pros, there is a sea of specialists. Publish the line-up of the Executive Committee of Russian football and you are going to see all the government there. I am summoned and asked what is going on in football. Therefore, in general I would not like to judge the decision. It has been adopted and it should be respected. The most important thing is what to do next and this question will be discussed in the near future. We do not have time, on July 2 we already have our first qualifying game. Our team is indeed rather good. I would not agree that we have trained it well. In my opinion this is not true.

I would like to put one issue straight. I have read on Sportbox.ru, and I am quoting, that "the claimants for the office of the president of the Russian Football Union are Mutko,.." and I would not name the rest. I am not claiming anything – this is my answer to Sportbox. One has to choose one's words carefully. "Claimants"… Let Sportbox advance its expert and let him claim something, do something normally. It takes a couple of so-called experts, who perhaps only won twice… When I am asked why football players and sportsmen are commentators… I will not talk about football right now – it is sacred. After the hockey final I went down to talk to the hockey players. It is impossible! They commit only one small mistake, all the experts, newspapers… In Khanty-Maskiysk there was the Biathlon World Cup. One sportswoman was leading after the first round of shooting, everyone was applauding. In the second round of shooting she fluffed and was telling me later that it was all over for her when people started shouting from the stands: "Why did you come here? Who are you?" What kind of approach is this? First we praise someone and then look through his keyhole, pressure him if he said something wrong. I received a call: "Hi, I am Shirokov". I said: "Hi, Roma, let's have a conversation." Only later I realized that it was not Roma. I started to withdraw myself, but it was already late.

In fact, generally it is a very difficult job, believe me. I was once the head of the federation. Our president, he is a sportsman and he understands the core of the job. He always values and always appreciates any work. He is worth his weight in gold. But I resigned quietly. I received a call and that was it. Although together we have raised our football from 37th to 6th place. There are details, but they need to be understood, that for instance it would not be as easy to play against Portugal. Why should we create such problems for ourselves? One can say that if you want to win anything, you should win. But as you know, in football it is sometimes not clear who defeated whom. Sometimes in a match things go differently.

In general, I would like to say once again that I don't see any drama here. Everything is OK, we will figure it out. There are mechanisms of bringing people to power in such public organizations as the Football Union. We will do it, normalize the situation and I hope that a leader will appear who will live for football, deal with it, will love it and that his view on the development of football will be clear to the football community and fans. I would like that.

I would like once again to tell Sportbox.ru that I am not claiming anything, please strike me off the list of candidates. I am Minister of Sport and football is only one sport. In the future we have a lot of events and tasks which I will have to accomplish. Concerning the question I was asked in respect of the results of the London Games – and many others would like to present it in this way – I understand it very well. However, nevertheless we have accomplished certain things and I am happy about it. And we will accomplish more, we will figure it out. At the same time, there is a formal decree of the president, according to which ministers cannot combine offices. It is still in force. Therefore, it is my guide.

There is a great number of candidates. I would like to say once again that I would like the new leader to be comprehensible and deal with football all day long. Football is something that does not neglect little things. It can bring joy, can bring millions of happy people on to the streets but can also bring great distress. I would like to speak about the subject of our fans. I myself went to all three matches, although I flew back and forth all the time, but I would like to say – and you will write again, criticize me because I am defending someone – I am not supporting what is going on nowadays, it is very bad that some of our fans go abroad, light fireworks and it is not even discussed. One should not compete in eloquence, compete for a harsher judgement. But on the other hand, we are one country. These are our children. We have exited and we are one country. Let us bring them back and deal with them here. Let us not think only two days in the championship that if there has been one firework it means all the bad fans went there. I walked in the streets, there were up to 20,000 at the match with Greece. There were normal people from Kronstadt to Vladivostok. Normal. And they behaved themselves well. They were dressed and equipped. What we saw there on June 12 was a provocation. People ran out from the corners wearing scarves and if you were Russian they started beating you up. Many people with children were hiding in entrance ways; the Poles sheltered some of our fans. It is the truth. And today they are going to say: "our people had nothing to do with it… " That is why certainly today we are going to do everything so that the 7 people that are there at the moment, 2 of them already convicted, the third one was convicted yesterday, 4 of them are still awaiting trial… We have just found resources, hired lawyers and together with the Foreign Ministry we will do everything to return these guys to Russia. And already here we will judge whether they were burning fireworks and why.