Interview by Alexey Miller with Zenit official website
Zenit official website
Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee gave an interview to the official website of Zenit, telling about his meeting with Luciano Spalletti and the current situation with the national championship.
- Yesterday evening you had a meeting with Luciano Spalletti, Head Coach of Zenit, and it was defined as urgent. What was it about?
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Though it was an urgent meeting, it was not short. Luciano and I agreed that concerning this very meeting there would be only one comment: no comments.
- Is it true that Zenit may withdraw from the Russian Championship?
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Very many people think that we could hold the CIS football championship, and I am also a strong supporter of this idea. If the time comes to set up a new championship, we will act and take well thought-out steps only in alignment with those people who support the goal of setting up a football championship among the CIS countries. Such a conversation took place recently, that’s why the answer is positive – maybe, we will play for another championship.
- It is interesting that some have even metaphorically written that referee Nikolaev had made the call on the end of the championship.
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Yes, a harsh metaphor this is. The Mitki painting, a striking scene – “Referee Nikolaev makes the call on the end of the Russian football championship”.
- There were announcements that Nikolai Tolstykh might quit his post of the Russian Football Union President, and even new candidacies for that post were named – Vyacheslav Koloskov, Sergey Pryadkin, Anatoly Turchak. What do you think about it?
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May God let Mr. Tolstykh always fill such a high post in sports. In theory, who else could honorably represent Russian football? I know Pryadkin and Turchak personally, they are high-class candidates. As for Vyacheslav Koloskov, I am less acquainted with him, but he is the legend of our football with a capital letter, and people whose opinions I respect speak of him in the superlative.
- A question about the incident in Khimki. The Zenit fans carried out their own close investigation but didn’t ferret out among them the one who had thrown that disastrous squib. The fans are an organized structure and they assert that if it had been some idiot of theirs, he would have been ferreted out and severely punished by now. What about you, do you trust the fans?
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To those of Zenit – I do.