33 most influential people in Russian football. Part 1

33. Roman Shirokov

Zenit and Russian national team midfielder

A big talker and a big doer, Shirokov has taken up the flag of Vadim Evseev, whose role of an offhand and fearless bloke has been vacant for some time, adding to it a bit of elegance. Shirokov publicly argues with Zenit management over his new contract, reveals the club’s new kit in his Twitter several weeks before its official presentation, chucks Welliton out of the Russian national team, engages in a Twitter brawl with a well-known Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov after the Armenia draw – and so on. Such an active public life in football is usually reserved for the «legends of the past» – but it’s not the case. At the age of 30, Roman Shirokov’s whimsical career seems to be still on the rise – in fact, he is one of the best Russian players of the last 12 months.

32. Igor Yefremov

Former director of Saturn, now head of Football National League

Though most of the Saturn’s enormous player contracts had been signed before his arrival to the club, Yefremov did nothing to prevent its financial collapse. He even did not comment on the emergence of Saturn’s life-threatening debts, dodging the question and calling them a «surprise». Later he quickly resigned, assuring the public that Saturn would exist forever. Such a background might have damaged his career in any other industry, but in Russian football it’s a fair reason for a new appointment. Soon after leaving Saturn, Yefremov replaced the disfavoured Tolstykh at the steering wheel of the First Division, Russia’s second-highest football tier.

However, in his new position Yefremov has got down to work energetically: establishing a partnership with the Italian Serie B, securing sponsorship contracts with Aeroflot and Adidas, successfully lobbying for the First Division matches to be shown on public TV, and even promising to broadcast them on the Internet.

31. Yuri Isayev

President of Dynamo Moscow

Being either the strongest of the Russian mid-table teams, or the weakest of the top clubs, Dynamo is still peripheral to all of the most important topics in our football. Some even call the club «a free supplement to Petrovsky Park», hinting at the area’s huge potential for the developers. Dynamo’s manager Yuri Isayev still fails to overcome this perception and his call for more adequate salaries in Russian football has also fallen on deaf ears. But given his impressive record – well-known banker, deputy director general of Rusal, member of parliament, deputy minister of economy – Isayev undoubtedly has a potential for a greater influence.

30. Valery Shantsev

Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region

Valery Shantsev used to work as a commercial director at Dynamo hockey club, and has been reputed as one of the most sport-loving state officials while assisting to Yuri Luzhkov in Moscow city administration. Upon his appointment as the head of Nizhny Novgorod Region, he adopted a football development plan providing that the region should have a team in each division. Last year it all came to pass: Khimik Dzerzhinsk was loitering in the Second Division, FC Nizhny Novgorod caused a stir in the First Division, while Volga leapfrogged into the Premier League, acquiring – not without the governor’s assistance – Gazprom’s sponsorship and an impressive budget.

29. Gennady Orlov

Commentator at NTV-Plus

He is the guardian of each broadcast that involves the country’s most potent club. While Russia’s sports newspapers are providing the clubs with informational escort services, one of the NTV-Plus microphones got captured by the famous Soviet commentator. Having obtained his job through a personal order of Gazprom bosses – who own both Zenit and NTV-Plus – Gennady Orlov handles his job well: he supports the St. Petersburg club even in the domestic league and can’t wait to congratulate Gazprom head Alexey Miller seconds after Zenit wins its title. Zenit’s supporters and opponents equally dislike Orlov, which makes him pretty much alike with most Russian clubs whose real target audience are VIP boxes, rather than the stands.

28. Suren Mkrtchyan

General Director of Kuban Krasnodar

Mkrtchyan is a club administrator who hired a promising European coach and won the First Division smoothly, but then blundered with some business conduct practices. It has been heard for a long time that when it comes to contract termination in some Russian clubs players are handled without mittens, but it wasn’t until ‘the Nikezic case’ that everybody started taking those rumors seriously. And only Suren Mkrtchyan’s comment («I’d sock Nikezic right in his face») brought some comfort to the public and reassured it that at least a part of the allegations against Kuban were untrue.

27. Viktor Razveyev

President of Krylia Sovetov Samara

Samara club could well have missed season-2010 at all – if it wasn’t for Viktor Razveyev, the former team’s captain, who had become a successful businessman during the Russia’s ‘troubled nineties’ and whom the region’s authorities have entrusted with the rescue of the club. Razveyev didn’t let it collapse, performed a purge in the squad, brought back Alexandr Tarkhanov as coach, introduced stewards into home stadium, asked local employers to let people go from work to the games on weekdays, disclosed the budget, and even promised to give supporters 20 percent of the club’s shares. Razveyev still has the word «acting» in the name of his general manager’s position and many of his statements are highly controversial. However, his vigor and determination have kept Krylia Sovetov in the Premier League making Razveyev one of the most widely discussed heads of provincial clubs.

26. Leonid Slutsky

Head coach of CSKA Moscow

While the best of the former Russian players of the 90’s have been mostly unsuccessful at the beginning of their coaching careers, Leonid Slutsky has emerged as the best of the new generation of domestic coaches. He keeps up an acquaintance with Jose Mourinho and by the age of 39 has already spent six seasons in the top flight. After the Grozny match in 2009, where his team had played an allegedly fixed match with Terek, Slutsky has nearly become an all-Russian outcast, but moving to CSKA he has turned into a European hero. Unlike his predecessor Valery Gazzayev, Slutsky has managed to reach the Champions’ League play-offs leading CSKA into the quaterfinals. It’s hard to say whether this brood of young Russian coaches is worthy of such a demanding definition like «generation», but if yes then Slutsky is its obvious leader.

25. Vladimir Yakunin

President of the Russian Railways

Vladimir Yakunin is the head of a major Russian state monopoly, the man entitled to approve the budgets of a major Russian club (by which we mean Lokomotiv Moscow), and has the last word in choosing its managers. One or two years ago he would be much higher on our list – although his gradual loss of interest in football and the rumors on his upcoming departure from the Russian Railways have secured him a place closer to the list’s end.

24. Bulat Chagayev

Vice-President of Terek

Chagayev is most enigmatic of all the important figures of Russian football – the only thing we know about him is his managerial role in a company named SovAmericanTrade. Money – however big and making even Khaidar Alkhanov (the man to the right on the photo) gush with ecstasy – isn’t the only thing he has to offer Terek. The head of the Switzerland-based firm also has some ties in the world of football. He is the one who hires foreign coaches for Terek and masterminds the idea to bring a world’s top-10 forward to Grozny.

23. Olga Smorodskaya

President of Lokomotiv Moscow

Any other first female president in the history of the Russian football would have encountered problems – even if all of her words were well-weighed and all of her decisions were correct. Salacious banners and obscene chants had started to appear in the stands of Lokomotiv Stadium before Smorodskaya has fallen out with Yuri Semin, got involved in a slanging match with Alexander Aliev, and astonished sports nutritionists with her ideas on the fitness-boosting properties of buckwheat. But now Smorodskaya is under particularly strong pressure from the society’s stereotypes, Lokomotiv’s fans, and the need to obtain a result corresponding to the third biggest budget in the Premier League. If she withstands it all, next year we will definitely see her up the list.

by Denis Bystrov, Ivan Kalashnikov, Dmitry Navosha, Denis Romantsov, Yuri Dud, Kirill Blagov