The first to the meeting of the heads of the Premier League clubs was the general director of Khimki Mikhail Shcheglov with a security guard. In terms of build, that same smallness was inferior to Nikolai Valuev.
- Will you vote for Vorontsov? - the journalists asked the functionary (his bodyguard instantly disappeared).
“Well, yes,” Shcheglov admitted innocently. - There are no questions here.
But there were questions. Everyone fussily calculated how many votes Evgeny Giner would receive, and how many Mikhail Vorontsov would receive. The result loomed not in favor of the latter. The representative of "Saturn" lost on all counts. Added confusion and the head of "Rostov" Rochus Schoch.
“Why are you worried?” He threw to reporters. - Everything is already clear!
- And what is clear?
“So I told you.”
- It is clear that Giner won? - the press did not calm down.
“Yes, everything has long been clear,” Schoch intrigued.
Dmitry Ivanov, CEO of Dynamo, the question of whether he made a choice, offended a little.
“You really do me for this ...” he carefully selected a not-too-offensive word, but he still could not find an option. - Of course, I know who I will vote for. But a little worried.
The excitement of Ivanov was understandable. They say that Dynamo hesitated to the last. Suddenly not put on that?
Eugene Giner appeared exactly at 14.00. And from the threshold he promised that "everything will be fine." Everyone who, for whatever reason, did not want his re-election, was completely depressed. The president of CSKA does not throw words into the wind.
During the protocol shooting, it suddenly turned out that there was no representative of Spartak. This excited Giner more than others (perhaps he was counting on a heart attack from A. Sp. From the prepared script).
“Let’s call,” the CSKA turned to someone. But the number was not prompted to him.
Sergei Shavlo, the general director of Spartak, meanwhile, was already climbing the stairs. He explained the reason for being late. However, with the current traffic jams it is surprising that only he was late.
And after 20 minutes the news was already reported: Eugene Giner withdrew, Mikhail Vorontsov was elected president of the Premier League. Three came out to reporters. Vitaly Mutko thanked Eugene Giner. Mikhail Vorontsov “floated” a little with joy and said nothing constructive. Just barely touched the predecessor:
- Last year we saw a kind of confrontation. In this, everything went very differently. What happened today, we can only evaluate after a certain time. Hope to do my best not to drop the league flag.
The president of CSKA, meanwhile, explained that he has children who need attention.
Then the heads of regions began to gather. Rochus Schoch ran to meet the governor of the Rostov region Vladimir Chub. He was completely hoarse, but even in that voice he expressed surprise at Giner's voluntary departure.
“Yes, he got up ...” explained Schoch. - He got up and said that he was withdrawing his candidacy, but Misha needed support. We have supported.
The hosts of the teams sat for more than an hour, but made no decisions. Leonid Fedun, the owner of Spartak, reported truly sensational news.
“So write,” he told reporters. - I shook hands with Eugene Giner.
In fairness, it should be noted that no one saw this.
- When you said that Giner would soon run out of administrative resources, did you mean the presidency in the league? - asked Fedun.
- You know what? - He even paused. - I decided not to give an interview until the end of next season.
He probably regretted that such a sensible idea had not come to him a little earlier.
At the end of a long day, the draw of the calendar of the Russian Championship took place. There was a complex system designed to separate the home matches of Spartak, CSKA and Dynamo in a certain way.
Three came out: Ivanov, Giner and Shavlo. Evgeny Lennorovich lost the right to choose the first ball to Ivanov. And then he drew the lot himself. And he chose number 1. Then he spread his hands and bowed.
Colleagues began to laugh.
- What, warmed up the balls? - Yury Belous inquired of him. - How did you choose this number? Something is unclean here.
- As the saying goes? - supported him Giner. - Someone bought everything? So, this someone is me.
Who would doubt that…
Alexey Shevchenko