- A football and financial conference will be held in Moscow the other day. Are you going to attend it?
- She is interesting to me first of all as the head of Saturn. We plan to start cooperation with some participants in the conference. Meetings with them have already been. You need to understand if anything has changed since then.
- In connection with the events in Italy - the murder of a policeman and the closure of stadiums - what does the Premier League plan to do in order to avoid such situations with us? And in general, in your opinion, does such a problem exist in Russian football?
- Of course. But thoughts about improving safety in stadiums arose regardless of the Italian situation. This work has been and is ongoing. When drawing up the calendar, we, by the way, take into account the wishes of law enforcement agencies, which ensure safety. There are certain requirements for clubs that own stadiums. The desire to increase attendance leads to increased risks in such situations.
- Do we plan to make demands similar to the Italian ones for arenas?
- Of course. And very tough. And even more severe than in Italy.
- That is, there is a chance that some stadiums will be closed to fans this season?
“I don't think it is possible.” After all, similar requirements were in the past year. In the application sent by the club, a separate section passes the stadium. If he is in some way inconsistent with the regulations, the team simply will not be certified for playing in the Premier League. By the way, last year Saturn Arena was recognized as the best stadium. We strictly complied with all the requirements of the RFU. This, however, led to a decrease in capacity, but at the same time increased safety. Several steps have been taken. Firstly, already at the approaches to the stadium flows of fans of different teams are cut. Secondly, last year the guest platform, and now 80 percent of all sectors were equipped with "anti-vandal" seats. Indeed, before, even one careless movement of the foot turned the seat into a "tool of the proletariat." We had cameras before, just now the equipment has been modernized. If desired, we can photograph the face of anyone in the stands.
- Are you planning to change the scheme of the championship of Russia? After all, they talk a lot about his imperfection. In particular, the fact that at the end of the season teams that don’t pretend to anything, just stop fighting with someone, but somewhere, on the contrary, they push.
- By increasing the profitability of a product called the “championship of Russia”, we can thereby increase the motivation of clubs to advance even a notch up the tournament ladder. If this happens, such conversations will cease.
- Well-known referees did not go to the pre-season training camps: Tyumin, Pettay, Kulalaev and others. Is their rehabilitation possible?
- This is a question for the RFU. We made a newsletter to the clubs, and they expressed their position on each judge. We have taken this into account.
- A few questions about Saturn. Was there no temptation to sell, for example, Eremenko this winter at the maximum price? Still, the interest in your midfielder was very great.
- There was no temptation. You see, our club has certain goals. Such tasks as increasing the capitalization of individual players and their further sale are not before us.
- They talked a lot about the fact that Eremenko, Vukchevich would like to leave the team ...
- I’m already tired of refuting these rumors. This has never happened before.
Pavel SERGEEV