This is a return to grace for Russian sports clubs. After a slack period at the beginning of the 90’s, a consequence of the break-up of the Soviet Union, the situation has been reversed in a spectacular fashion. To the extent that Russia is slowly settling in as one of Europe’s best. This season, Zenit Saint-Petersburg’s footballers lifted the UEFA Cup and Super Cup, CSKAMoscow’s basketball players won the Euroleague, whereas the volleyball players from Dynamo Kazan came away with the Champion’s League.
Russian national teams are also taking part in this revival, as the hockey players won the world title while the national football team played very well in the Euro falling only to Spain in the semi-finals. On their side, the women’s national team gleaned the 2007 handball European championship.
Several factors explain this rise. The main reason is undoubtedly themassive financial support given by the important companies from the energy sector. All the Russian clubs that have distinguished themselves on the European scene are sponsored, if not owned, by such actors. Zenit Saint-Petersburg (budget of 100 million dollars) is thus sponsored by Gazprom, the world’s leading energy group, as are the Dynamo Kazan and Surgut volleyball teams. As for oil giant Lukoil, it supports the footballers from Spartak Moscow, whereas the CSKA Moscow basketball teamowes its supremacy to a company specialized in nickel extraction. “If you index the price of the barrel of oil based on the clubs’ performances, a bright future is promised for Russian sport,” notes Serge Enderlin, a Swiss journalist specialized in questions linked to energy* and a football fanatic.
Economist Wladimir Andreff, professor at Paris I University, has studied the Russian sports system and distinguishes between two investment periods: “During the second half of the 90s, investors got rich very fast thanks to the privatization of the economy. Wanting to spend or launder this cash which wasn’t always clean, but also aiming to gain some notoriety, the latter injected it massively into football. The second wave of investments has been taking place for about four years. It results from the country’s economic development and the financiers mostly respect the law.”
As a result, in a few years, the Russian first division has become the first in terms of value, just behind the Bundesliga. The objective: to win the Champion’s League – European football’s top competition – between now and 2010.
These investments also have a hidden political purpose, as the country’s leaders, just like the Russian citizens, appreciate giving their support to national clubs, considered as a sign of attachment to the homeland. “For the important energy firms, it’s a patriotic obligation to invest in local teams”, underlines Serge Enderlin. “Besides, when billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea FC, a part of the Russian public opinion was scandalized that his fortune wasn't first going to be of benefit to his country.” As a matter of fact, the mayor of Moscow even declared that “by buying Chelsea, one had spat on Russia.”
In the meantime, Abramovich found the way to make it up to those he has disappointed: in the winter of 2004, encouraged by the Kremlin, the billionaire and owner of the Sibneft oil group committed to CSKA Moscow as a sponsor, which resulted in an all-out spending spree. Very fast, Brazilian, Portuguese (notably star-player Maniche), Czech, and Croat players all arrived. A record transfer also took place in the summer of 2005 when Turkish striker Nihat left Real Sociedad for 19.7 million euros. A few weeks earlier, CSKA had become the first Russian football club to win a European title when it won the UEFA Cup against Sporting Lisbon.
“Russian players no longer need to go into exile abroad to make their fortune or to play at a high level,” indicates French journalist Yannick Durantin, in charge of the sports blog Docteur ès sport. “Besides, this evolution could easily be noticed during the recent Euro: the Russian national team had only one of its players playing in a foreign championship, whereas the situation was exactly the opposite for the Czech team!”
Mental toughness But Russia’s strength isn’t just limited to its financial power, says Yannick Durantin: “Financial means are coupled with a pool of talents and with a Russian savoir-faire in the domain of sports directly inherited from the Communist era. In numerous disciplines, the Russian schools are very often among the world’s best from a technical point of view.”
As for mental toughness, it’s almost a part of the Russian heritage, as was shown during the Ice Hockey World Championships’ finals game against Canada: “Having won while playing a Russian style of game is what pleases me the most. Courage, determination and character are our main weapons and we used them to perfection,” said Slava Bykov, the coach of the Russian national team, just after his team’s triumph at the Ice Hockey World Championships, on 19th May in Quebec. And physical conditioning is no joke either.
A specialist of Russian football**, English journalist Marc Bennetts explains that “former soviet sporting habits haven’t disappeared. Russian players are subjected to the world’s most demanding training system. They are obliged to take part in “sboris”, training camps that last up to six weeks, before the beginning of the championship. During the four months of winter break, they are constantly away from home: they practice in sunny resorts on the Black Sea, like Sochi or Adler, continually away from their families and subjected to a very strict diet. And before games, they are in solitary confinement for several days.” This is enough to seriously disrupt the geopolitics of sporting powers. There are nevertheless a few downsides as far as football is concerned: “The Russian championship has its geographical particularities capable of putting off more than one foreign player,” notes Serge Enderlin. “In November, temperatures aren’t high on the pitch of Tom Tomsk Football Club. A trip to play against Terek in Grozny is never reassuring. An away game against Vladivostok requires traveling through seven time zones from Moscow.”
But above all, the gap in seasons withWestern Europe sometimes handicaps Russian teams in important competitions. As indeed, for evident meteorological reasons, the Russian football season begins in March and finishes in October. The players’ physical condition level is therefore quite different fromthat of their western counterparts. You thus understand why Russian clubs have a difficult time in the Champion’s League that begins in winter, namely half way through their season. Nevertheless, ifmoney keeps flowing in Russian football, Europe’s greatest clubs can begin to worry.
* Oil – A Crude World, Seuil, 2003. By Serge Enderlin, Serge Michel and Paolo Woods.
** Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People’s Game, Virgin Books, 2008. By Marc Bennetts.
