and the players themselves seem to be either happy with the decision to discuss the current situation and the current developments in russia my guess is the president of the russian premier league. in ten years the president of russian premier league has brought the national football championship to a new level the league has serious sponsors celebrity players and millions of dollars worth of broadcasting contracts however the problem of hooliganism still damages the reputation of russian football to improve the situation perhaps get is working with british experts who have a considerable experience in dealing with the halting problem this season the league is replacing the police inside the stadiums with stewards generally more effective in figuring out the trouble. hello mr president welcome to the show let's go straight to russia's poor showing

its euro two thousand and twelve which was widely considered to be a flop and is by russian fans even the head of the russian football union city if i had to step down in one of your interviews you said it was a wrong decision why. you know i remember the meeting when forcing to resign and you kuhn in a member of the union's executive committee and president of the russian railways company that said that it's not just the union's boss but all of the committees members who must take the blame. since they are actually the supreme governing body in charge of the russian football however. decided ok the buck stops here but i'm still confident it was a wrong decision on his part. i'm quite positive about mr force and i know him personally i've done a couple of interviews with him i personally feel that he did what he was supposed to do. very often in russia people in charge are reluctant to step up to the plate

well that's exactly what mr ferguson could do so the question is do you think officials who really bear any responsibility for the thompson flops on the pitch do they need to be held accountable for the results or not. i agree that officials are responsible for the team's performance. but the main responsibility i think rests with the coach. because of the job of a high ranking official. for example the head of the russian football union like mr force and co was. is to provide sufficient funding. arrange for the accommodation facilities. and kids for all the players. you're one of the high level functionaries in the russian football but the

thing is that in private conversations a foreign coach is managing some of the russian teams often complain that they have their hands tied here in russia and it's because of the conditions they face which is responsible for the conditions maybe they are throwing to you or your colleagues . i guess is more likely than they are talking about their teams management although it's still down fall. i'm an old timer an affordable and know from experience that qualified coaches and we are now talking about foreign ones. are usually offered contracts where every detail is hammered out so i think it's a bit of an exaggeration on their part of course there on the pressure to win and be the national or international championship. there's been a lot of buzz about the two thousand and fourteen sochi olympics it's no more than five hundred days away but in six years time russia is going to host the football world cup. does russia have the place capable of when it because obviously it's

aiming for the trophy do we have the young hopefuls who can do it. in one sads we can do it what do you say yes we can. first of all go hide-n. to find that goal even before he was officially elected president of the russian football union well that's a noble cause and we all have the desire to win. it of course we do have young hopefuls many of them playing the national under twenty one team trained by nicolai . when these guys grow up we can expect them to take part in their championship. they must be around fourteen or fifteen now right. not that young a bit older than that twenty or maybe twenty one. so you think that in

order to take part in the world cup these guys have to be mature grown up men well they will have reached their prime at that moment for at eighteen they're still budding footballers. in other words well known players like neymar and oscar have yet to grow up well you know each football player reaches his prime in his own time. and recall the live the current coach of dinamo sco started playing as part of the team when he was sixteen so i think those on the roaster of the national youth team today will most likely be the backbone of our twenty eight hundred squad has this rights to this championship boosted the young players motivation. do you feel they now have more at that site of course the prospect of hosting the twenty eight hundred world cup on home soil has proved to be us. wrong

motivation for players and also for the governors of the regions which were picked as venues for the games. i have been in charge of the premier league for five years now. and i have to admit that our sports facilities leave a lot to be desired so hosting the championship will give us an extra push to upgrade the facilities where these youngsters are supposed to play in twenty eighteen. now here's a different point let's talk about money. following our team's failure in the latest european championship the fans vented their anger on the internet over enormous bonuses that the play isn't regardless of their performance they all gets that they were only too happy to talk this money away and go on holiday sooner than planned so do you think it is ethical to pay for those millions of dollars

a year no matter how well they perform. well. that's a fact of life now but you think that's right i don't think i'm in a position to comment on this i haven't seen the personal contracts of these players and i don't know what bonuses they received for playing in the european championship where russia have played a total of three games. so i can't really comment on this simply because i don't have all the information anyway during international events players must russia's prestige first. you brought up the issue of salaries but actually being a football player. is an extremely demanding job. but it's not officially on the least after professions they are usually broadly qualified as professional athletes but it's actually a very challenging profession sometimes an injury at

a very young age can leave players crippled for the rest of their lives. but again in case of world or european championships players should prestige first and their hard work should be rewarded accordingly what now that you've mentioned the word job one of the basic things russian fans are unhappy over is that players seem to treat football only like a high paying job. at the private what do you have a feeling that in spite of enormous salaries english or say brazilian players still take it as a game. i think it's mostly fans who take it as a game. and the players don't believe it's a job. so is it like you can say no then i will play and they will just siphon off money from me when they. know it's not like that first and foremost players must treat their job very seriously. if they want

to see fans coming to the stadium to cheer for them they must put in their bast performance show a high level of team chemistry and a desire to find for every ball. otherwise people would maybe watch the game on t.v. but never show up at the stadium. is there stellar play that must grab the attention of millions of people and convince them that it's really a challenging job i think it should be a two way street we come to watch their brilliance and they reveal that brilliance through their hard work. right before the show we brought up some not stories stories from the world of football and among them we mentioned how the tell in your ventures was really gated from syria aid to syria be a relegations of bribery and much rigging these teams stayed with the club even

though their salaries were cut five fold and the prospects were no longer clear they did it because they remained loyal to their club and now we've sais you need to be just book were downgraded in a similar way. do you think all of their plays would stay with the club. well you know. it's mainly about the team spirit within the club but in fact in russia we have seen similar stories often enough a few players will stay with their teams after they have been kicked out of the premier league into the football national league. but of course it's not true for football stars that both european and russian clubs had holland for. the rest of it one but a lot of players do stay. ventus for example has a lot of loyal players partly due to the atmosphere cultivated in the club i also think the club management did

a great job to sustain this team spirit says so president of the russian premier league spotlight will be back shortly after a break so stay with us we'll continue this interview in the. wealthy british style. markets why not i'm going to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max kaiser for our no holds barred look at the global financial

headlines tune into kaiser report on r g. me keep you. up. to.

play. welcome back to spotlight i'll be just to remind you that my guest on the show today is. president of the russian football premier league mr president you began

talking about loyalty you know there's one thing that has kept me confused russian football has opened up to the world and we've seen this free flow of players in and out of the country but the thing is i've been a massive fan of dinamo school all by life because as a kid i used to live next to the stadium in those days my father and i went to watch their play but today i'm confused just like my father in law who's in the military these wondering what has happened to see this game remember it stands for the central sports club of the army now there are hardly any russian place in this isco line up let alone anyone from the military of course it's a fact of life and we have to face it's between think it's ok this is a fact of life as you say times have changed when you were a child some of your friends must have been fans of spartak moscow indeed the change is something that you have to accept such as we do like this kind of changes

i would like to see more russian players in russian clubs of course. football is increasingly turning into show business in many aspects. well it is football it is actually show business the game is a shown itself but when i was a teen some of my friends supported a number key if that was so shocking only used to ask them how can a muscovite supported team from key of i was there for. you to do my son is a fan of italy's you venters and no one is outraged this is something we have to live with. and i would absolutely. we love to see more russian players in the teams . but again we have to live with it because unfortunately the crisis that took place in the ninety's or the decrease in the birth rate know a different one in which one i mean the training system of young players completely

collapsed but in the ocean but it's a muscle which is even the butt of professional training right that's why we don't have enough russian players i mean our coaching standards have sacked yes and it takes time to fix the problem but we're coping gradually first our youth team i mentioned earlier in the show has made good progress also football clubs have begun to invest more in their football academies and these are the incubators where new russian players are trained so let's take a look now at one of this year's biggest scandals in russian football and the report by spotlight here and they see me there. it all started with one of russia's strongest fuku up st petersburg is in need to chase in big stars brazil and hope and belgian axel would stoop to one hundred million dollars this tryna make some they'd buy the gas prone sponsored club who's the big fuss among the fans and this tour within the team the captain grew to miss him demanded a pay rise claim he was no worse than the new commons he went as far as refusing to

take part in one of the recent games for a nice the captain's main argument and would so get three times more than their team mates but their presence hasn't raised the team to any new heights and that's a fact is in need haven't won any of this free games in the national championship since the new players arrived in st petersburg even more humiliating was the three new defeat to malaga in the champions league group stage but the management seems to know better than the car that's and in the surf and also alexander kers are profile supported his captain was sent to train with in its reservists as a. punishment for disturbing lies in the team or all of this initiated a public debate in russia concerning recruiting foreign players some see it's the only way to progress on the international arena. market leads to further degradation of national sports.

now let's discuss this scandal that's even the sports minister has committed don't want is your stance on that do you think denise of and alexander. really had any reason to speak out like that or it was a bad thing and the should have shut up. i don't think it's a good idea for me to comment on this zanny is shareholder is also a shareholder of the russian premier league and they are very good managers. big sponsor of course is gas from. well the clubs managers are experienced people the side is trained by a very qualified coach conflict so i wouldn't like to comment on the conflict right now. but i can say that these are two leading russian players

who have also contributed a lot to the national team. so that's why the whole thing is upsetting. yeah i can understand the frustration of eager denice of these the camps and both in the club and the national team is reported to be earning about two million dollars well hulk is paid about five million but you see that's hulk's price tag the club management chose to buy him a monk other european food loose and they both him and his market price do you put it and many other clubs want to buy him too but denise if he's not somebody that clubs like porter or barcelona are interested in the costs as much as he's worth so why does he think he should be paid the same this is a market place isn't it. has the news of made any comments on this. you can ask him yourself. i wish i could hear his side of the story but

because i think he claims he didn't do it because of money he just doesn't like the idea of foreign place being paid more it's not up to ego denisov to discuss the actions of his carbon team management and why they're doing this or that all right i'll rephrase the question a bit in russia foreign food bill is usually gets higher wages than russians do you think that's ok. can we do something you bet is and should we. know in the u.k. for instance the situation is very different. in french football in the u.k. will hardly be played more than say rooting for the porch everyone is judged by their merits that's my first argument my second argument is that we do have excellent russian players who earn more than foreigners. in a russian club yes in a russian club also you know every contract contains some terms that are strictly

confidential but if i don't know whether the. burst was driven by emotions it's the club's business everything depends on the players skills and qualifications but like you said it's ok to invite a foreign player in order to strengthen the teams. after all no one is going to invite a player to weaken the team. and anyway there is a certain limit on foreign players in place. in a recent interview you say that by easing the limits on foreign players we can promote healthy competition among our own players but three but in another interview you also said i quote a lot of players are no longer seeking to evolve in fact they are going backwards unquote. so what if you overdo it but if buzzing football stars in russia

may say in despair ok what if we're replaced by another hawk and then in brazil for example there are a great many poor boys well a very good football. well you know i can't really agree with you here because i still think that way. and we've had numerous debates on the issue. without doubt competition is a great incentive and here's a story to prove my point because in one of their europa league matches goose heeding the dutch coach of football club on g m. nine russian players out on the pitch hiddink is a very experienced coach and he used to work with the russian national team so it means he picked russians because they were in better shape for a better collison summer let's all muster for the new oh no they have

a long bench so comforting and is a must i mean healthy competition of. because we have players like a leg shot of our simulate a shove and other young russian players who play shoulder to shoulder with these are our young hopefuls who will most probably reach their peak form right in time for the twenty eighteen world cup my wife sometimes says things that i have to agree with for example she wonders how one can play football in a winter country like ours where cold weather last nine months. while we've been much better talking we called boost ice a snow wall year alone. so why are hockey players so good in the n.h.l. and recognized internationally while our football teams are more like a wallflower. was the reason. could you please tell your wife the trash became the world champion in beach food bowl they

beat brazil in the final remember how brazilians used to say the russians would win a football trophy only when brazilians become hockey champions all prisoners are also among the world's best sports. and russian paralympians did really well in the paralympics it takes time it really takes time for our footballers to rise to the same high as hockey players but they will succeed in particular thanks to the investment into schools and academies that's coming from the owners including private owners of the premier league clubs. eventually this money will pay off but there's also a point to be made about sponsors many people say the russian clubs are financed primarily by local authorities sometimes indirectly and that's russian food ball in a way is actually state funded. the problem is critical indeed especially

for lower leagues this was. one of the key reasons why in two thousand and one the leading clubs decided to establish the premier league because it was important to provide sustainable funding for the clubs so that their place in the league's table would be only determined by their performance and not the finances. it's true that clubs have different business structures and some of them indeed are owned by regional or municipal authorities and there was a point the more so we're working to switch from public to private funding it is more transparent they don't have kick backs or rather small practices and there is more control over expenses and finally them manage more efficiently but these are the benefits that private capital brings along just local people thank you thank you very much for being with us in just a reminder that my guest on the show today was sitting pretty after the president

of the russian football credit here at the league and that's it for now from our spotlight will be back with more comments on the lots going on in and outside russia until then they are to take it.

overcoming a barrier like this seems. when you. do whatever it takes to get all the talk of the world. my parents really truly honestly believe that what had happened was as a result of my father's exposure to agent orange i was born with multiple problems . i was missing my leg and my fingers and my big toe on my right foot i use my hands a lot in my artwork i find myself drawing my hands quite a bit to me. where my hands you know just as if anyone would. but they do tell a story they tell us story of. oxygen.