33 most influential people in Russian football. Part 3

11. Dmitry Mednikov

Executive producer of VGTRK broadcasting company, chief editor of Russia 2 TV channel

Dmitry Mednikov is the man who decides what football will be shown on most TV sets in Russia. Having taken charge of the main federal sports channel last year, Mednikov got down to its dynamic reshaping. He won the tender to broadcast the English Premier League, stole national team’s guest matches from the country’s most widespread Pervyi Kanal, and nearly succeeded in persuading famous commentator Vasily Utkin to leave NTV-Plus for Mednikov’s channel. Mednikov steps into the new season having the right to choose and broadcast two games on every matchday of the Russian Premier League and having given a shelter to the matches of the newborn FNL (the reformed second tier of Russian football). The performance of the young executive (Mednikov will soon celebrate his 31th birthday) could be called a complete breakthrough, if Russia 2 did not completely shy away from criticizing the football authorities.

10. Suleiman Kerimov

Owner of Anzhi Makhachkala

Kerimov is the richest of all the Russian Premier League clubs owners. When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, his wealth according to the data available then, was less than Kerimov’s assets are now. In the early 2000’s Suleiman Abusaidovich almost arranged a deal to buy top-divison Saturn Ramenskoe (as a part of his oil company’s expansion into the Moscow Region). The deal was worth about $60m, but fell through at the very last moment. Kerimov has already brought one World Cup winner to Russia (Roberto Carlos) and is said to be close to bringing another one (Gennaro Gattuso), but still nobody knows how far the Anzhi owner’s footballing ambitions go.

9. Andrey Arshavin

Midfielder of the national team and Arsenal

Arshavin is only person in the topmost part of this ranking, who got there due to his ability to play football – and who stays there mostly for the same reason. Despite the reduced playing time at Arsenal, the mismatch between his condition and the status of the national team’s captain, and his lackluster cheeks in the matches under Dick Advocaat, Arshavin is still more talented and popular than any other Russian player. He also did convert a part of his talent into social status: Arshavin talks about his childhood at the presentation of the Russian 2018 World Cup bid, Arshavin speaks on behalf of the national team disapproving of Welliton’s naturalization, Arshavin is invited to the Mikhail Gorbachev’s anniversary and to the Pancake Day in London. After all he is the one to be named Russia’s sportsman of the year for the third time in a row.

8. Leonid Fedun

Owner of Spartak Moscow

During his seven years at Spartak Leonid Fedun has won no silverware, but has returned to the club the symbols of its’ «almighty nineties»: Valery Karpin, Oleg Romantsev, and Andrey Tikhonov. The top manager of Lukoil has brought some kind of order in Spartak’s transfer policy by stopping the flow of dubious players from Africa and Eastern Europe, and has declared himself to care about the strategic development of Russian football. Fedun was not the main, although quite an active lobbyist for the league’s transition to «spring-autumn» tournaments. He also calls upon the clubs to cut down the race of enormous salaries in the League – the race he provoked himself by promising Fernando Cavenaghi $1.5m a year.

7. Ramzan Kadyrov

Head of the Chechen Republic, president of Terek Grozny

A master of sports in boxing and perhaps the most influential of all regional politicians of Russia, Kadyrov has very wide acquaintanceship and power in Russian football. He is even able to arrange the outcome of some matches – and is said to have done so. Kadyrov impresses some of the renowned football stars so much, that they agree to coach his Terek and even play against the team of his friends (as the Brazilian winners of World Cup-2002 did this September). Scoring in this match more goals than Romario did is an achievement that very few football people can boast of.

6. Valery Mutko

Minister of sports of Russia

Despite his forced resignation from the presidency in the Russian FA, he remains a big man in Russian football. He has made a considerable contribution into the victory of the Russian bid for the World Cup 2018. His «Letz mi spick fromm mai hart» speech at the bid’s presentation has become an inexhaustible source for jokes, parodies, and even ringtones. Vladimir Putin has charged Mutko with the supervision of the World Cup preparations, which means that the football weight of the sports minister is not going to decrease. However, the confrontation with Sergey Fursenko, the current president of the Russian FA, could negatively affect Mutko’s position. Or maybe Fursenko’s one.

5. Evgeny Giner

Owner of CSKA Moscow

The past 10 years have seen three different presidents of the Russian FA, but the position of Evgeny Giner in the football hierarchy remains consistently high for all these years. Sometimes he is the football authorities himself, sometimes he replaces them, sometimes he is the right hand of the football authorities, be it Koloskov, Mutko, Pryadkin, Fursenko, Abramovich or anyone else. And the fact is that if he hadn’t harped on the same tune for years about the «autumn-spring» system, this project would have been thrown away together with all eccentric ideas like the merger of the Russian and the Ukrainian leagues.

4. Roman Abramovich

Owner of Chelsea

Roman Abramovich is the sponsor of the National Football Academy, of the Russian bid for hosting the 2018 World Cup, and of Guus Hiddink personally (when the latter worked with the Russian national team). Abramovich has become a role model for many Russian billionaires and millionaires – they would never invest so much money in football clubs from Mahachkala and Krasnodar to Portsmouth and Venice, if he had not flabbergasted the football world with his purchase of Chelsea.

3. Sergei Fursenko

President of the Russian Football Union

The first pronounced ideologist in the chair of Russian FA president after a series of practitioners. Sergei Fursenko’s reign began with a promise to win the World Cup and the acquisition of a pricey coach for the national team. He also composed the Code of Honor of Russian football, shifted the seasons to «autumn-spring» system, obtained the 2018 World Cup (although his role here seems to have been not so large), and flooded the FA with some peculiar people. Fursenko’s projects don’t always seem to be reasonable, but there is no doubt that the president can shake up the Russian football in order to put them into practice.

2. Alexey Miller

Chairman of the Board of Gazprom

On the one hand, Miller drives a car painted in Zenit’s colours, reads Zenit’s fansite, and fraternizes with the fans while celebrating the title in the streets of St. Petersburg. On the other hand, he takes Zenit into the top-5 of the most spendthrift clubs in Europe, is in charge of Gazprom Arena construction and approves its name, is the vice-president of the Russian FA, and is attends the talks about the sale of broadcasting rights for the Premier League games. To cut a long story short, Miller is involved in all major initiatives in the country’s football and manages both its richest company and richest club.

1. Vladimir Putin

The Prime Minister of Russia

Life in Russia is arranged in such a way today that it is impossible to imagine any ranking of influence whatsoever, in which Vladimir Putin would not take the first place.

by Ivan Kalashnikov, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Dmitry Navosha, Denis Romantsov, Yuri Dud, and Alexey Belov

You can read the first part of the ranking here and its second part here.