The hat is not for a small Zenith's head... Why the most expensive club in the country lost again in disgrace

An unpleasant, but quite expected event happened in Russian football: all three clubs playing in the prestigious European Champions League lost their matches. But the main thing is not even the losses, since both Krasnodar and Moscow Lokomotiv still tried to give a fight to their much more eminent rivals London Chelsea and Munich Bayern, but the game of the champion of Russia, St. Petersburg Zenit against Dortmund Borussia angered both fans and specialists.

“Borussia” had two chances in half a time. The "bus" at the gate of Kerzhakov was parked a noble, the guests began to meet the owners at the border of their third of the field. It was unbearable to look at it, but the desired 0: 0 brought. But Zenit with zero shots on target is some kind of total darkness. Polar night...",- this is how the famous sports journalist and writer Igor Rabiner commented on the outcome.

His colleagues were equally outraged:

“As for the Zenit - Borussia match, Semak (the St. Petersburg coach) chose the wrong tactics. You don't have to go far for examples. Everyone saw how Lokomotiv played against Bayern, the key word here is PLAYING. Krasnodar was not far behind, but they fell in the second half and started conceding, but the bulls also had no one to strengthen the game. Right there, Zenit has a long bench and, it would seem, more qualified players.

Cowardly tactics do not lead to anything good. It is better to lose 4-0 as Krasnodar, but look worthy than as Zenit named after Semak, to lose 0-2, but present nothing on the field. And they didn't even play against the best club in the world (Bayern Munich) or against one of the most expensive ones (Chelsea). With not the worst selection of players, sitting in your own penalty area for 88 minutes - well, you need to be able to! And this is the national champion and the first basket. There will be no such gifts next year. Zenit in Dortmund looked like Ufa, which shows the real level of Semak as a coach... ", - writes the columnist for the sports channel Valeraverim! (we believe to Valera!)

Sports journalist Maxim Allanazarov, who called third-rate Russian clubs in Europe and the level of Russian football itself is so low that a miracle should not have been expected:

“The Russian hegemon“ Zenith ”already in the 2nd round of the Champions League practically loses its chances of qualifying from the group and turns out to be uncompetitive in comparison with its rivals. The share of the last two victories in the Russian championship today does not allow the leader of our football to count on the Champions League playoffs. We are degrading, this is especially noticeable even against the background of not the most popular European teams. The last time Zenit left the group in the Champions League was five years ago.

Our football today is at such a level that we praise Lokomotiv for the defeat (!) From Bayern, which was not big. We will rejoice indefinitely and celebrate in years the round dates of those few goals of our guys in the European teams. We will endlessly discuss the possibility of the departure of the leaders of our national team to Europe and follow their every step as the most interesting series. Unfortunately, the Russian football fan today is a man of the third class, forced to be content with the little that is available to him on the European stage ... "

Allanazarov's colleague Dmitry Girin also believes that “there is nothing surprising in defeats to clubs from Germany and England. If you look at it, over the past four years we have accumulated on average one victory at all in the group stage in matches with the European elite..."

Here it is necessary to note just such an important detail. Russian football, as well as almost everything in our country, is a unique phenomenon: with the exception of two (!) Clubs - Moscow Spartak and Krasnodar - all the rest are either fully funded by the state budget or partially. And at the same time, the salaries of football players are among the highest in the world! That is, the citizens of the country pay them out of their own pockets! This, perhaps, is not found in any other country in the world!

This, among other things, also testifies to the true extent of the popularity of "sport number one" in the country: it is very low. Stadiums are often empty, with the exception of the so-called "derbies". And contrary to the aspirations of the authorities, the 2018 World Cup did not affect the popularity of football in any way. So why is all this necessary, since Russian citizens do not like football? Why should they pay for it? They have nowhere to put more money?

This is what people think about this, although they are far from big sports, but sincerely do not understand why the state spends so much money on useless sports projects. Journalist Pavel Pryanikov writes:

“And Zenit lost away to Borussia Dortmund 0-2, the second defeat of a Russian club in the Champions League. Gazprom, or more precisely, the Russian government should think about whether these expenditures of the state concern on Zenit at $ 200-300 million a year (15-20 billion rubles) are needed? Moreover, in the era of covid, when not only ordinary people begin to save on everything, but also sequester budgets. In general, the world refuses luxury and conspicuous overconsumption. At least half of these 15-20 billion rubles would have been better spent on ventilators..."

Another journalist, Dmitry Ponomarev, echoes him:

“All this extra-budgetary sport should be ended as soon as possible in Russia. "Stretch your legs over your clothes". Clubs earn almost nothing and usually feed directly or indirectly from the state budget (like Zenit - from Gazprom, and Lokomotiv - from Russian Railways) or raw materials companies (Spartak). By the most conservative estimates, only $ 1-1.5 billion a year are spent on top clubs in team sports in Russia. There is where to spend this $ 1-1.5 billion (70-100 billion rubles per year): in each regional center, build a modern indoor pool for ordinary people. Poles or Czechs do not worry that they do not have top football clubs, although these countries are 1.5-2 times richer than Russia in per capita GDP..."