Former captain of the Russian national team and head of the Russian Football Union (RFU) project office for sustainable development Alexei Smertin told that he studied in UEFA’s MIP program and graduated.
The UEFA MIP training program is designed to give former national team players the knowledge they need to use their experience in administrative work.
– We probably have the most unhappy group (laughs). Due to the pandemic, they could not unlearn in a short time and have only completed their studies now – on Wednesday they received diplomas from the hands of the UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin . I have been to the hall where UEFA draws take place several times, but today is a different story – related to education. And it was very exciting.
The book I “wrote” for three years can now be closed and put on the shelf with other awards, Smertin told with a smile.
– Is the awarding of a diploma comparable to the awarding of a cup to win a football tournament?
– Partly yes. Cutting is a vertical career, and a degree is more horizontal. I consider the end of training as an achievement for me, another victory.
– Who else among the Russians, besides you and Arshavin, was trained?
— Dmitry Bulykin , but he was on the previous stream (graduated in 2019 – about “”). Our naming group turned out to be very powerful – Didier drogba , Emile Heskey, Kaka, Julio Cesar, Maurice Foltz, Aaron Hughes, Rio Mavuba and many more. They are top players who didn’t want to be coaches, but chose the managerial route.
– What gives this diploma?
– Drogba, for example, studied to become president of the Ivorian Football Federation. Yes, he did not win the elections, but knowledge in the field of management and management will certainly be useful in the future. This course is similar to a master’s, an MBA, a Master’s! There is simply nothing higher at UEFA. It seems to me that no other sports ground offers such training as this UEFA MIP program.
– What was the hardest part of your training?
— Coronavirus restrictions and associated logistical difficulties. Instead of just over a year, we studied for three. But it’s good that they waited for us, and we finally finished this difficult path.
It was not easy to fly to Miami, I did not arrive in England due to difficulties in obtaining a visa. And here Arshavin was luckier – he had a visa. As a result, I had to finish my studies with the fourth track, but I graduated with my group. For me it was very important.
In the room at the solemn ceremony was also the former general manager of the Italian Football Federation Michele Uva. He is currently responsible for UEFA’s sustainability department. Earlier, I was invited to Coverciano for the UEFA Football and Social Responsibility conference. Representatives of UEFA’s 55 European member associations took part.
Today, UEFA requires every association to have a strategy, a sustainability structure and its leader, and this is not yet the case everywhere, as they will only become mandatory from next year. The RFU, speaking in football language, plays in the vanguard, has been working in this direction for several years. In three years, we managed to form a department, write a strategy, and in Russia all this is already working, living and producing results.
A few weeks ago I spoke to Coverciano in front of my colleagues and Uva, they all warmly accepted my report and noted our work. The RFU has really done a lot for sustainability and social responsibility. It’s good that UEFA really appreciates how far we’ve come.
Imagine, my project has been implemented in the activities of the RFU for three years. And I am delighted that it is already implemented in practice, while colleagues have just presented their future projects. Football is a phenomenon, an important social tool, it allows children with disabilities to integrate into a large friendly family all over the world. And we are doing everything in our power for that.
Smertin retired from big football in 2008. In 2010-2011 he played beach football. As part of Chelsea, the Russian became champion of England and holder of the English League Cup, won the French League Cup with Bordeaux and the Russian Cup with Lokomotiv. As part of the Lokomotiv range, he became a double champion of Russia.
Source : MatchTV
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