Football factory: how the First League club stopped being afraid and took on the youth

Usually all domestic clubs are the same – they squander the money of the owners, select free agents, sign short-term contracts. And everyone unanimously says: “Football business in Ukraine is impossible, are you out of your mind? Where did you see a Ukrainian football player worth anything? No, there is simply no other way than the support of charitable patrons.”

The club we are talking about now refutes this mantra from those who are too lazy to deal with the development of football clubs, but simply master the budgets. In fact, Flint is one of the few attempts to set an example of a healthy club in practice. He could have continued to use the crumbs from the city budget, but he became private – and commendably began to work on the development and monetization of his own talents. Sport Arena tells about an interesting project in Ukrainian football.

Municipal club that (forcedly) became private

Once upon a time there was Flint, who even played in the Major League. However, it went bankrupt and ceased to exist. Only in the mid-2000s, the city authorities decided to revive these football traditions. MFK Kremen has been looking for a way up for a long time – several times even went to the play-offs for promotion to the First League, but for a long time could not achieve this.

And the team was not bad – we won’t surprise you if we say that it was from here that Chichikov and Bezus came out – the brightest city stars of modern times, and in different years such players as Kunev, Klimov, Kozlov, Batsula were considered tops in PFL competitions and collected personal awards.

It seemed that IFC Kremin is developing predictably. When the team reached Dynamo in the Ukrainian Cup, there was such a hype for the match against Semin’s wards that an additional stand had to be installed at Kremen-Arena before the Kiev team’s visit. Local stadiums were evenly repaired, the surface was re-paved, and the administrative building was repaired.

Smiling and beloved by the people, Mayor Oleg Babaev spoke to the fans, promising new successes of Kremn, and soon he was shot dead. This ruined the great ambitions of Vorskla and the hopes of the Kremenchug club to return to the previous high level. And the city of Kremenchuk deserved it almost more than the regional center. At all times, more people went to football here than in Poltava, and now the question was whether the club would survive.

First he broadcast their matches, and then he became their president

The greatest crisis covered the IFC Kremen in that ill-fated season, when many clubs were on the verge of their existence. The city authorities no longer had funds for professional football, the club gave an SOS signal. Suddenly, an investor was found who, in order to save the club, took over the financing of Flint a few months earlier than planned.

It was a local businessman Sergey Kovnir. He has a fairly branched and diverse business – the production of bitumen, the chemical industry, fuel, and the auto business. And one more TV company, which carried out, in particular, broadcasts of sporting events. Having “filled his hand” on live screenings of matches of Kremen itself, Kremen-TV undertook to fill the niche of budget live events in various forms.

The rapid development of the market helped a lot – after all, the PFL and other sports organizations began to prescribe a mandatory requirement for live broadcasts in the regulations, and this is where Kovnir’s company caught the opportunity to realize itself. Stable jobs were created, the company subsequently broadcast various events in various sports. It all started with Flint.

FC Kremen, which he became under the leadership of Kovnir, immediately made a knight’s move – he invited the legend of Dynamo and the Ukrainian team Oleksandr Golovko to the head coach. Although in the opening round Kremin sensationally defeated one of the main favorites of the season, Volyn, in Lutsk, the season as a whole turned out to be mediocre for the team. Kovnir also studied – the club exceeded the planned budget, so already in the spring Golovko did not have the funds to fully realize his ideas.

Godin, Svistun, Stolovitsky – the club has been looking for its coach and philosophy for a long time. Until October 27, 2021, he appointed former striker Roman Loktionov, who quite recently (in parallel with playing for the LNZ) began to work with the Kremen-Junior team. He lost all 5 matches before the early stop of the 2021/22 season, but what Laktionov did later showed that Kremen was not mistaken with him.

Moneyball (and that’s not a swear word)

Roman Lokitonov was a solid forward and won the Cup of Ukraine with Vorskla, collected PFL medals with Alexandria and Alchevsk Steel. But what kind of coach did he become? Whoever judged purely by the results could have “sheathed” Loktionov back in the fall of 2021, when Kremen lost five matches in a row. But Roman had something that the elders did not have – the desire to learn and develop.

He himself built a team around young players – gradually, but surely, he removed seasoned players, for whom a small bet is not motivation. Loktionov searched very deeply – he took the guys from the regional championships to watch, with a pause in his career. He didn’t care what form the player was in now – he looked at his talents and skills, looking at what he would become in the future.

For example, a pupil of Zori Azizov played in the championship of Kharkiv region. He was rejected in several clubs of the Second League, Loktionov was not afraid to take him to the First. A year later, Davronbek earned the attention of Vernydub with this coach and this summer he went to see Kryvbas. Or another flank defender – Agapov. Not a bad school, but after Dawn’s double he either played or didn’t play. VPK-Agro generally kept him in rotation, FC Kramatorsk gradually allowed him to the base. In Kremen, the guy revealed himself in such a way that he deserved interest from the UPL.

Yermolov, Panchishin, Vivdich, Sidorenko, Arkusha, Kalchuk, Matveev, Galata, Falkovsky, Savitsky, Globa, Kireev… Flint pulled them all up to a good level. Here, young players are systematically developed and sold, they have received a pyramid and are building a team that plays according to common principles, philosophy and tactics. That is why, even losing the main players, Lokitonov finds ways to replace them.

Of course, the systematic work of a thoughtful coach could not fail to produce results. Capable 22-year-old goalkeeper Daniil Yermolov showed promise in Kamensk Stal and Volyn, was a reservist for Mekhaniv in Ternopil Niva. Flint pumped a tall, stately young player so that Metalist himself took him on a paid (!) loan. I could not redeem because of the moments associated with the player’s representatives and different estimates of the cost. But Vorskla turned up here – Transfermarkt assures that the main team of the region paid 50 thousand euros to its former farm club.

Midfielder Daniil Falkovsky passed Zirka, but could not break into adult football. Flint helped. A year later, in the team of the ex-striker Zvezda Lokitonov, this player has grown to the offer of the Zaporozhye Metallurgist. Zabivny, albeit a traumatic striker Denis Galata was under the nose of Vorskla, but now he has moved to the same club. Both are on a commercial basis, besides, according to certain data, Flint will claim a certain percentage of the subsequent sales of its players.

21-year-old midfielder Kirill Matveev showed promise in SC Dnepr-1, together with Rubchinsky played for FC Nikopol. Flint picked it up a year ago, quickly adapted it, and now this center has been acquired by the Carpathians. The official amount is not called, but they assure that it is even more than that of the three predecessors.

And this is just a year of FC Kremin’s work in its current format. Probably, there is not a single young coach in the lower leagues who would work with youth as coolly as Loktionov. On a par with Ternopil’s Niva, Kremen is the largest seller in modern PFL.

Flint is not Porto, they are only learning

Of course, do not think: we are not going to just praise Flint. Not all of them are so good. For example, the team does not have its own stadium with a natural grass surface. They play and train on synthetics. And this is not very good even for artificial lawns of the most modern generation, to say nothing of the synthetics available in our country. Hence the increased injuries among the players. More than once, oh, more than once, the artificial field of the Kremen-Arena caused difficulties for football players who play and train on synthetics, and then go all the time to go to the grassy turf.

Every player will tell you how hard it is. Even if you are another team that needs to come to Kremenchuk once a season. And how do the players of Flint feel, who play on plastic one round, and go on grass the next? Unfortunately, from time to time this leads to damage, and over the course of several seasons, to faster deterioration of the body.

In better times, Kremenchuk hoped to repair one of the city stadiums, because once there was a Major League team in the city, there are such arenas. Now, during the war, all these projects are on pause. And you need to play now. At least take it – ask for the neighboring Horishni Plavni, where the traditionally high quality of the grass field of the Yunost stadium …

While it is difficult for the club to retain its leading players. Bezus, Batsula, Koshman, Kozlov, Kunev, Kurelekh, Lepa, Chichikov, Chuvaev left Kremenchug. Every year, new and new talents come out of the local youth sports schools – and not everyone, like Galata, manages to return to the first club team in time. While Flint is in the First League, while he has no U-19s, keeping the best pupils is a difficult test.

In order not to fade those who have talent, but are now significantly inferior to the older players of the first club team, said Flint-2 in the Second League. The results are not impressive – but for guys like goalkeeper Oksenenko, midfielders Molko and Pyatibrat, forward Vivdic, the reserve team will definitely play their good role. Buzovskaya Niva is the leader and early champion of the second league. You know what? Flint-2 managed to take away points from her, and the listed guys (most of them) looked more than worthy against the background of an experienced opponent.

So, is there anything good ahead? I would like to hope. We are not saying that Flint is super in everything and will definitely achieve what he wants. But thanks for trying. An interesting case of the Kremenchug club is already worth studying and analyzing.

Dmitry Antonenko, Sport Arena