“To be honest about the first season, I wanted to win the Gagarin Cup.” Interview with the general director leaving Lada

In the 2023/24 season, Togliatti Lada returned to the Kontinental Hockey League and immediately entered the playoffs. This season, the team is also part of the coveted eight in the East, but changes will soon take place in the club’s management. The governor of the Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, has already announced the departure of general director Alexander Chebotarev.

In an interview with , the head of the KHL club talked about his upcoming departure, summarized his work at Lada, the resignation of Oleg Bratash and the chances of Pavel Zubov to remain head coach, and described in detail the salary debt situation. , which were quickly amortized with the help of the regional authorities.

—The governor said you were leaving your post. Has this already happened?

– No. I still work at the club because I have to prepare for the handover of the position to a successor.

— So there is no specific date for your departure?

– No. There was an instruction to prepare everything qualitatively and hand it over to a new person.

— Is the new general director already known?

– No for me. This was not announced yesterday.

— How did you perceive the decision of the head of the region?

– GOOD. For me, it was expected, because at least twice I requested dismissal. And besides, Vyacheslav Andreevich announced that I was leaving Lada due to a transfer to another job.

— Do you stay sporty?

– Yes.

— In the Samara region or are you moving somewhere?

— I will not answer this question for the moment.

— What led you to write your first and second resignation letters?

— I understood that I had given everything I could to the club and that I had to continue to develop. I had such thoughts.

— You have been working at Lada for a long time, you managed to return the club to the KHL, which fans had dreamed of for so long. One of the main achievements?

– Probably yes. I arrived in 2021, when the club was still playing in the Major League and did not reach the playoffs. And in the next two seasons we achieved a good result, which we did not have 9 years before. Then there was a complicated procedure for admitting the club to the KHL and, as a result, Lada was accepted into the league, where she successfully played last season and became its discovery. I am convinced that Lada also has every chance of reaching the playoffs of this championship.

— What did you fail to do during your work, what do you regret?

“It’s a shame that we couldn’t attract interesting sponsors, which would have allowed us to avoid salary delays.” Our shortlist included some interesting and high quality players, who unfortunately were unable to sign. So if I could implement these two points, I would rate this work as wonderful.

And to be honest about the first season, I wanted to win the Gagarin Cup (laughs).

— A bad leader is one who does not dream of the main KHL trophy.

– Accept.

***

— Is it difficult to look for flagship sponsors when your club does not play in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Kazan? I’m not talking about partners who are ready to invest several hundred thousand rubles a year in Lada.

– You look at the root and you are absolutely right. Yes, we find small amounts in the region; we were able to increase the flow of sponsorship funds from companies that donate a million to a million and a half. The amount of funds collected increased fivefold. But finding a strategic partner capable of transferring a substantial tranche, as our general sponsor AvtoVAZ does, is already a problem.

In the Samara region there are companies that, thanks to their financial capabilities, can participate in financing the club. And here the level of treatment should not be lower, in my opinion, than that of senior officials.

— At the level of the governor’s office?

– Absolutely right. And yesterday the governor just said they were negotiating. The scale of communication with large companies should therefore be such that, unfortunately, the weight of the general director of a professional sports club is not enough here to provide arguments why the company should cooperate with us.

— The head of the region has already declared that the budget of professional clubs will be redirected from budgetary financing to that of businesses. Does this allow you to be sure that everything will be fine at Lada?

– Yes. And from the words of Vyacheslav Andreyevich, I conclude that the negotiation process is underway. I want to believe that this will succeed.

It has already been explained to us that there will be a gradual process of replacing budgetary funds with sponsorship funds. This is part of the vector for the development of professional sport, defined by Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in 2016 during a forum in Vladimir.

***

—Would it be difficult to part with Bratash?

“It is always difficult for me to make the decision to part ways with people with whom I have worked side by side for quite a long time. This period was absolutely fruitful.

We parted warmly, talked with him for about an hour, figured everything out. I have heard many flattering things about me as a leader. Oleg Vladimirovich said that he felt very comfortable working at the club, that’s why there was a result. I am sure that this is not a deception, because there was no point in flattering the person, since he had already been fired, with documents in hand, as they say.

“It is clear from his comments that the decision to resign is not yours.

— Let’s do this: there is a decision of the club, as a party to the employment contract. Oleg Vladimirovich accepted the situation as it is. As I understand it, three or four days after the breakup, he left all his belongings and rented accommodation and went to Moscow to join his family.

— The question of the new head coach, if I understand correctly, will already be located in the plan of the new general director?

– RIGHT. Although the team was coached on an interim basis by Pavel Zubov, his candidacy was agreed with the management and everyone was happy with it. Everything else will be the responsibility of the new general director and the supervisory board, which operates in the club in accordance with the charter.

— Are there any options in which Zubov would be confirmed as head coach?

– Certainly. The result is the main criterion for evaluating the work of a coach. Despite the fact that Pavel Vladimirovich was part of the coaching team of Oleg Vladimirovich Bratash, he has his own vision of hockey, with him the training process and the requirements of the players change. It takes time to bring your ideas to life and the team must get used to the new requirements. This explains our recent defeats.

I think that as soon as everything improves and the results appear, no one will insist on changing the head coach, because the main thing we are working for is the result. It is important that Zubov graduated from Togliatti hockey, he is a fairly young coach who has some experience in the profession. His work will definitely be seen.

From what I see now, the person is completely immersed in their work and dedicated to it. I see a response from the team regarding Zubov. I always look at things with optimism and am confident that everything will turn out well.

***

— After rumors emerged that Lada was in salary arrears, you quickly confirmed the information in a comment on . Usually such statements are not much encouraged at the top. Has anyone complained to you about this?

— You know, the KHL already knew the debt information, because we provide a financial report when executing the budget declared to the league. We just have to point it out. And it would be a mistake to hide your debts when asked a direct question, especially in the age of technology.

We see that today figures on contracts and transactions are leaked in the press and on Telegram channels, sometimes they are true. Wriggling like a frying pan is not my level of action and work, so it will cost me more to deceive the public. It is better to tell the truth, whatever it may be, than to lie, and in a few hours they will present you with exactly the opposite data.

— It seems that Fedorishchev was very surprised at the meeting of the government of the Samara region when he learned about the debts. And he immediately demanded to understand the situation and solve your problem.

“It was probably a surprise to the governor.” It could not be otherwise since I did not inform him directly of the debts. And when he learned about the situation at the meeting, he set himself the task of immediately closing the debts. Moreover, the money was paid within three days of the government meeting, even before the date communicated to us. Instead of November 18, we closed the debts on the 15th.

But I had no malicious intent in hiding information from the head of the region, because it was already in the public domain. Your colleague called me and asked me a direct question, I had to answer him: wait, I’m going to take a break, notify my manager, and then shall we talk?

— In a football club, despite constant debts, management says everything is going well. And at the same time, they regularly close the registrations of newcomers. This is how they live.

– This is abnormal and unprofessional. Not because people don’t have the skills, but because if there isn’t enough money, then, in my opinion, there is no need to deceive anyone, but to to live within one’s means, to play where there is enough money.

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