"If the organizers show their will, the idea of a boycott of the games with Russia will be quickly forgotten"

The Russian national team will play a friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago on June 9, after which our football will finally go into the offseason, which will be very delayed due to the World Cup. There will be a pause between the seasons for almost two months. In an interview with Izvestia, Alexander Alaev, president of the Russian Premier League (RPL), explained why this break could not be shortened, told what alternative options the clubs were considering with the geography of winter training camps in case the traditional venues in the UAE and Qatar would disappear due to a new round of escalation in the Middle East, and also assessed the change in sentiment. In UEFA, he commented on the triumph of goalkeeper Matvey Safonov, who won the Champions League with the French PSG.

"The RPL Winter Cup may be held in a new location"

— Due to the World Cup, there has been a pause between seasons for almost two months this year - the last one ended on May 24, and the new one will begin on July 18. Is there at least a theoretical possibility not to follow FIFA's requirements and fill this time with additional football events for fans?

— Well, how can this be done? Firstly, this is the FIFA calendar, and the RFU is still a member of FIFA even with the suspension of our teams. Accordingly, the RPL, as the organization to which the RFU delegates the rights to host the Russian Championship, is also subject to FIFA regulations regarding the calendar. I don't see that possibility at the moment.

— Is it a problem that we won't have any football at the club level for about two months, except for the test matches at the training camp?

— The problem is that we had to finish the season very early. It's really a problem that the RPL finished the championship on May 17th, although it usually finishes at the end of the month. And this is at a time when, as a rule, the weather is good, in which it is comfortable to hold decisive matches. But there are FIFA rules according to which national teams must have players at their disposal on strictly defined dates, and although Russia will not play at the World Cup, a number of other national teams have foreign players from RPL clubs. And they must be at the location of their national teams within the time limits prescribed by FIFA. Therefore, the Premier League teams had to finish earlier, play midweek (rounds in the middle of the week, with intervals of three to four days with weekend rounds. — Ed.).

— Even in theory, is it impossible to imagine holding matches in parallel with the World Cup or next to its dates, as the NHL and KHL do in hockey?

— Well, again, look at how many players from the RPL are now in the final bids of their national teams for the World Cup. Douglas Santos and Luis Enrique went to the Brazilian national team from Zenit. John Cordoba went from Krasnodar to the Colombian national team and Kevin Lenini to Cape Verde. And I have listed only those clubs that fought for the championship. How, for example, would the last rounds of last season or the first rounds of the future go without them?

— Sometime in 1986, Dynamo Kyiv sent its head coach and 10 players to the USSR national team for the World Cup. The Union Championship was not interrupted, Kiev played with the second team and still took the gold.

— I think it's unrealistic now.

— You recently stated that there are plans to hold the RPL Winter Cup again early next year during a pause in the championship. Are there any concerns that it will be unsafe again in the Emirates, where it was previously held?

— Therefore, we are considering an alternative option where to conduct it. I won't get ahead of myself and say the place yet. But this is a neighboring continent.

— Have you discussed alternative winter camp locations with the clubs in case of a new escalation in the Middle East?

— We held a meeting on this topic. I won't tell you which clubs and which of their employees are already traveling to see new places and new countries. But backup options are already being worked out.

"Which ones?"

— Africa. Therefore, if we return to the question of the Winter Cup, then we still keep Abu Dhabi in mind as a basic option. And the clubs that used to prepare there in the winter are mainly considering the Emirates as fees. We hope that force majeure will not happen. Moreover, as we can see, flights there have already been restored. But we are considering alternative options.

"We will learn from PSG to shoot penalties"

Football player Konstantin Tyukavin — about Safonov's triumph in the Champions League, the return to Dynamo of his beloved coach and the newcomer of the Russian national team

"Tension in relations with European colleagues has decreased"

— In the summer of 2023, you were appointed Deputy Chairman of the Stadium and Security Committee at UEFA. Do you expect your term of office to be extended in a year?

— In any case, I'm not going to leave it. The work there is interesting, this committee is one of the most important in UEFA. Indeed, his work is synchronized with the terms of office of the president of the organization, whose elections will take place in 2027. Accordingly, the committee will be reassigned at the same time. If I am trusted to continue working in it, then I will gladly accept this offer.

— Do you feel a change in the attitude of European colleagues towards Russia and a movement towards the admission of our teams?

— I'm going to be very careful in the wording now. The topic is very delicate and complex. But, remembering my first visits to UEFA events after February 2022 and comparing it with what has been happening recently, the tension has decreased. Personally, I feel that the dialogue, at least at the level of the committee in which I work, is becoming more and more productive.

— Is there a risk of a boycott by individual rivals if Russian clubs return to European competitions?

— Naturally, there are such concerns. But for me, as the organizer of the competition, it is obvious that if the organization allows a team to enter the tournament and one of the opponents does not want to play with it, then this opponent gets a technical defeat.

— But wasn't this logic refuted in 2022, when Poland refused to play with Russia, and sanctions followed specifically against our national team?

— It seems to me that if the organizers make a decision and show their will, everything will fall into place and the ideas of the boycott will be quickly forgotten.

— What emotions do you feel from Matvey Safonov's victory in the Champions League as PSG's main goalkeeper?

— The fact that Matvey became a two-time winner of the Champions League, the fact that he won the second of these trophies as the main goalkeeper, winning a tough competition for the place of PSG's number one, the way he heroically won a penalty shootout in the Intercontinental Cup, deflecting four eleven-meter shots... These are great achievements that we are all proud of. It is important that many boys saw his example as an excuse to go to the football sections. And he does a lot as an ambassador of the Premier League, popularizing our football, doing a lot for other guys who will go to Europe in the future.

Favorable Safonov: Russian goalkeeper wins Champions League with PSG

Matvey took the main European club trophy again, now in the main squad.

— Do you feel the merit of the RPL in its success?

— This is primarily the merit of Matvey himself, the Krasnodar football club, the Krasnodar Academy, all the coaches of the club system and personally Sergey Nikolaevich Galitsky. But there is also a certain contribution from the clubs with which Safonov competed, and the league in which he played. All this together created an environment that allowed him to reach a level where such a European grandee as PSG was seriously interested in him.