Sergey Shishkarev: “WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT FOR A MISTAKE”
Women’s World Championship, which started on Saturday in Denmark with the victory of the Russian team over the Olympic Champions, may be the very event after which they finally stop asking the President of the Handball Federation of Russia: why do you need handball?
– When you came to the handball there was already said and written a lot. So I will ask you about something else: what was the most surprising for you in things that you had to face in last seven months?
– People are paid a salary – 30 thousand rubles a month and do not even say that it does not suit them. And everybody found some parallel sources of income long ago. I repaid all debts of the Federation, raised wages by several times, but I said: if I find out that someone stole somewhere any money, he will have only two choices: either to resign, or to be under a criminal case. While I am not going to dwell upon what it was before I came and to rake up old history.
The problem is that there is a sort of people who think it is acceptable to “peck” from the work they do. But I think initially you need to respect people and pay them well for their work. Only then you can demand something from them. But it is unacceptable to play a role of “a rat in the meat processing plant” while working with me. I fire people for such things immediately – without the soul-saving conversations. Stealing is not good at all. But twice is not good, as I like to joke, to steal from a private owner. He pays taxes out of his money.
– You casually mentioned about the debts and salaries, but you had to get this money somewhere? Who provided you with a financial support?
– The first money I had to invest was my personal. I even gave the loans as a private individual until we built the structure legally. It seemed to me that I came on a scorched field.
It was impossible to find any documents or anything. They could not do even a basic sponsorship package: any potential partner can be attracted just by two things: a clear internal organization and the result.
All who helps us now are people of my connections and my acquaintances – I cannot tell you how much I am grateful for their support. Although I have to convince them that there will be the result.
Now my company Delo Group is the main partner and sponsor of the Federation. But it is clear for me that my company should not spend all the money on sports because its President suddenly wanted to “play handball”.
– Any sane shareholder of your company, I think, is just obliged to say these words out loud sooner or later.
– I am also the shareholder. So, I always keep in mind that you need to separate business and sports. Besides, I am quite aware that when I invest somewhere my own money, in some sense, I take them from my family, my children.
POLITICS IS NOT MY THING
– We are still back to where we started. How could you in your right mind agree to such a dubious venture?
– Here, perhaps, we need a background. At the time I worked professionally in politics. In the late 90s was twice elected to the State Duma in single mandate constituency, as you can probably imagine how difficult it was to win in seven districts of the Krasnodar region, where I worked against enormous Communist machine, including the then Governor Nikolay Kondratenko, God rest his soul.
By the way, I just turned 31 years old, and for all voters I was a “new Russian”.
– Is it possible that you had a crimson jacket?
– Alas, there was no jacket – I did not catch this era. During the time that I worked in the State Duma (I headed the Committee on transport for four years there), I actually abandoned the business – completely passed the company into administration. I understood that it is pointless to cheat and dodge in this situation – sooner or later it all will become clear and you will put yourself at a risk. Then I left the Duma, and after some time, Dmitry Rogozin (Deputy Prime Minister) called me to his party “Rodina”. At first I agreed, but quickly enough I was convinced that politics is not my thing. I honestly said to Dmitry Rogozin about this. And I returned to business. The next year I was just enjoying life and work. As well as the fact that nobody loads me by any political problems.
– But meanwhile handball was creeping closer and closer?
– It sounds funny, but in fact it was so. Last summer, when we together with Mr. Rogozin were at some event in Sochi, Dmitry Olegovich suddenly began to tell me about this sport. He told me how our players performed at various competitions, how he played for the national team, about his studies at the University and how his parents insisted that he stopped his career in sport.
These conversations lasted for hours. And then, unexpectedly, Rogozin as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees asked me to lead the Federation.
– Did he put at least one clear argument in favor of your consent?
– Yes, you know. He said that at first, this is necessary for him and I am his friend. Therefore, I should help at least to put things in order with the management. And, in addition, if I fall in love with this sport and get really involved – he could only dream of it. As you understand, I found it extremely hard to counter against this argument.
And then Rogozin reassured me that, in his opinion, handball is in such position that there is nowhere to fall below for it. So, with all my desire, I will not fail the mission.
– But didn’t you want to lead something global in football, you quite actively engaged in it for many years?
– And so I did. I was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of FC “Chernomorets”. I handed my concept on the development of the RFU (Russian Football Union) to the Kremlin, when there was a “shift change” between Sergey Fursenko and Nikolay Tolstykh in the administration of our football. But it turned out that the decision had already been made. By the way, the second man, who together with Rogozin asked me to lead the Handball Federation, was Igor Levitin, the assistant for sport to the President of the Russian Federation.
– So maybe handball is just a test period.
– I do not think so. And I would not want to be taken as a temporary person.
IF THERE IS A BALLET SCHOOL IN BRASIL, WHY DON’T WE MAKE A FOOTBALL ONE?
– What is the story with the school of Brazilian football that you have created in Russia?
– I’ve got a friend, he is a diplomat and worked for many years in Brazil. And once he told me that the Chief Director of the Bolshoi Theatre Vladimir Vasilev had created the ballet school of the Bolshoi Theatre in Brazil, in the State of Santa Catarina. I have got the idea: if in Brazil there is a ballet school, why don’t we make a school of the Brazilian football in Russia? I met with Vasilev, traveled with him to Brazil, he introduced me to the Governor. I found out that that Florianopolis – the capital of the State – has its own football club. We signed the contract and started to work. In the first year we brought together boys from all over the country, held a tournament at the Luzhniki stadium, selected the best and sent them to the training camp in Brazil. In parallel I was engaged in the development of sport infrastructure in Russia – I built the stadium in Kabardinka and agreed about the children staying in the local hotels that are empty in the winter.In addition, I had a large plot of land in Naro-Fominsk, where now a very good sport base, equipped with its own hotel, classrooms, medical center, already operates. It still is not on balance of the Ministry of sports, but during the World Cup is can be used as a training place for one of the teams. The second sport base is situated at Abrau Durso lake: it has 6.5 hectares of land, four full-size soccer fields – two with artificial and two with natural grass. However, on this occasion all my friends twist fingers to their temples and say that only an inadequate person can launch such a project instead of set up private villas there.
– Are they in use now?
– Yes. “Brazilian” project lasted six years: I closed it after I stopped working in the RFU. We are going to repurpose the base for handball. I just do not have time for everything.
– Do you feel a difference – to do business or to do sports as a business?
– Yes, of course. I am in the business in total for 22 years, I have experience, the understanding how it works, resources, and it is clear where to go. That means nothing extraordinary can happen. Secondly, in business I form the team with my own hands. If I do not like the employee, I will replace him. You are in the market. In sport I can only change managers. But can’t do the same with any coaches or athletes – even if I totally do not like them. They are too few.Who am I going to replace them with? To people who think that they will work any better? This is an experiment, and we do not have the right for a mistake. The third difference is that the measure of any business is its financial success. In sport, the pure emotional thing – victory – is at the forefront. And then it may be linked to the financial component.
– Not being a handball professional, do not you feel uncomfortable thinking that you still have to make some stuff coaching reshuffle?
– Of course, I feel. Despite the fact that I consider myself a successful businessperson, and I have much to be proud of, I never take hasty decisions and never stick with one source of information – I try to see a picture of a phenomenon from all sides.Overall, I believe that I know how to get along with professionals. I do not act like Mr. Know-it-all. Perhaps such behavior causes the adequate response from the coaches. Besides, I am always interested in learning how the professionals would have acted in my place in any given situation. People like Yevgeny Trefilov, Dmitry Torgovanov, Vladimir Maximov, Andrey Lavrov.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SLEEP DURING THE HANDBALL MATCH
– Why did you start to play handball?
– To understand this sport better. I permanently play football, the last two years – tennis, sometimes I go boxing.
– I would say that handball with its physical strain and superhuman speed of the ball, perhaps is one of the most terrible sports games. It very quickly and very clearly draws the newbie all the extent of his physical misery.
– It became clear immediately, after the first training. I have well developed legs, but it did not help: even those muscles hurt that I never suspected to exist. On the other hand, the extent of my misery in tennis was much higher when I started training.Of course, I proudly told my coach that I had some playing experience; he looked for a while as I run around the court and said, “Congratulations! You don’t know anything”. But I can’t say that handball is uninteresting or strange. It is very dynamic, very forceful.By the way, when we started communication with the President of the International Handball Federation Dr. Hassan Mustafa, he said me, “You are talking about the football all the time, but say, can you fall asleep during the football match?” – It is easy.– And it is quite impossible to sleep during the handball match. Because the score of “-5” at any moment can turn into a “+2”. Handball just should be taught. Somebody should explain and demonstrate it. In late May, a week before the Champions League final I was in Cologne at the handball Final four. There were 22 thousands of fans – full hall scored to the top. Crazy show with light effects and plasma screens, with acrobats falling from the ceiling… Even the exit of each athlete to the pitch turned into a show. The mere sight caused goose bumps.In the Cologne finals, I sat down and made a calculation, you know, I have a bad habit to convert everything into numbers. Only for the first two days of the match and only on tickets, the organizers collect up to five million euros. And this is without advertising, sale of TV rights, without food and souvenirs, which are sold in the stadium. I also was surprised that half of the several thousand Spanish fans was in t-shirts with the image of Leo Messi.
– Football fans cheering for the handball? – Exactly. This is another issue. In Europe there are just two clubs – the Spanish “Barcelona” and the French “PSG”, which combine soccer, handball, volleyball and basketball. And the whole mass of the club’s fans goes to all the matches in these sports.
– Honestly, I wonder why the handball, volleyball and basketball have so few points of contact in our country. The interaction can be even at the level of coaching experience. And everybody can win from such cooperation.
– It is a question of the future. But they have already promised me to organize visits to Barcelona and Paris, to meet with management so that I could see and understand how it all works. This is important. When I met with the head of “Match TV” Dmitry Chernyshenko, he frankly told me that in order to start long-term cooperation, we need two things: at least any results and a good picture: halls without terrifyingly empty stands.Personally, I have a rather large optimism caused by the recent tournament Mobelringen Cup, which our girls won. They passed teams from Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden; played a draw with Norwegians, and they are two-time Olympic champions. Now the main test is the World Championship in Denmark. The first two games are very difficult – with Norway and Spain (the Russians held the first game with the Norwegian national team on Saturday brilliantly and got a narrow win – the author’s note). I wish, of course, as many people as possible supported our girls; especially as all the matches involving the Russian national team will be broadcasted. In addition, it will be full sports halls, a good TV picture. This is a great opportunity to discover handball for those who have never watched this kind of sport. If we show a good result in Denmark, the Russian handball can get a very powerful push.
– And what is after that?
– Then it will be the Men’s European Championship in Poland, very difficult tournament for us. Champions League where girls from Rostov-on-Don have won currently six wins in a row. And, of course, the Olympic games, which we expect to qualify. In other words, I was in time trouble, which, on the one hand, constantly keeps me greatly excited for the result, and on the other hand, gives me completely clear understanding that nothing can be changed or delayed. Everything has already started.
“Sport-Express”, 07.12.2015
Elena VAITSEKHOVSKAYA