"Agency fees are money leaving the soccer industry"
Before the winter break in the season, Dynamo Moscow players are in fifth place in the Russian championship. They are seven points behind the leading Zenit St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Dynamo managed to make it to the semi-finals of the Russian Cup's RPL Way - after losing to Lokomotiv Moscow in the first match (1:2), they won the main time of the return game (1:0) and went further through a penalty shootout (4:3). In an interview to Izvestia, Dinamo general director Pavel Pivovarov assessed the team's performance in recent games, characterized the club's key striker Konstantin Tyukavin and spoke about possible changes in the RFU regulations on agency activity.
- Konstantin Tyukavin received the "Gentleman of the Year" award. In your opinion, why did it go to him?
- Because of his sporting and human qualities. First of all, human qualities, because this award is about gentlemanliness. In addition to the fact that Tyukavin is an insanely talented athlete in his role, we should also note Kostya's character. The character of a real athlete, and not in the first generation. He understands what it means to constantly work on yourself, to train. He is a model of how to do things. And thus he commands the respect of his teammates and the professional community in general. His playing qualities are obvious - intelligence, cunning, ability to choose his position on the field. Tyukavin, undoubtedly, has strong-willed qualities and is often the motor of the team. And I think, in the future we will see him as the captain of Dynamo. He is a young guy, he is only 22 years old, so Kostya has everything ahead of him. Besides, he is a very positive person. A positive aura emanates from him - he always smiles, always jokes. Such charisma and sociability is liked by those who had the opportunity to communicate with him. All this and forms a positive image of the soccer player. Komsomolskaya Pravda representatives as organizers of the award and jury members are primarily focused on this when choosing who to award.
- In the last two rounds of the championship "Dynamo" got away draws with teams from the bottom of the table with great difficulty. Are there any dissatisfaction with the work of the players and coaching staff?
- The game of our team now is not characterized by stability and high intensity. That is reflected in Dynamo's results in the last rounds. Although the return cup match with Lokomotiv is worth mentioning with a plus sign. Good, quality game of the team, which led to the victory in the game and the exit on the penalty shootout to the semifinals of the RPL Way. But the quality of the game and the results of matches with Rostov, Fakel and Akhmat are not satisfactory for the squad that Dynamo has. But we continue to work. Ahead is the match with Khimki, the last one this year, which is important to win. Especially at home, in front of our fans.
- You are a member of the RFU professional soccer committee. Not so long ago at its meeting, as well as at the general meeting of the RPL discussed possible changes in the regulations on agency activities. What kind of amendments are planned?
- We are discussing the suspension of a number of provisions of the agency regulations, which are effective from October 1, 2023. They limit the amount of agents' remuneration. "Dynamo is consistently in favor of strengthening the regulation of agency activity. The regulation, which was adopted a year ago, is quite strict, but, in our opinion, correct. And what is proposed to be adopted now will sharply weaken the control, and it is done under various, mostly far-fetched, pretexts.
- You mean the reduction or abolition of the maximum percentages of transfer amounts that can be paid to agents as a commission on transactions?
- Yes, including the urgent removal of certain restrictions, deregulation of agency relations and transactions. They refer to what has been done at the international level, although our market is isolated and there is virtually no overlap. We believe that the current RFU regulations are enforceable, they were part of the reform of agency activities, which was adopted by the RFU in its time. If the current approach to tightening control was consistently applied over the next five or six years, I am sure there would be positive results. But, unfortunately, we are rolling back again.
- As far as I heard, at the general meeting of the RPL, the clubs that are in favor of lifting the restrictions, argued their position that most of the strong players will leave the RPL, thanks to the efforts of agents, if they limit their commissions.
- The arguments you are talking about are deceitful. Yes, in theory it is possible that some players who are running out of contracts will want to leave. But, firstly, there will be very few such players. Secondly, in those countries where they can leave Russia for promotion, the tax rate is higher than in our country. This means that it is still economically unprofitable to take players there. Therefore, the discussed relaxations in the agency regulations will work to increase the income of agents and significantly weaken the control over these subjects of soccer. And after all, the agent fees paid by clubs are the money that leaves the soccer industry. You may notice that Dynamo, on the contrary, tries to attract this money to the industry. Our club is actively engaged in audience and commercial activities. And we try to do it first of all for the development of soccer, not for paying agents.
- How do they justify the fact that you have to pay them?
- An agent comes and says: "This player is my asset!". Although this player has been at Dynamo since he was seven years old. Infrastructure is rented for him and other children, coaches' salaries are paid, teams of the whole club vertical - academy, youth squad, Dynamo-2 - are maintained. All this is provided by the club. And as soon as a player has reached the professional level through the club training system, an agent comes to the club and says: "This is our asset. Now you have to buy him from us. Doesn't this logic seem a bit unfair and unjust to you? It seems to Dynamo management.
- If this "asset" is under your contract, how should you buy it?
- This happens when it comes to contract renewal. That is, we are asked for money simply because a player's contract is expiring in order to sign a contract for a new term. Where was his agent during the period when he was out of contract and the kid was still in school? He wasn't yet an "asset" then.
- Is it true that at the meetings on this issue the votes were divided?
- At the general meeting of the RPL only ten clubs out of 16 voted in favor of lifting the restrictions. "Dynamo" among others was categorically against it. At the meeting of the RFU Professional Football Committee the votes were divided in the same way. There is no consensus on this issue in the industry.
- This problem was recently mentioned by Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, the governor of the Samara region, whose statements on the topic of Krylia Sovetov and the situation in Russian soccer in general have made an unprecedented noise recently. Do you believe that such statements by a representative of the authorities will make it possible to prevent the changes in the regulations that we have just talked about?
- I think that Vyacheslav Fedorishchev has positive intentions. At least, I would like to see a desire to go to the end and achieve the goal behind his statements. Yes, somewhere he does not know the details, somewhere he is not immersed in the nuances, which he himself honestly says. But the head of the Samara region clearly wants to do good things for Russian soccer, wants to rid it of negative phenomena. If he manages to do this, it will be great. If we can help in any way, we are always ready to do our best.
- Does the soccer community want this?
- It is not homogeneous, there are different opinions in it. But it is very good that there are those in soccer who want to develop.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
