"The employees of Khimki are not paid for six months — a sad situation"

Last weekend, the Sochi Football Club returned to the Russian Premier League (RPL) after a year out of it. Having finished in fifth place in the first league, the southern club got into transition matches for the right to get into the RPL. The participation of the third and fourth-place teams is expected from the FNL there, but since Novorossiysk Chernomorets, which became the third, did not receive a license due to the lack of a stadium that meets the criteria of the Premier League, Sochi got there.

Last week, the team played matches with the 13th-place finisher in the RPL Pari Nizhny Novgorod. Having lost the first match at home with a score of 1:2, Sochi won 3-1 away and advanced to the elite division. In an interview with Izvestia, Sochi defender Sergei Terekhov explained how the team managed to return to the RPL, and also commented on the situation with the debts of Khimki, for which he played until the winter of this year.

— How did you manage to return to the RPL after the transition matches?

— I think, first of all, we need to pay attention to the elimination in the first game. It was hard then to play a half and a half in the minority. But even in such conditions, we looked good then, even though we lost 1:2. Therefore, we understood that we could win in the second leg. And we won at the expense of the team, at the expense of unity. We managed to pull together. The guys came out with full dedication, gave their best and achieved the desired result.

— In the match of the last round, Sochi did not come out as the main squad against Chernomorets and lost to him, already practically knowing that he would be in the joints instead, even if he dropped out of the top four of the FNL. Why was there such a rotation? Were you saving your strength before the transition matches, or did you want to get to Paris NN, which might not be motivated enough due to the high probability of staying in the RPL instead of Khimki anyway?

— You know, I'm a football player, and I can't say anything about squad decisions. The squad has been announced to us, so we go out and play. Everyone in the team wants to play. And those who get less playing practice also believe, perhaps deservedly, that they should be at the base. But only the coach decides who gets on the field. That's why we didn't even have a conversation about who was playing in Novorossiysk.

— How was Sochi affected by the fact that, after losing the first game against Paris NN, the head coach of the team, Robert Moreno, did not go to the second leg, according to the official version, due to family reasons?

— Well, you can see that there is a result — we reached the RPL. The most important thing is the result. I think it's not worth focusing on who was absent for family reasons, who else for what reasons. It doesn't matter if it's a player or a coach. In any case, reaching the Premier League is our common achievement. Everyone put their hands, feet, and brains into it. We need to thank everyone and prepare for the new season.

— How are you doing with the contract? What is the probability that you will stay in Sochi?

— The contract expires soon. I think the celebration will subside a bit now, and we'll talk to the management.

— Do you follow the story of Khimki's bankruptcy, their non-admission to the RPL and the approval of decisions on who will replace them in the Premier League?

— Of course, I'm watching. Khimki, like many other guys, owes me a salary for a certain number of months. Therefore, I don't understand many bloggers a bit, who, one might say, are happy about what happened, saying that it's the right thing to do. They say they should have taken away the license from Khimki earlier. Only few people remember how many people will be left without money. Okay, football players, 50-60 football players and their families. But there are also club employees — more than 50 Khimki employees have not received a salary for six months. People are in a very unpleasant situation. The staff of the club does not have such a large salary to exist normally with such delays in payments. And I know it's very hard for them right now.

— How long do Khimki owe you a salary?

— I haven't been paid since September. I left Khimki for Sochi at the end of January. So they owe me five months in advance. But it's not even the deadlines and amounts that are important here. For any person, any amount is tangible — he wants to receive money for his work. It's not about the amount, it's about the attitude.

— Is this the first time this has happened in your career?

— Thank God, yes. I hope it will be the last one (smiles).

— I remember when you started playing for Dynamo in your native Bryansk, there were often financial problems there too.

— Well, this is the very beginning of my career. It was in 2008, we were relegated from the first league, the club was starting to go bankrupt, but it was closing its debts. I was paid everything back then. But then my salary was a penny — 20-30 thousand rubles a month. I was supposed to be there in just three or four months, not like Khimki is now. As a result, I was fully paid off in Bryansk.

— Were there any cases when you had to lend money to employees of Khimki?

— This is probably more an internal matter. Of course, the players helped the staff as much as they could. All people, all understand the situation. And we hoped for the best, that everything honestly earned would eventually return. It's actually a very sad situation. Very sad. It is a pity that this is allowed, including by the football authorities, when licensing takes place. Probably, the RFU and the RPL should participate more actively in all this, and control the financial part of the clubs more closely. It's clear that no one is immune from this, but it turns out that you can play for free for most of the season and bankrupt the club. I don't know what to add. It's very sad about Khimki.

— And this is not the first time this has happened. Since the 2000s, we have known a lot of stories of similar bankruptcies with debt cancellation, like those of Saturn, Zhemchuzhina, Alanya and many others.

— I would like the RFU and RPL to treat licensing in more detail, and to receive some more serious guarantees from the clubs. There is a fund in some Israel where all clubs discount their salary budgets before the start of the season, and the league already pays salaries to the players. In the end, everyone is sure that there will be money. But no one here is sure of anything. It is clear that our top clubs will pay everything to everyone. And in the bottom eight of the RPL, no one is immune from anything.

— How would you assess Sochi's future in the new RPL season?

— I think everything will be fine with the club. I'm sure the management will figure it out. He's quite experienced at Sochi — we already won silver together in 2022. Strengthening the composition is, of course, required. Probably not on such a large scale, but I think that players will be acquired. And that's okay.

— In less than a month, on June 27, you will turn 35 years old. How much more do you plan to play?

— As long as your health allows. I don't see any problems in my physical condition yet. I do all the work that coaches require at training camps and trainings without any problems. I have the strength and emotions to play. The main thing is to solve problems.

— What tasks? To win silver again with Sochi, like three years ago under the leadership of Vladimir Fedotov?

"Why not?" That season, too, no one really believed in such an outcome. They probably laughed if anyone talked about it. Perhaps they didn't believe it inside the team either, when Fedotov outlined the goals. And then we slowly went from match to match to this and realized that we could.

— Has Fedotov been talking about medals since the beginning of the season?

— He said that we should fight for the highest places. And any team is capable of achieving its maximum potential.

— Did they not believe in the silver medal inside the team even after the fifth place in the previous season?

— Perhaps they thought it was an outbreak. Not everyone thought so, but many did.