"We have no financial holes left"

Over the past year and a half, the Krylia Sovetov football club has undergone drastic personnel changes and a number of high-profile events. At the end of 2024, the governor of the Samara region, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, thundered about the 500 million rubles black market for football refereeing and that a certain Krylia employee had asked him for 36 million rubles to repay the debt to "unnamed criminals who are engaged in corruption in the refereeing corps of Russian football." In 2025, it became known about the debt of 1 billion rubles to the structures of Rostec, which has been hanging on the Wings for more than 15 years. It was repaid in early February 2026.

Last summer, Igor Osinkin, the long-time head coach of Krylia, left his post and a significant part of the players changed. Under new head coach Magomed Adiev, Krylia are in 13th place in the Russian Championship transition zone after 19 rounds. Last week, in their first game after the winter break, they were defeated away by Dynamo Moscow (0:4). In the middle of this week, a 2-0 victory was won over Orenburg in the second stage of the quarterfinals of the Path of the Regions of the Russian Cup. Now, in the first stage of the semi-finals on March 19, Samaritans will meet at home with Moscow Lokomotiv. In an interview with Izvestia, Dmitry Yakovlev, Deputy Governor of the Samara Region and chairman of the Board of Directors of Krylia Sovetov, commented on the first results of the spring, spoke about the financial condition of the club and lamented the difficulty of preparing the football field in winter.

"We will continue to move only in a positive direction"

— Was the crushing defeat by Dynamo in the first spring match very shocking?

— They deserved to win, and I congratulated them on that. Of course, there were other expectations, but this is football, you have to admit defeat, which we did. Next, we need to work on the errors. We have a very hardworking team. I believe that it is only through hard work that we will achieve our goals.

— Did you expect the team to improve after the winter break against the background of the first part of the season?

— There were difficulties in the first part of the season, which we perfectly understand. They were related to the squad, to the fact that we had a lot of injured people. Now we have looked at this situation from the other side, and we have completed our training a little. I think the five people who joined the team this winter will strengthen Krylia Sovetov. And it will be better, we will be able to solve problems both in the Russian Cup, where we continue to fight, and in the championship. In the next round of the championship we have a match with Makhachkala, it is important to play it successfully. In any case, after the defeat from Dynamo Moscow, we will not sprinkle ashes on our heads. I would like to admit that all the goals against us were scored using our mistakes. We'll fix all this — I don't see any problems. The composition is balanced, and we will continue to move only in a positive direction.

"Our budget is balanced, we are preparing for licensing for the next season"

— In early February, Krylia Sovetov closed its accounts payable of 1 billion rubles to Rostec. Are there no financial holes after that?

— We don't have 100% financial holes left. We have financial obligations that have appeared. We took them on ourselves — in the region of 450 million rubles. And we'll give it back within a year. The debt owed to Rostec was 1 billion 86 million rubles, and we paid it all back. But they did not have enough of their own funds to fully pay off Rostec. Just 450 million. We had to borrow them from our partner, the Solidarity Bank. The rest was repaid from their own funds. During the year, we will pay back 450 million, and without interest — we have such an installment plan. Many thanks to the Solidarity Bank for this, which met us halfway and helped us close the debt to Rostec, which hung like a sword of Damocles over the team.

Now we are financially stable, our budget is balanced, and we are preparing for licensing for the next season. We are already conducting preliminary negotiations with the RFU, and we have started submitting documents for licensing. So I definitely don't see any problems for this and next seasons. I think that if there had been any questions about Krylia, we would not have been allowed to show up and strengthen the squad last winter. But all questions to us have been resolved, so players could be added during the transfer window.

— Have you responded to any information that the law enforcement agencies have closed the case on 36 million rubles that Krylia allegedly owed the judges, as revealed by Governor Fedorishchev in his high-profile speech at the end of last year?

— Initially, I always said that it is in the powers of law enforcement agencies to initiate or close such cases, to hold events within their framework. This is not a matter for the clubs and their managers. There are special structures that deal with such cases, there are supervisory authorities that control this process. Everything is within the framework of the laws of the Russian Federation.

— You said that preparations are underway for the licensing procedure for the next season. Will Krylia's budget change?

— It will be preserved and will be even a little bigger with the help of additional partners that we are going to attract. We have fulfilled the commitments we made last year. The budget will increase because we want to have top-class players like Dynamo Moscow. Of course, we will not achieve its budget, but we will try our best. Talk to additional partners to help financially. But there are nuances here — it's no secret that the main task facing our state right now is victory. All resources will be invested in it, first of all.

"If we had fewer injuries, the team's results would be better"

Krylia Sovetov football player Sergey Bozhin — about the reasons for the autumn failures of the Volga Region and the secrets of survival in the RPL

"Why do we play football all the time in winter?"

— In June, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said that Krylia's budget for this season would be 2.2 billion rubles. Since an increase is planned now, will it reach 2.5 billion?

— Yes, somewhere like that - about 2.5 billion. We hope that this will be enough to be competitive in the RPL. Of course, we want to solve serious problems. But there are different ways to do this. For example, to buy Kylian Mbappe. But it's not a fact that he'll play in the RPL. Or achieve success through hard work, hard victories, through the training process. It all depends on the team and the coaching staff. But I don't get involved in this process.

I have other tasks — so that the club does not have debts. To ensure that everyone is satisfied, the organization of work corresponds to the proper level. And the home field in Samara meets all the requirements of the RPL. Although I watch some matches and I just can't figure it out. Why do we play football all the time in winter? It's difficult in such conditions. In Samara, we spent the whole winter working with agronomists on a heated field to keep the lawn in good condition. Thank God, it worked. And at the cup match against Orenburg in early March, the pitch was fine.

— Isn't it time to raise the issue of returning the Russian championship to the spring-autumn system?

"That's not my question. I have my own tasks. I won't tell anyone anything — everyone understands everything perfectly. My job was to arrange everything so that by March 4, the field at the Solidarity Arena would be ready to host Cup and Championship matches. So that Krylia Sovetov and Akron play in Samara, and not somewhere on neutral fields.

It is important to take into account that we have two RPL clubs in the region. And they both play in the same stadium. This is great for the Samara region, for local journalists. But on the other hand, we need to prepare for this in February, especially when we had a snowfall at the end of winter... No one canceled the cold and precipitation in winter. And March this year is not exactly spring. And this year's FIFA World Cup, in which Russia, unfortunately, does not play, but the calendar of the national championship will be postponed because of it. And, most likely, in December you will have to play more than usual. So we have difficult conditions to make the lawn suitable for football. But we work in the circumstances that exist.