One of the most striking statements of the football pre-season was made by CSKA striker Fedor Chalov, who became the first player to strongly and unequivocally dismiss the idea of Russian football moving to Asia.
“No one is interested. Not a single person watches the AFC Champions League. There are a lot of good players there. But I will never believe that the Asian Champions League will be more interesting than the European one”, said the red and blue striker.
Of course, then he already tried, as it were, to smooth out the effect, but, nevertheless, none of the players spoke harsher on this topic. Usually they are followed by phrases about the fact that “we are little people” and “as they decide, so be it.”
Chalov can be understood, he played last season for the Swiss “Basel” and is clearly determined to continue his European career, including in European competition. His age will allow him to do this for ten years for sure. And then there is the question of motivation, which will definitely be in Europe and not the fact that he will be in Asia.
And we have already seen what domestic football looks like in Asia. “Zenith” in its last control match of the offseason lost in the Iranian Isfahan to the local club “Sepahan” with a score of 0:2. I cannot judge the composition of the Iranians, because I even heard the name of the club for the first time, however, knowledgeable people wrote that it appeared in front of 40 thousand fans with the second or third team. Zenit, for their part, played with the point guard and even had the participation of the Russian Malcolm without five minutes.
One leg of Ivan Sergeev is probably worth more than the entire Sepahan squad on the field in this match. Although, of course, now they know how to play football in Asia, in Africa and in Australia, but these are already hackneyed clichés that are repeated everywhere and always, even out of place. However, if it was a high point for the young players of the Iranian team, especially since the stadium gathered more fans than even the best RPL matches, then for Zenit, with its recent experience of playing with the best teams not in Europe, but in the world, it was a required program. Finding such motivation is extremely difficult, if not impossible.
This is also the reason for the absolutely terrible game of the Russian team with the national teams of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. If you fought against Croatia a year ago to qualify for the World Cup, psychologically it will be difficult for you to enter the field in Dushanbe. And even if Valery Karpin shot the young man, he watched that very match in Split on TV. Therefore, he was aware that they were dealing with two different soccer balls and he knew exactly which one he wanted to play.
After all, football, after all, is not just twenty-two players on the field, it is also everything around. Stadiums, locker rooms, transportation, TV broadcasts. Have you seen the photo of Isfahan? I remember watching Dynamo Tyumen or Vladivostok matches like this, when the first African in the team’s history, Lucky Izibor, shone with the blue and white. And suddenly this image itself returned … I wonder for whom?
The national team in Dushanbe had to go to the best artificial field, which, according to eyewitnesses, Valery Karpin did not scold only out of respect for the hosts, who did a titanic job preparing for the match. By the way, they will not prepare like this for the Asian Cups. And you will have to play there first, and not at all at the stadium of the Saudi club Cristiano Ronaldo.
But back to Chalov’s words that no one watches the AFC Champions League. I am sure that no reader of this text will recount the last final of this tournament, no matter how interesting or top it may be, without searching the Internet.
But the European cups, including those without the participation of Russian teams, are becoming the main show for Russian fans. And even the Europa League, specifically, the match between Barcelona and Manchester United. To be honest, I didn’t want this match to end, and the second series will definitely dilute the long weekend with an amazing show. And then there is the Champions League… If Russia goes to the AFC, then I’m afraid you will have to search for their broadcasts by all sorts of hacked methods.
In general, the approach of “it is better to play than not to play” seems very strange to me. Why do football players play on an artificial field in Dushanbe with the risk of injury and stop playing altogether? But this is the second problem. The first is the fans. No one will force you to watch the Asian Cups with any effort. Even without Russian teams among their participants, they will see European cups. There is nothing more interesting in world club football. At the same time, you have to understand that it is true that going back to them will be very difficult. But it will even give many young footballers a dream. The transition to Asia will be the true kidnapping of this dream.
