EUROSCENE: This week, as you size up the runners and riders for the Champions League fixtures, spare a thought for Yuri Syomin. He is coach to Lokomotiv Moscow, the Russian side that finds itself in an imposing second phase group along with Real Madrid, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.
So far, his side has picked up just one point in Group C, ironically a 2-2 away draw to Real Madrid. This evening, in polar temperatures of up to minus six degress, he will go looking for an unlikely first group win against AC Milan at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Moscow.
Such is the bitter Muscovite winter that Milan last week tried to persuade UEFA to move the game to another, more clement, Russian venue. UEFA resisted that suggestion, compromising only minimally by asking Lokomotiv to bring the kick-off forward by two hours.
The weather, though, holds one of the keys to the progress (or lack of) made not only by Lokomotiv but also traditionally by all Soviet/Russian teams when it comes to spring in the Champions League. That vicious Russian winter, of course, necessitates a football championship that is played out between March and November and which is thus currently in the off-season period.
When Syomin and his players arrived in Italy last week to prepare for their subsequent 1-0 loss to AC Milan (61st-minute goal from Danish striker Jon Dahl Tomasson), the Russian coach pointed out that his side had not played a competitive match since that unexpected 2-2 draw with Real Madrid on December 11th. In the circumstances, the Russian champions did well to hold out against Milan for the first hour.
Yet, with all due respect to them, it is hard to see Lokomotiv making much further progress in this year's Champions League. Their exit from the tournament will yet again prompt questions both about the overall quality of post-Soviet Union football in Russia and also about the seemingly impossible handicap of having to resume the Champions League campaign in their off-season.
Syomin himself has no illusions about the gap between Russian soccer and the best of western Europe such as the English, Spanish and Italian leagues. He argues that Russia's best clubs have inevitably had difficulty moving from the era of state ownership/sponsorship to semi-state ownership and private sponsorship. Syomin even voices the ultimate heresy: "From the point of view of club organisation, we're still behind the times. In that sense, football in the Soviet Union era was much more advanced."
Syomin's own Lokomotiv have had their dramatic problems. Called the "Railway Workers" and still owned by the Railway Ministry, the club faced difficulties in January of last year when then Railway Minister, Nikolai Aksyonenko, was forced out of office by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of a "slush funds" scandal. Media reports, never subsequently substantiated, suggested that some of the "slush funds" might have been channelled into Lokomotiv.
Nor has the lack of precise legislation regarding sports advertising helped the Russian game. Even more worrying is the extent to which the underlying violence prevalent in Russian society occasionally raises its ugly head in the world of soccer. Most recent example was the death of Yuri Tishkov, the former Dinamo Moscow and Torpido Moscow player turned commentator and agent, who was gunned down in the street last month.
Syomin, however, believes that a club like Lokomotiv, champions for the first time last November, is on the way up, pointing out that their training facilities at Bakovka, outside Moscow, are second to none and that his multi-national squad earn "average European wages".
It is worth noticing, too, that the Russian Federation have recently rebuilt the old "Wembley" of Moscow, namely the Luzhniki Stadium, laying down an artificial, plastic surface. The long-term aim is all too obvious - namely to be ready for the day when both FIFA and UEFA allow first-class competitive games on artificial pitches. Such a ruling could see the Russians realign their calendar to play through the winter and make that springtime handicap in the Champions League a thing of the past.
