Chechnya’s leader hires football stars

Ramzan Kadyrov hopes former international players and Ruud Gullit as coach can help improve his country’s image Russian football – and international sport – is about to be confronted with one of its most unlikely success stories. FC Terek Grozny, the newly energised team based in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, is hoping a slew of high-profile international acquisitions will help it make waves in the Russian premier league, which kicked off last weekend. The ambitions of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic’s leader, however, do not stop there. He is optimistic that the club’s footballing glory will help the world forget about his country’s bloody past. Chief among the names crucial to Terek’s success is Ruud Gullit, the Dutch football legend who signed on for an 18-month contract as coach earlier this year. “The team has started to play more offensively,” said club spokesman Kazbek Khadzhiyev. “Gullit likes discipline on the pitch, and for every player to know what he has to do.” Last week, in spite of a putting up a decent fight, Terek lost its season opener against league champions Zenit St Petersburg 1-0. But Gullit’s role is seen as key. “I’d like to believe that I can bring joy into the lives of the Chechen people through football,” the former Dutch national team captain told Soviet Sport . “Of course, I won’t deny that I’m getting lots of money from Terek.” The money is new. Last year, Kadyrov enlisted the help – and plentiful funds – of Bulat Chagayev, a wealthy Chechen based in Switzerland, who is now club vice-president. Yet Kadyrov would rather not talk about the money. For him, football is a natural outgrowth of the “stability” he has brought to Chechnya, a republic ravaged by two separatist wars since the fall of the Soviet Union. Grozny is rebuilt. But there is an eerie calm – and ubiquitous posters praising Kadyrov and his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the former leader killed at a stadium bombing in May 2004. Kadyrov rules the republic with an iron fist, regularly leading so-called “anti-terrorist operations” against the families of men suspected of having joined the continuing Islamist opposition that violently opposes his rule. He is also known for his expensive tastes, with a fleet of luxury cars, a private zoo and a collection of gold-plated guns among his many possessions. Now that he has turned his attention to football, he is going all out. “He hasn’t missed one match,” his spokesman, Alvi Kerimov, said. “And he trains every day – even if he works until midnight, he’ll go and play football anyway.” Kadyrov is not content with spectating. The world got to witness his skills on 9 March, when he captained a team of Chechen ragtag players in a friendly against a team featuring stars from Brazil’s 2002 World Cup winning line-up, including Romário, Cafu and Dunga. Now Terek is focused on acquisitions, club spokesman Kazbek Khadzhiyev said, with Gullit expected to start acting on a wish-list this summer. In this, the club is already learning the hard way that it cannot always get its own way. Recent talks with Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid fell apart, Khadzhiyev said, because the Uruguayan player’s price was too high. Terek looks likely to have competition for players from the Premier League Club of Dagestan, the volatile republic that lies to the east of Chechnya. FC Anzhi Makhachkala was bought in January by Suleiman Kerimov, a Dagestani estimated to be worth $7.8bn by Forbes, making him the 19th richest man in Russia and 118th richest in the world. He has already brought in two major names – former Real Madrid defender Roberto Carlos (whose two-and-a-half year contract is a reported €10m) and one-time Chelsea midfielder Mbark Boussoufa (for reportedly the same sum). Carlos made his debut with Anzhi earlier this month – in Grozny, where the game was held because the Dagestani capital was deemed too dangerous. Terek’s men are undeterred by security fears. Maurício, a 22-year-old Brazilian midfielder, said: “We have no problems in Grozny.” Yet, he admits, players don’t live or train in the Chechen capital, and are based instead in the once fashionable spa town of Kislovodsk, 150 miles west. “When we’re in Grozny, we don’t go around town,” he said in heavily accented Russian. On 9 May, Kadyrov will open a new stadium which is named after his father – officially it is known as the A. A. Kadyrov Republican Football Club Terek Grozny. Invitations to the opening of the 30,000-seat stadium are said to have gone out to Fifa head Sepp Blatter and Uefa chief Michel Platini – Kadyrov wants to hold a match when Russia hosts the World Cup in 2018 – although the Foreign Office and the US State Department advise against travel to Chechnya or the other Caucasus republics. “I do not understand those people who say that Kadyrov is trying to show, through football, that Chechnya is stable,” said Kerimov. “We play football in Chechnya because it is stable.” Not so the manager’s job, however. Gullit’s predecessor, Victor Munoz, lasted less than a month before he quit. Chechnya Miriam Elder guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 19, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.