In an interview with Sport-Express.ua, the head coach of Uzbek Pakhtakor and legendary striker of Dynamo Kyiv Maksym Shatskikh spoke about the situation at his club, the Asian Champions League and commented on the latest news in Ukrainian football.
Maksym Shatskikh (photo: 1927.kiev.ua)
"It is unrealistic to earn money in the Asian Champions League"
- In the last match of the Asian Champions League, Pakhtakor confidently defeated Turkmenistan's Akhal 3-0 at home, and congratulations. For Ukrainian fans, the Asian Champions League looks a bit exotic, tell us how it differs from the European tournament.
- Thank you. Everything is different - a different level, different tension, different passions, everything is different. Plus, now there is an influx of top players from Saudi Arabia. There are different teams of different levels.
We still play in zones here, ours is the eastern one. These are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Iraq, India. And the other zone is Japan, Korea, Australia, China. There are ten subgroups in total, from which the first places come out and the top six from the ten second places. This is the specificity of the Asian Champions League this year, as their regulations change almost every year.
Starting this year, they are already creating an elite Asian Champions League, where all the top players will play. This is the first time they have done this.
- What do you mean by that? Will only the champions of their countries play there?
- Not only them, only the champion will play from us(Uzbekistan - A.S.), and there will be more participants from Saudi Arabia. From next year there will be an unlimited number of legionnaires - the Saudis pushed through this.
The second place or the winner of the Uzbek Cup will play in the Champions League, which we are currently playing in. Otherwise, there will probably be three teams from the Saudis, two or three from the Qataris, the Japanese...
- So it will be two different tournaments? Or will the teams overlap somewhere later?
- They will not intersect anywhere, the tournaments will run in parallel. It's like the Champions League and the AFC League are going on now.
- What is the financial side of participating in the Asian Champions League?
- Today, it is unrealistic to earn money in the Champions League. If you win the final, the club will earn two million dollars. It's just ridiculous to go all the way... You'll spend twice as much on hotels, food, transport as you earn in the Champions League. This is far from Europe.
And now they are organising this elite Champions League, they are already raising something. They are already preparing at least some figures, and it will be possible to earn something. Of course, it's not yet as high as in Europe, but they may gradually raise this bonus. That's why clubs are not earning money in the Champions League right now, and there are certain problems with that.
The level of play, of course, is also not European, but now all these legionnaires are coming from Saudi Arabia, we are also planning to [strengthen], not as much as the Saudis, of course, but we want to improve something. To put up some kind of resistance to those stars.
- Will you take on newcomers during the winter break?
- We'll see, but we're in no hurry. We are already looking for players.
- Al Ain, formerly led by Serhii Rebrov, is playing in the same group as you in the Champions League. Did you talk to him about his former team and the game against them?
- Of course. I asked him about the players, the style. He could not give information about some players, as they were not with him, but he shared details about others. In general, Al Ain is a good team, a well-playing team.
- When preparing for Al Ain, you watched the team's matches both with and without Rebrov - what are the main differences?
- They definitely haven't become weaker, they have a strong coach and he has a good selection of players. Perhaps they played a little faster under Serhiy.
"Messi has been walking his whole career"
- Returning to the legionnaires from Saudi Arabia, has the level of the Asian Champions League risen significantly with their move?
- Very much, next year there will be even more of them. And it will be even harder for us to compete with them on equal terms.
There is another side to the coin. I listened to an interview with one of the former coaches of the UAE national team when they were going through the path that Saudi Arabia is going through now, and what China did at one time - when top players ended their careers and went to China.
After such stories, the national team sinks very much, and he said that yes, the players are of a high level, the level of the championship is rising, but the national team suffers from this, as local players have less playing time.
Now Saudi Arabia has embarked on this path, let's see how much they can do.
- Recently, a video was posted online showing Lionel Messi practically walking on the pitch in a match for Inter Miami. Do Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and other stars from the oil leagues behave the same way on the pitch in the Champions League, or is the opposition from them still on par?
- Their level is high. Messi has been walking his whole career(laughs - A.S.), but he has already won eight Ballon d'Or!
- This year he deservedly "found" it?
- Of course!
- Closing the topic of the Champions League - what is the task facing Pakhtakor in this tournament?
- Getting out of the group, and then we'll see. We have just started our journey.
"There are almost no private football clubs in Uzbekistan"
- How are things going at Pakhtakor in general? How is the mood in the team?
- Thank God, so far everything is fine. It is a pity that we lost a lot of points, we could have already celebrated the championship, but we are not looking for easy ways. There are three rounds left in the championship, so this situation will only make the ending more interesting. I would not like to see it go to the last round, but we will see. Everything is in our hands.
- In Ukraine, information about financial problems in clubs has started to appear more often now, which leads to wage arrears. How is Pakhtakor doing financially?
- Everything is fine with us. There are almost no private clubs in Uzbekistan, like only two, and the rest are on the balance sheet of local budgets.
Our boss is the former mayor of Tashkent. Now we have plans to privatise Pakhtakor and submit the documents. Accordingly, such a historic event may soon happen that Pakhtakor will become a private club.
- Is Pakhtakor currently financed by the local budget and some sponsorship payments?
- No, now the club president sponsors everything. He invests his own money, he doesn't abandon us.
- But at the moment your club is considered a municipal club?
- If you look at the papers, then, probably, yes.
- How are the Ukrainian legionnaires in Uzbekistan doing?
- I follow all of them. I would like to single out goalkeeper Ihor Lytovka, he plays in Andijan, he is always in the starting line-up, we are pleased with him.
- This is the second year you have been in charge of Pakhtakor. If we compare your debut season with the current one, has the level of the championship risen?
- It has grown and become a little faster. Many clubs have laid new pitches, the infrastructure has improved. We fought for watering for the pitch, last year we had problems with that. There were still plenty of old stadiums in Uzbekistan with no watering under the pitch, and there were various tricks, like in the USSR - either the water ran out and they didn't water it, or the grass was cut badly. It is difficult to show the quality of football in such conditions, but this year a lot has changed.
"It was clear from Srna that he was not going to coach"
- The appointment of Dario Srna as Shakhtar's head coach is a story a little like yours: like you, he first worked as a sporting director at the club and then changed his position to the coaching bench. When you heard this, did you draw any parallels with your own story?
- I didn't, I immediately thought it was a temporary thing. Srna's thoughts are not about coaching, he doesn't want to do it. The position of sporting director is closer to him.
- You played 22 official matches against Srna in your career playing for Dynamo Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv and Chornomorets. Did you notice any coaching potential in him at that time?
- It was clear that he was not going to do coaching, it seemed to me.
- Recently, Oleksandr Aliyev also made statements about his coaching ambitions. The former Dynamo player even talked about the possibility of leading the first team of the white and blues. Is this candidate worthy of Dynamo?
- Everything is possible in our life, why not? Understand, it's not so simple - he came and said: "I want to be a coach, give me a team". This is a very difficult process.
You have to understand people, keep your emotions in check, not always do what you want to do... This is not only on the football field, but also off it. I find it interesting, but also difficult, but I'm not complaining, I really like it.
- Will Aliyev still be able to prove himself as a coach? Given his history from his playing career.
- It's hard to say. Stories are such a thing, he's not a murderer! Have there been few such players? Aliyev is a normal guy, honest, decent, fair, as far as I know him. Anything can happen, but everything takes time.
Perhaps Sasha should start with academies, at a certain age. You also need to understand that working with children is different, it has its own specifics. I knew from the very beginning that children were not my thing.
"Dynamo has no confidence, the victories are all on the thin side"
- Ukrainian football has already seen quite a few coaching resignations this season, whose departure surprised you the most?
- Patrick van Leeuwen. I heard a lot about him and the specifics of his work. As far as I know, he didn't get on with the senior guys and that's why he failed to get in touch with the team.
But what does it mean that he didn't get on with the older guys? It's not clear to me. There is a coach, there are players. This is your job. You have to fulfil the requirements, the coach will be responsible for the result, and you do your job well, at least try! For me, this is somehow wild. There should be contact between the coach and the team, but within the limits.
I have never heard of such a thing! Let's say I'm a Dynamo player, and a coach comes in who I don't like. And what, I'm going to go somewhere and tell him what I don't like? The training process or something else. Today you don't like the training, tomorrow you don't like the food, the uniform, what else?
- Perhaps Shakhtar just didn't like van Leeuwen's style? Alternatively, they wanted him to play more technical football rather than power and vertical football.
- They had seen his work at Zorya. Was it an attempt to take him while it was convenient for them? And then we'll see if he works out or not. If he didn't work out, then he was removed. There was a lot of "charade" going on, I don't understand why. Shakhtar don't have the same squad as before - a lot of legionnaires. They won't win the Champions League, I don't know what their goals are, but it hasn't happened before.
- Dynamo has been losing points for three games in a row. What are the prospects for Kyiv?
- Dynamo don't feel confident that they've come out and beaten the opposition. The few victories they've had have been narrow.
- What are the reasons for this?
- Something is happening in the middle. There is no stability. Are there players who can perform the highest tasks? I don't know. Now the level of the championship is not of the same quality, Kryvbas is in first place. Polissia are throwing in and out, and they're in second place. The standings look very unusual, so we'll see how it all ends.
- The other day, the Dynamo Kyiv Inside telegram channel published a story that when you were still playing for Dynamo's first team, you and Danilo Silva's cars - a Lexus and a BMW - were stolen. After a while, the thieves returned the cars themselves, washed them and left notes apologising. The source attributed this behaviour to Dynamo-2 player Omar Faroyan, who was the grandson of criminal mastermind Ded Hassan, and said that Omar had arranged for the return of the cars. Was there really such a story?
- As for the car, yes, indeed, I returned it. No one apologised, they knew who they were stealing from. I returned the car myself through my friends' acquaintances. Then they were all caught, there were five of them. Only the one who was driving the car was not caught. It also turned out that the case involved people who had been wanted since the Soviet era. The investigators thanked me later that they had been looking for them for so long and finally managed to catch them.
I know who Grandpa Hasan is. No, no, no, no, no Grandpa Hassan helped me, I never hung out in such companies.
Andrii Piskun
