“I didn’t think that watering the lawn would turn on”: a journalist who got wet on the air about the incident, about a sense of humor and about his popularity

- How do you feel after a sudden shower that VEB Arena employees arranged for you before the start of the match of the 7th round of the CSKA RPL - Akhmat. Did not catch a cold?

- Surprisingly not, although after I was doused with water, I did not have the opportunity to change clothes. It was very funny when I had to dry my head and each thing separately in the toilet at the stadium. I can’t even imagine what the people who forced me to do this were thinking.

However, such manipulations did not help much, so until the end of the day I actually remained wet: I worked in the mixed zone, went to a press conference, then went to the studio. Returning home after midnight, he found that his clothes were still slightly damp. I don’t understand what kind of water it is at the army stadium (Laughs) .

- Did someone try to help you out of an unpleasant situation?

- The only person who took pity on me is the operator behind the gate. Immediately I ran up and asked how I did if I needed a jacket. Unfortunately, I do not know his name, thanks to him for that.

- Some users of social networks suggested that everything was specially adjusted. Why did you choose this particular point for shooting?

- Of course, you can arrange such "performances" around the world and take money for them (Laughs) . But in fact, many factors simply converged at the same time. Firstly, I did not think that watering the lawn would turn on an hour and a half before the match. This has never happened before. Secondly, you need to understand that the system is not a guy with a hose, and not a huge machine. These are small devices that are hard to see on the grass. They just get up and start working. If everything was so easy, every tour someone would do it.

- You did not have the opportunity to leave this place?

- In fact, initially we got to another point. But while preparing to turn on, the sun began to shine in the face and the operator offered to change the place. Probably, one could have left, but such a thought did not occur to me on the air.

- What did you think in the first second, when the irrigation system worked?

- In principle, what I was thinking about, I spoke on the air. In general, at that moment I recalled the name of the striker Ablai Mbeng. I tried to remember his name and not to forget the composition of Akhmat. Therefore, chatted what was spinning in my head.

- So, there were no thoughts on how to dry your clothes?

- No, I didn’t think about things at that time. Only after the broadcast I remembered that before turning it on I took the headphones and the phone from the engineer, since mine were exhausted. I thought: "This is what I got, let down the man who helped me." But surprisingly I was lucky, nothing was hurt. By the way, the microphone also worked, everything is fine.

- The operator also got it?

- No, I took the whole blow on myself. Honestly, I just thought that the water could get on the camera, because the irrigators work in amplitude: first, the water flow is directed in one direction, then in the other. But the operator did not even hurt. Otherwise, the consequences could be worse (Laughs) .

- How did you manage to maintain a positive attitude in this situation?

“It's hard to keep serious when streams of cold water are pouring on you.” Honestly, I thought that they would immediately disconnect me from the air, so I tried to finish it as quickly as possible until the water was poured into my mouth. At first I heard something else in the earphone, and then I got a jet, and I did not know what was happening on the air at that time. I just realized that it’s not worth stopping and wasting precious time.

View this Instagram post

💨 Respect to dryers @pfc_cska ⠀ 😂 Half an hour in the toilet - and I did not get sick. Although I had to work wet both at the press conference and in the mixed zone, then I still had to mount the plot ⠀ 💦When I got home after 7 hours - the sneakers were still wet inside

Posted by Match TV (@eugen_evnevich) Aug 26, 2019 at 4:53 pm PDT

- What did they tell you after you disconnected from the live broadcast?

- While I was looking for a headphone, the studio was already disconnected, and I did not even know how they reacted.

- At that time, someone was already in the stadium?

- Yes, the fans began to fill the stands, perhaps the players were warming up on the field. But all the workers in the stadium were definitely there. The guards saw everything, but continued to stand as they stood, but then they joked.

- How did your colleagues react?

- It was Sunday, so not many people worked in the studio. But the next day, as a joke, I took a hair dryer with me to football, thereby provoking a whole fountain of jokes. Like, I won’t go anywhere without him, because you can seriously suffer and get wet.

- Journalist Denis Kazansky urged you to present the Taffy Award. Does such an assessment flatter?

- Yes, the most important thing is that everyone laughed, but we are working not for awards.

- How did your friends and relatives react to the extreme broadcast?

- Friends say that they constantly stumble upon a video with me on social networks, this surprises them. I answer them: “Yes, I’m on the air every day, you see me anyway” (Laughs) . But in fact, it is surprising that the video has spread even to non-core communities.

Most of all I am proud that it was published in the largest football public post on Instagram “4-3-3”. Football players and teams pay a lot of money to get there, but they just doused me with water. In fact, I was most worried that mom would worry. She could have thought that her son would be punished by management, not to mention a cold. But in the end, everything worked out.

- Did you feel the growth of popularity after this episode?

- In social networks, they started throwing messages, most of which are very positive. It's nice when people write that they are reviewing my video 20 times a day and it cheers them up. I thought there would be more negativity, but everyone understood that this was not serious, just an emergency happened to the correspondent during the live broadcast. Someone says my behavior is a model of professionalism, but most likely it happened out of ignorance. He did not know where to go, what to do, so he continued to speak.

- Do you have more subscribers?

“Yes, it has grown by about four thousand a day.”

- Two rounds of previously good RPL advertising were made by referee Eugene Turbin after the ball hit him from striker Zenith Malcolm, now you are. Is it nice to be a near-football hero of the tour?

- Being on a par with a judge despite what is happening in our league is not the best scenario (Laughs) . But seriously, it’s nice that this happened in our championship, on our channel. But the problem is that people do not know how to laugh at themselves. Finding themselves in a ridiculous situation, they show aggression.

If the ball hits the referee, then in 99% of cases he starts to get angry, show a yellow card. But Turbin acted differently, and that is why he became popular. Just people do not want to be funny and funny. Therefore, when someone does this, it seems something extraordinary, although I do not think that something unusual happened to me.

- Has something like this happened to you before?

- Of course, this case stands apart. If you make a rating, it will be in first place. Another funny episode happened when I was just starting my career as a journalist. Then he shot a report from a basketball game in Kazan. One of the players got a ball right in front of my face. It turned out to be a very spectacular shot, on Youtube this video received a total of about 10 million views.

A second class story happened during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. A doctor from Tomsk met with a Colombian girl and wanted to marry her. We contacted him, helped organize everything. And at the stadium in Kazan, he proposed to her immediately after Colombia scored the ball. Then the whole world discussed it, it was very cool.

But, over, this douche I will never forget. Very often we lack self-irony, jokes. Perhaps another person in my place would have been indignant and upset, but I was only glad. Because any stupid situation is ridiculous.