- Do you agree with the opinion that Russian football is on the rise?

- The level as it is is an objective indicator. Another thing is that I am against self-abasement. From the point of view of a person who has made some contribution to the development of football in Russia, it would be strange for me to say that everything is bad. Then why have I been doing all this for so many years? It’s like with a child who needs to say that he is a little better than he really is. Therefore, I would say that we are at the stage of growth. You just need to understand that people play as they can.

- On Twitter, you allow yourself to criticize Russian football players. Could you repeat this on the air?

- Some people have a very strange idea of ​​what we can and cannot say on the air. Yes, there are some boundaries, but they are not established by the leadership, but are formed on the basis of work experience. The journalist does it himself, based on his own moral principles, education. Of course, there is a publication policy, since each channel has an owner.

Therefore, it is worth distinguishing between broadcasting and expressing one's position on social networks. In the first case, you comment on what is happening, and another is not required from you. By the way, from this point of view, I certainly grew up and became more experienced, because during the reporting I try to be more restrained in judgments and evaluations. For everything else, there are social networks, blogs, and so on.

- Is it difficult to restrain on the air if you experience negative emotions towards the participants in the match?

- I don’t remember such a thing that right now turned me back from what was happening. On the air, this is out of the question. Another thing is when you can reasonably explain why, for example, you are opposed to inviting foreign coaches to Russia, while not expressing rejection. This is again a matter of corporate ethics. Because we all communicate with each other. Yes, you can get out of this society, sit on Youtube and pour mud on everyone. But I can’t afford it, because for many years I’ve been doing a program about Russian football players and coaches. They need us, they are for us.

- Who would you call the most valuable player of the decade?

- There are many of those. Unlike individual sports, there are teams in football. Therefore, I am against personal rewards. Lionel Messi, Golden Ball - Commerce and Marketing. This has nothing to do with a real assessment. Lionel won nothing with his team, and I would have looked at him in another team, not in Barcelona. Therefore, for me, Cristiano Ronaldo is a greater champion, although from the point of view of the actual game of football, I like the Argentinean more. He has talent from God, and the Portuguese made himself. Just two different paths to the top. But you won’t win the match, being the only genius on the field.

- At the same time, after the World Cup, many singled out Igor Akinfeev and Sergey Ignashevich as part of the Russian national team, although Yuri Zhirkov deserves equal attention ...

- It’s just historically that there are not so many people who went beyond the framework of their club and became popular favorites. This is Andrei Tikhonov, the same Akinfeev and Artyom Dzyuba. The latter is the idol of millions of children. Bring him to kindergarten, everyone will throw spoons and run to him. There are no more.

- Will the generation nurtured at the 2018 World Cup be better than the previous one?

- Honestly, from this point of view I am very disappointed because we did not catch the wave of excitement and involvement in football. The tournament was over and the stadiums are empty again, widespread decline, although everyone still plays football. In Moscow, a children’s team is in every entrance, not to mention all sorts of academies. But the gap between amateur sports and professional is still great.

- Is a good contract in the first league a question of blat or talent?

- Today, of course, the first. World football is run by agents. Perhaps a man of extraordinary talent, such as Messi, will break through sooner or later. But a player with average capabilities is very difficult to build a career. That is why many people end up with sports already in their teens, they simply lose interest. In addition, Moscow has few professional clubs. Compare with conventional London, where in each district there is a team playing in some division.

- But in Russia, football remains the most popular sport. Why is this happening?

- Few jobs, high competition. In a country where there is no medium business, there will be no football. "Chievo" contains the owner of a factory that produces Christmas cakes. Can you imagine this in Russia? And this is the top division team (Chievo took off from the top division at the end of last season. - RT ). And here everything rests on state corporations and the enthusiasm of individuals, such as the owner of Krasnodar, Sergey Galitsky.

- Can something be taught by his example?

- Galitsky is a unique character whose availability of money coincided with a fanatical hobby for football. People like him do something good not because of, but in spite of. But in mass sports, the opposite happens: there are no funds, no fields, low salaries for coaches, parents have to pay everything from their own pockets. How many large cities do we have where there are no professional clubs at all? Of course, it’s good if two or three Galician residents lived in each of them, but we have what we have.

- Why is there no person in the Russian championship who would comment on VAR decisions after the matches?

- I generally think that all negotiations of the chief arbiter with the VAR team should be heard.

- Does VAR kill interest in football, as happened in figure skating?

- If technological progress minimizes mistakes - and in football their cost is very high - then it is necessary. However, the issue is its implementation. So far, good intention leads to even greater chaos. The British were against this system, but they had to obey by order. So far, I see only that, on the one hand, with the help of this system, judges really avoid blunders, but on the other, they get an additional opportunity to manipulate the game. In its current form, I think the VAR protocol is incompetent. It needs to be changed.