The changes started as soon as Alexei Fedorychev took the club helm. Prominent in business, he was a Dynamo player for many years.
Dynamo has signed preliminary contracts with another two Portuguese athletes of Porto and the national team-Maniche and Costinha, a club functionary said to Novosti. They will go over to the Moscow team late next spring, to all appearances-after Portugal's Cup and the Champion League games finish, and Russia's national championship reaches its peak. The sums at stake are kept secret, as such things always are here in Russia. Independent experts think the Portuguese venture has cost Dynamo something like forty million Euro.
Fedorychev has vouched to get another fifty million to upgrade club facilities within the next two or three years. In particular, Dynamo will build another stadium in Moscow's northwest. All told, these are impressive expenditures. No other Russian premier league club stands comparison with such generosity in between the seasons-and Dynamo had a narrow escape last year, as it was about to quit the top league.
The club is recruiting new sponsors, too. The previous two days brought it contracts with formidable partners-Xerox and Super Slots. Characteristically, Xerox has never before engaged in soccer biz, says Igor Simonov, its spokesman in Russia. As for Super Slots, it is Russia's biggest slot machine chain. Gambling business is coming against public prejudice in Russia, and Michael Boettcher, company boss, hopes the highly popular team will cure the matter. The sums involved are also kept secret. Analysts evaluate the contracts at more than five million US dollars.
The soccer season is starting in a month. Newplayers will hardly join the team within it, Yuri Zavarzin, Dynamo Director General, said to Novosti. It's hard to believe, considering the latest deals.
