The committee will seek the assistance of politicians and businessmen to raise the necessary funds for the club. Chervonenko also said that it would appeal to singer/politician Iosif Kobzon, a long-time fan of Spartak, to give a series of charity concerts. A charity game will also be held on September 3, during the Spartak Cup tournament.
"A Spartak Cup without Spartak is nonsense," said Olympic champion and former Spartak goalie Boris Mayorov, who will head the committee.
Last week, the general meeting of the club's management and players decided to dissolve the team. It is not on the Russian games list for 2006-2007, and will not play next season in the Russian Superleague or the Premier League.
The club's management has spent the last few months in a roller-coaster search for money. The Moscow government refused to provide the funds, and Spartak Fund president Igor Shabdurasulov said it did not have enough money. The club was in a nosedive, and the ground was rapidly approaching.
Vadim Melkov, former CFO of the Russian Hockey Federation, who had assembled a group of businessmen ready to help out, could have saved the club, but he died on July 9, when an A310 aircraft crashed at Irkutsk airport.
Subsequent talks proved useless, and one of Russia's best hockey teams, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation this year, may cease to exist.
Spartak Moscow won the Soviet Championship four times, defeating CSKA and Dynamo despite their "administrative resources" (a talented hockey player could be drafted into the army and ordered to play for CSKA, or "offered" a job in the police, which made him a Dynamo player). Spartak, which did not have this opportunity, nevertheless won 12 silver and eight bronze medals in national championships, and 17 of its players climbed to the top of the Olympic dais.
But who cares about past achievements in this age of money? Spartak's problems started accumulating when Moscow Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev, president of the Moscow Hockey Federation, was appointed governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region on the Volga.
Shabdurasulov said only three "screwballs" had supported the club in the past ten years: president of the Spartak Cup Gelani Tovbulatov, Valery Shantsev, and himself.
Hockey is an unprofitable business in Russia. In fact, it is not a business at all, and clubs depend on the goodwill of sponsors and municipal and regional governments. For example, the whole of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan on the Volga is "working" for the republic's team, Ak Bars. Clubs' problems begin when their fans withdraw their support, which is what happened with Togliatti-based Lada and Dynamo Moscow, where players did not receive salaries for months at a time.
Many Siberian companies invest in hockey as part of the so-called social responsibility of business. But Moscow has three more hockey clubs apart from Spartak: CSKA, Dynamo and Krylya Sovetov (Soviet Wings). Some state agencies support CSKA and Dynamo, but it is strange that none of the major companies headquartered in Moscow cared to help out Spartak.
The club's debts total $150,000, which is peanuts for some Moscow companies. Quite a few cars in Moscow cost more. But a car is your personal property, you have a guarantee on it, and its problems are solved by maintenance specialists. But there is no guarantee when you buy a sports club: it may start winning medals, or it may plummet into a lower division in a year.
A club is like a girl. You have to court it, set ambitious goals for it, and help it become better. For a club to start winning, you need to spend millions of dollars on it, which is too much for many people. Businessmen know very well that earning money is hard and losing it very easy.
The Saturday meeting of the executive committee of the Russian Hockey Federation decided against keeping Spartak Moscow in the Superleague.
Club president Vyacheslav Starshinov said: "The club's fate hinged on that decision. Potential sponsors might donate to a Superleague team, but finding [financial] partners for a Premier League club would be much more difficult."
Unfortunately, hockey is gaining popularity in the provinces but not in Moscow, where fewer people attend hockey games than in Kazan, Togliatti or Omsk. Spartak's dissolution could be a sign of Russian hockey's decline. There are other countries that used to be great hockey powers, but are now minor European states with only a great history.
But I refuse to believe that this can happen to Spartak, especially since it has moved down to the Premier League twice and twice returned to the Superleague. I hope to see the red-and-white Spartak players at their home in Sokolniki, cheered on by thousands of fans.
