By Richard van Poortvliet
April 2 – Former Russia head coach, Valery Gazzaev (pictured) has hit out at the lack of Russian football fans passing through the turnstiles to watch domestic Premier League games.
Gazzaev was meeting with colleagues from various English football organisations, including the general secretary of the English Premier League, Nic Coward, as well as leading figures from Sky Sports and BT Sport.
“We talked in detail for a long time about how they create and implement the football infrastructure for the best league in the world at the moment,” Gazzaev said.
Some of the figures did not make for great comparisons for Russian football officials.
Last season, just 2.85 million spectators attended Russian Premier League games. In contrast, League 2 in England, the fourth tier of football in the country, saw 4.4 million fans attend matches during the 2012-13 season.
The English Championship, the league just below the Premier League attracted 9.4 million spectators – almost four times more than the Russian Premier League.
To increase crowd levels at top flight football in Russia, Gazzaev believes the playing standard needs to be upgraded.
“The performances of the national team and Russian clubs playing in Europe needs to improve. This is fundamental and without it there won’t be supporters, success, or financial security,” the former CSKA Moscow head coach said.
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