Letter of fourteen

At the 1988 European Championships, the USSR team under the leadership of head coach Valery Lobanovsky reached the finals , where she lost to the Netherlands team with a score of 0: 2. In the same year, the Olympic team led by Anatoly Byshovets won the Olympic Games , defeating Brazil in the final 2: 1. The USSR team, however, two years later did not overcome the group stage of the World Cup .

In 1991, the USSR ceased to exist, and with it the USSR national football team: instead of this team, which won its qualification group under the leadership of Byshovets, the CIS team went to the European Championship in 1992, which did not overcome the group stage there either. Through the efforts of Vyacheslav Koloskov, the CIS team was recognized as the successor of the USSR team, and then the Russian team as the successor of the CIS and USSR teams.

The Russian team formed after Euro 1992 successfully passed the qualifying tournament and reached the final stage of the 1994 World Cup from 2nd place, losing to Greece the first place in the group only in the last round in person. This team was coached by Pavel Sadyrin , who achieved victory in the last USSR championship with CSKA Moscow , taking the last gold double in the history of the USSR.

An open letter from the players of the Russian national football team

We, the players of the Russian national football team, understanding all the responsibility assigned to us for the team’s performance at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, consider it unacceptable to repeat the mistakes previously made repeatedly by the football federation - organizational miscalculations, financial manipulations, unsatisfactory logistics of the team that more than once negatively affected the quality of her performances.

We know that Sadyrin P.F. is a good club coach, but the team is different: the main thing that bothers us today is the training process and training methods for the coach of the Sadyrin team, which, in our opinion, do not correspond to the level of work with the main team Of Russia. The result achieved by the national team - reaching the final part of the 1994 World Cup - is the inertia of the team created by its former coach A.F. Byshovets for the 1992 European Championship.

We believe:

1. Anatoly Fedorovich Byshovets should rightfully work with the Russian national football team and prepare it for performances in the final of the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
2. The conditions for material reward for reaching the final of the World Cup must be changed.
3. The material and technical support of the national team of the country should be immediately improved.

Players of the Russian national football team: Nikiforov, Karpin, Ivanov, Juran, Shalimov, Dobrovolsky, Kolyvanov, Onopko, Khlestov, Kiryakov, Kanchelskis, Mostovoy, Salenko, Kulkov.

On November 17, 1993, the Russian team , which had already secured access to the 1994 World Cup in the United States , held the last match in the qualifying tournament against the Greek team. The match ended with the defeat of the Russian team with a score of 0: 1, in the last minutes Igor Dobrovolsky scored a goal that brought the Russian team a draw, but the judge canceled it.

After this game in the locker room, the president of the Russian Football Union, Vyacheslav Koloskov , said: “... with such a game, with such an attitude to the matter ... there is nothing for America to do” ^[2] . He also recalled the current sponsorship contract (the Russian Olympic Committee signed a contract with Reebok , according to which eight national team players were supposed to play in the boots of this company, but this agreement was not fulfilled, for which the size of the bonus for players was reduced ^[3] ), and stated that players who do not want to play in the form of this company will not go to the World Cup ^[2] .

On the same day, on the initiative of Igor Shalimov, on behalf of 14 players, a letter was written in the name of Shamil Tarpishchev , who served as adviser to the President of the Russian Federation for sports, in a Hilton hotel room ^[4] .

The letter was signed by: Yuri Nikiforov , Valery Karpin , Andrey Ivanov , Sergey Yuran , Igor Shalimov , Igor Dobrovolsky , Igor Kolyvanov , Victor Onopko , Dmitry Khlestov , Sergey Kiryakov , Andrey Kanchelskis (by fax), Alexander Mostovoy , Oleg Salenko , Vasily Kulkov .

According to Alexander Borodyuk , he and Sergey Gorlukovich , two Olympic champions, were also asked to sign a letter, but the reaction of these players was unequivocal:

Dmitry Galyamin , Dmitry Kharin , Stanislav Cherchesov , Dmitry Popov , Dmitry Radchenko refused to sign their appeal.

Radchenko explained his decision as follows:

On November 18, this letter was received by Shamil Tarpishchev. Finding out that the letter was not fake, on December 4 he handed over a copy of the letter to the RFU President V. I. Koloskov and suggested that he should be assembled by the RFU Executive Committee to listen to all interested parties ^[6] . An expanded meeting of the executive committee was held on December 7. The Executive Committee confirmed that the current head coach Pavel Sadyrin should prepare the national team for the 1994 World Cup, and the discussion of material incentives was postponed until a later date.

December 25, 1993 in the hall of the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Zubovskaya Square held a press conference of "refuseniks". It was attended by Shalimov, Juran, Kiryakov, Dobrovolsky, Mostovoy, Kulkov and Ivanov, the President of the ROC Vitaly Smirnov , the representative of the RFU Alexander Tukmanov , Tarpishchev. One of the national team coaches Boris Ignatiev was present.

Tukmanov stated that Pavel Sadyrin will prepare the national team for the championship, and claims to the financial and organizational side of the matter are fair ^[7] .

Oleg Salenko said that he refuses his signature.

Koloskov in response gathered a press conference in the hall of the Olympic Committee, where he said that the team is not a joint-stock company , and players should not appoint and remove coaches ^[8] .

The criminal authority of Otari Kvantrishvili , who came to a press conference ^[9] , also declared the inadmissibility of such actions.

After this conference, a number of players withdrew their signatures ^[9] .

The “Letter of Fourteen” caused a conflict between the players (“refuseniks” and non-signatories, as well as having changed their minds), the coaches and the leadership of the team, which undermined the team’s morale. Igor Shalimov, Igor Dobrovolsky, Igor Kolyvanov, Sergey Kiryakov, Vasily Kulkov, Andrey Kanchelskis, and also Andrey Ivanov, who were no longer invited to the national team, did not go to the World Cup, despite the withdrawal of the signature. At that tournament, the Russians could not overcome the first round.

Vyacheslav Koloskov believes that this story undermined the health of Pavel Sadyrin, who died in 2001 ^[10] .

Later, many of the signatories to the letter regretted their decision ^{[11] [12]} . Subsequently, it turned out that Kolyvanov, Kiryakov and Kanchelskis missed their only opportunity to play at the World Championships (at the 1990 World Cup they were still outside the Soviet national team, and the next time Russia took part in the World Cup final tournament only in 2002, when these players stopped play for the national team), and Kulkov in general at a major international tournament (at the 1990 World Cup he was also outside the national team, and missed the European Championships 1992 and 1996 due to injuries).

At the same time, according to Igor Shalimov, thanks to the letter, many problems that football players had to deal with earlier were subsequently resolved ^[11] .

In 2003, I. Shalimov became the head coach of the Uralan football club ( Elista ). Before the guest matches of the Elistins with Zenit and CSKA, fans of blue-white-blue and red-blue hung out posters with the following content: “ Dance, Shalimov, a letter from the players to you! "And" 94th: we will not forget, we will not forgive "(Sadyrin worked in both of these teams) ^[13] .

Later, Oleg Salenko stated that the letter was written under the dictation of Anatoly Byshovets, but refused to name the players who did this ^[14] .

• Koloskov V.I. In and out of the game. - M., 2008 .-- S. 139-145.
• Rabiner I. Our football Russia. - M., 2008. - S. 9-60.

• Rabiner I. Russian riot. // Sport-Express, November 18-19, 2003
• Squabbles at the highest level // Soviet Sport, May 27 - June 2, 2008, No. 21 (208)