All The President's Men

[White Noise]

http://shakhtar.com/en/news/12293

Rinat Akhmetov: "My heart wants everything to be determined in the first minutes"

24-02-10 21:30:24


On the eve of the very important clash of the Miners against English Fulham the President of FC Shakhtar Rinat Akhmetov visited his team's training and shared with journalists his hopes and expectations about tomorrow's game.

– Rinat Leonidovich, a non-football question for the beginning, it is connected with the festival that passed – Defender of the Fatherland Day. As a child, didn't you want to become the military man?
– No, I didn't dream about it, but we celebrated this holiday in our family. I wanted to become a footballer. But my team doesn't need such footballers as me.

– Is there any additional motivation for the team for the tomorrow's match?
– If you mean some financial stimuli, I've already said that if there is too much of financial motivation, it's hard to run. And we need a good speed for tomorrow. I'm sure that the footballers will do their best to defeat Fulham.

– Is the President of Ukraine going to be at Donbas Arena tomorrow?
– We are always glad to see Viktor Fedorovich at Donbas Arena, but tomorrow, that is a very important day, he will be very busy. So I think that Viktor Fedorovich can miss the possibility to watch the game.

– And you will be in Kiev?
– Of course, I will be in Kiev and surely I will be at the stadium in the evening. I will worry with our fans and hope that Shakhtar will show nice and victorious game. I think the footballers will do their best to defeat Fulham.

– Rinat Leonidovich, for the victory we need 1-0 score, and what result would satisfy you personally?
– Certainly such score is OK, we go further, but at the same time we will "tremble" till the last second. I always like when just 15 minutes into the match the score is 3-0, and I watch football relaxed. But this is not always so, that's why the main thing is for the result to be in our favour. If the fans are in thrill till the last second, everybody will get the great pleasure. Moreover, football fans like it, when it is n the last minutes or seconds the result of the match is determined. And my heart wants everything to be clear in the first minutes.

– Returning to the question about the additional motivation for the team. Earlier here were some methods, getting down into the mine, for example. But there haven't been meetings with the fans for a long time. Why is it so?
– The full stadium with 50 000 of fans and several millions people watching the match on TV will be the additional motivation. I'm sure the atmosphere will be marvelous and the players will do everything to please their fans. And as for the meetings – they are always important. But it seems to me that the main meeting will be tomorrow at Donbas Arena.

– Do you think now about the Ukrainian Premier League, that starts in three days? Lucescu says that the main target is Shakhtar performance in Europe, but the title of the winner of the country's championship is a guaranteed place in the UEFA Champions League.
– Now I think only about the tomorrow's game and think that we should do our best for our team to get to the next stage of Europa League. As for the Ukrainian Premier League, I've always said that our main task is to gain the great success in Europe. This is our target. And the victory in Ukrainian Premier League is means. If we don't win the championship, we won't reach our goal. So now the winning of the championship or the possession of the Ukrainian Cup is not the target, it was like this ten years ago. This is natural. We can win the championship and play badly in Europe. This is not the right taste: not the one of the champion's title, not the one of Ukrainian Cup. And when I say that our target is Europe, that we want to compete with the best European teams, than it is necessary to win the country's championship, it's the obligatory condition.

– Do you watch other tournaments where Shakhtar doesn't participate? UEFA Champions League yesterday, for example?
– I always watch football with great pleasure. Yesterday, for example, I liked VfW Stuttgart in the first half, the German club created a lot of problems for Barcelona. And in the second half Barcelona showed their real strength. Now it's easier for them to look into the Round 8 of UEFA Champions League.

– How do you think, is the Barcelona of today an ideal team? Would you like Shakhtar to play and look like the Catalan club?
– If Ukraine held the championship of such level as Spain or England do, I would do everything for us to have such a team – that plays such "tasty" football. I think today Barcelona is the best team in the world.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office