Word: spartak
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...seamless combination of government and business has made a priority of returning the motherland to world football's highest ranks. Zenit boasts a side of national stars, including Andrei Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak, whose dizzying salaries are financed by energy giant Gazprom, the team's owner. Moscow clubs Spartak and Dynamo are sponsored by their corporate patrons - also from the oil and gas sector - Yukos and Lukoil, respectively. The war chests that such firms bring to the game have led to galloping salary inflation, says midfielder Alexei Smertin - who is leaving London's Fulham for a fatter contract with Lokomotiv...
...also joined the turf wars. More critically FIFA, global football's governing body, could create a worldwide industry for these companies. FIFA has approved 30 facilities with synthetic turf, including the training pitch at Clairefontaine, France's famed football academy, and Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow, home to the Spartak and Torpedo Moscow clubs. Should FIFA approve the surface for all competitions, annual industry sales, now about j300 million, could explode. The European market seems ripe as cash-strapped clubs look for cost-effective ways to keep their pitches playable through the European winter. In the '80s, some clubs tried...