“Only the result will tell if I can handle it. I have never worked in football clubs in positions, ”Malyshev said these words at his first press conference as CEO. This position in Spartak has been unsuccessful in recent years. Since the summer of 2020, Spartak has already changed three CEOs, including Thomas Zorn, Shamil Gazizov and Evgeny Melezhikov, who admitted on Wednesday that he left of his own free will and wished success to his successor.
Malyshev has no managerial experience in football. Since 2022, he has been on the board of directors of Spartak, since September 2022 – from the moment when the body was headed by Alexander Matytsyn. Before that, his activity for the last almost 20 years was connected with sports and business.
Malyshev headed the direction of sports projects in the Russian division of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), which is one of the Big Four global auditors. At different times, he and the team prepared materials and projects for the RPL, back in the era of the former head of the league, Sergei Pryadkin. One of the main works was to prove the inefficiency of expanding the league from 16 to 18 clubs. At the same time, this issue has so far been repeatedly raised by the leaders of the clubs, especially those located in the relegation zone from the RPL.
“The budget will increase”
In recent years, Malyshev has been the managing partner of the OKS lab consulting company. This company developed strategies for the RPL during the period when the Russian league was headed by Ashot Khachaturyants. In 2021, a RPL development strategy document was prepared. However, he never came out. But after some time, the team of the current president of the league, Alexander Alaev, returned to this reform project and finalized it, the document was published by RBC Sport on Wednesday.
“For Spartak, the sports component is a priority. The competition is high, the main thing is to provide maximum assistance to the sports block. In the future, we will look at all elements of the business. The Spartak brand is the most powerful in Russia,” Malyshev said at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that the club will increase the budget, though without specifying by how much.
RBC Sport reported in May that the club plans to increase the budget to almost 12 billion rubles. At the same time, the club needs to correct the financial component: in the reporting for 2022, Spartak showed a loss of more than 2.3 billion rubles. pre-tax, the highest in the league.
Ashworth has clear goals at the moment
Journalists asked Malyshev a lot of questions about the club’s transfer policy. In particular, about what will happen to the club’s sporting director Paul Ashworth, who joined the club in the fall of 2022. The Briton has since been criticized for transfers, in particular for the purchase of Alexis Duarte. However, since his appointment, he has not responded to any criticism and has not given a single comment.
Malyshev stated that Ashworth had the support of the club. “He built the work of the scouts, hired analyst scouts into the club. They created a system for making decisions and analyzing players. He made transfer plans. At the moment, he has clear goals, a clear plan. There is a list of players that his team has prepared, it is agreed with the coach, ”Malyshev said, adding that the fate of the sports director will be decided by the results of the summer transfer window.