Lyashenko is a former football player and seven-time Latvian indoor football champion. He became the president of the LFF in the summer of 2020, but this summer he was elected to the indoor soccer and beach soccer committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), becoming the first representative of Latvia to become the chairman of a UEFA committee.
Reinis Ošinek: Congratulations on your new position! Knowing that you come from an indoor football environment, shouldn’t the classical football community start to worry that priorities will change now – Vadim will look more in another direction?
Vadim Lashenko: Thanks for the greetings! We will definitely not change our priorities. It is both a satisfaction and a great responsibility for me, because at the moment I am in charge of all indoor football in Europe, I am also responsible for beach football. Indoor football is in my heart, I myself have played many matches in the national team, I am a seven-time Latvian champion in “Nikara”. I know many futsal presidents and the administration that run UEFA and are responsible for futsal, so I understand that path very well. I think we have to look at futsal not as a competitor, but as a helper for football.
Briefly outline what four years means – what is the work plan? How many times a month do you have to fly somewhere, meet people? How long will the new position take?
There will be approximately three, four meetings a year. Usually you have to fly to UEFA, to Nyon [Šveicē]. I can propose to organize it in Latvia as well. In my committee there are about 50 people from different federations, there are also representatives from clubs. There are both coaches and presidents with whom we can exchange opinions and analyze perhaps strategic systems, competitions, and then accordingly recommend to the UEFA executive committee to change or reform some competitions, which we have now done with the Women’s European Championship. There were four teams in the final tournament, now there will be eight.
Latvia, together with Lithuania, will host the European Championship in indoor football in 2026 – bringing such major news from Hamburg, from Germany. Is it a business project or do you see it as a way to promote indoor soccer? Will you also ask for co-financing from the state to organize it? How much will it cost?
First of all, it is a big responsibility to organize such an event. At the moment, it is the maximum that we can organize in Latvia, if we compare it with football tournaments.
At the moment, we lack the infrastructure to organize the European Championship or the World Cup in football, but in indoor football it is the highest tournament.
16 teams will participate in the tournament, and we have teamed up with Lithuania. Eight teams will be in Latvia, eight teams in Lithuania. We are now awaiting the final budget from UEFA.
What percentage of this is state aid, how much UEFA co-financing?
Usually UEFA covers all expenses, but the tournament is two years away, so a lot can change. I think there is no risk of the tournament not happening.
No licensing fees or guarantees from the government in this case?
We have been working for about a year to achieve this. Many thanks to my team as well. We worked at night, drove to Lithuania to find the final format to offer to UEFA. Thanks also to the public sector, because they wrote many letters. Special thanks to the Ministry of Education and Science, which did a lot to confirm our readiness to compete in this competition.
Are guarantees from the state necessary, or just a letter is enough?
At the moment, only a letter is enough that we can guarantee that we will give visas, provide accommodation, all necessary permits to organize that tournament here.
Thanks to this, the Latvian national team will debut in the European Championship. We did not qualify, but now we will play as the host country. The question is, how was the fight for the final, which will be held in Riga? Lithuanians had the World Cup. Was it because they’ve already had a grand final?
As a former indoor soccer player, it was my dream to play in the final tournament. Now, as president, I have succeeded – we will play in the final tournament. We immediately agreed with Lithuania that they will have the opening match and the match for third place, but we will have the final match.
In September, there was a question about admitting Russia to the U-17 age group, which several people, including you, objected to. Was it discussed in Hamburg that maybe it could be allowed in the European Championships?
There was no need to talk about it at the moment, because it was clear that UEFA does not allow Russian players in any competitions. Therefore, this question was automatically dropped.
The draw for the European Championship was also held in Hamburg at the same time. Were those weird sounds on the internet a sign, “Hey, brace yourself, things aren’t so safe!” Will hackers be able to crack anything?
It is something of a blur and a surprise to the organizers, but now an investigation is underway as to why this happened. However, this does not affect the entire draw in any way. Everything was beautiful and well organized. The draw was interesting.
The king of sports is football. As the head of the Football Federation, how was it for you to see a photo of containers with flags of different countries, but not to see Latvia there? This was the main goal set for Dainis Kazakevics when he took the helm of the head coach of the national team…
Of course, it is painful and I would like to attend such an event not as a guest, but as a participant. I think we have a lot to do to make it happen.
Of course, we all remember what happened 20 years ago when we were there [Eiropas čempionāta finālturnīrā] we were
It’s still talked about a lot, everyone there also remembers Portugal and the fact that we had very good chances to get more points, especially in the game against Germany when it was a draw but the referee didn’t give a penalty. Everyone seriously believes that we have those players and expect a surprise from us in the future.
It looks like that surprise is quite far off. The numbers speak for themselves after this cycle. I understand that there will be a report on Kazakevich’s work this week. Can it affect Kazakevic’s future in the Latvian national team – he has a contract until the end of next year?
Yes, on December 7 for us [LFF] there will be a meeting with the coaches of all national teams, where they will report to us about what they have done. Both Kazakevich and all the youth national team coaches will come to us to talk about the tournaments and then the board members will make a decision about what we will do in the future.
When you extended Kazakevic’s contract until the end of next year in 2022, Lashenko said: “I am happy that the management and development of the national team has been entrusted to a team of local specialists. It has been the right choice.” Do you still agree with this statement?
Yes I agree. I still believe that,
if there is an opportunity to trust our specialists, then of course you should try to do so.
We don’t have that many coaches with international experience in Latvia. In it [trenera] in context, we all remember why we did it. We qualified for Qatar [Pasaules kausu]where we played that cycle very decently – against Turkey 3:3 away, we lost 1:2 at home in “Daugava” stadium only in the 97th minute, when the referee called pendant lights. With the Netherlands 0:1, with Norway 0:0. Of course, all this inspires to give confidence to the coach and the whole team. It was a signal and our boys won the Nations League Group D.
After that, the curve somehow goes down for you…
You know, in sports you can’t guarantee that everything will always be up. We see in this context that some kind of change needs to be made, and we will talk about it.
Is it true that Kazakevics, as sports director, has also participated in drawing up contracts with the head coach in all previous years? Also, when talking about compensations, about which a clause is included.
The first contract with him was not signed by me, but by Edgars Pukinskis. That’s why it’s hard for me to answer.
We know what happened when Alexander Starkov was fired. As they say, the compensation was about 100 thousand euros. About 170 thousand for Slavis Stojanovic. In the case of Kazakevic, could the amount be similar if he is fired?
It’s confidential information, but I can tell you that number is lower. It is no different from his previous contract.
At the level of the Football Federation, how much is the coach of the champions “RFS”, perhaps a foreign specialist working in Latvia, – Tomislav Šaričs? Have you looked into it? Should Dain be worried?
Any coach should always understand that one day the moment will come when he will have to leave the national team. Nothing lasts forever, the players understand that too. It’s a sport.
It is said here and there that Dainis is eternal. Its influence is big enough for him in Latvian football…
It’s not, because he’s a coach and he understands that. The position of athletic director is, as we say, a marathoner who takes a long-term strategic view of the issue. However
I believe that the position of a coach is like a sprinter – you need to show the result very promptly and quickly.
In my opinion, Dainis is a very logical person and he understands this very well.
If we count from 2017, Dainis became the fifth national team coach in 2020, so before that they changed quite often, but now it is Kazakevičs for a long time. Let’s put an end to the conversation with the stadium – does Lucavsala 100% remain the chosen place? When will it be built and when will we know any news?
Now [Rīgas domes] The Development Department is preparing an opinion for the Property Department about Lucavsala, the place we chose. At the moment, I am still continuing negotiations with a potential investor – on December 18 I will fly to Saudi Arabia to meet him. Accordingly, after that we will see the next steps. We already understand that this place is currently the most relevant and the best – not only for a stadium, but also for a football base, where we definitely want to build our football house and a football field where we can hold training sessions.
Or will indoor soccer have a place there?
I would definitely like a room for football, but currently a new team game hall with 2200 seats is being built in Riga. In my opinion, this will be enough to hold international level games in Riga.
2023-12-06 08:22:34
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