In his opinion, people judge the economic and political situation in a country from the national team.
It is necessary to establish an encouraging system to allocate grants to football clubs, Mutko said.
"We received $8 million for the participation in the previous championship. Why not give $1 million to clubs comprising players of the national team? In turn, they will give $500,000 to children's clubs," Mutko noted.
"Clubs are members of the big football family, the avant-garde of Russian football. The national team and clubs are the top of our pyramid, while amateur and children's clubs are its foundation. Our task is to combine wishes of the foundation and financial and organizational possibilities of the top," Vitaly Mutko stressed.
Chairman of the commission for youth and sports affairs of the Russian Federation Council Vitaly Mutko, 46, was elected new President of the Russian Football Union at the extraordinary session of the Union on Saturday. He will head the Union over the next three years.
All in all, 96 votes were given to Mutko, while his rival Anzor Kavazashvili, 64, former goalkeeper of the Moscow teams Spartak and Torpedo and the Soviet national team, President of the All-Russia Football Association won only one vote.
Vitaly Mutko, ex-president of the Zenit football club (St. Petersburg), replaced Vyacheslav Koloskov, 64, who is accused of many failures of the Russian national team.
Vyacheslav Koloskov who was heading the Russian Football Union for 25 years, said that at first he intended to resign in the end of 2005, however, decided to do this earlier for certain reasons. According to Koloskov, he will remain honored president of the Union and will work at least until 2008. Koloskov said he had already raised the issue of Georgy Yartsev's dismissal from the post of the chief coach of the Russian national team. Vitaly Mutko, in turn, does not rule out that a new coach will lead the team during the June 4 match with Latvia. This man might well be a foreigner.
