"Zenith-Arena": the stadium as a symbol of shame in Russia. How the most scandalous stadium was opened in St. Petersburg in disgrace

In Petersburg - new scandal around the Zenith Arena. It all started with a strike of workers who, as it turned out, had not been paid their salaries for several months. Then the general contractor "Inzhtransstroy-SPb" presented many claims to Smolny. Officials did not stand aside and, after retaliatory accusations, handed the company a notice of termination of the contract. The "construction of the century" stopped.

Early rejoiced

"Zenith Arena" has long been an unfunny anecdote. Half the world mocks St. Petersburg by publishing comparative graphs, which objects and for how much were built in all parts of the world cheaper and faster than this stadium.

However, even in the spring it seemed that the delays and numerous squabbles were over. The object was 85% ready, the officials promised that in September a test match would be held on the emerald lawn of the arena, and in December it would start functioning in full force. They rejoiced early.

After the strike of workers who did not receive wages for several months (according to Rostrud, the debt is 78 million rubles), the management of Inzhtransstroy-SPb made two tough statements. Their essence boiled down to the following: there is still no project documentation, work already completed in the amount of a billion rubles has not been paid for, and there is no professional maintenance service in Smolny. At the same time, the general contractor "really wants to complete the construction within the deadlines set by the state contract, but the city administration is struggling to break them."

Vice Governor Igor Albin and Chairman of the Construction Committee Sergei Morozov immediately went to the construction site, although they visit there every day. The workers were reassured, but it was not possible to establish relations with the contractor. As a result, a couple of days later, the builders were given a notice of termination of the contract. From the point of view of timing, this move means a catastrophe: now long bureaucratic procedures are ahead, during which work must stop. Moreover, as it has already become clear, Inzhtransstroy-SPb will not refuse a tidbit and will not give up the stadium without a fight.

"Golden Cup"

All weekend Smolny threw "bombs" into the information space, trying to undermine the reputation of the general contractor. Suddenly everyone learned that for a long time the builders only whined about draconian deadlines, demanded money and forbade themselves to be controlled.

There is probably some truth in this. But where did the officials look and why did they tolerate these tricks? Why didn’t they terminate the contract in advance, if they understood for a long time that the contractor was hacking?

Journalists and the public, who closely followed the development of events, realized back in the spring that "the case smells like kerosene." Then the parties at the same time called different deadlines for the delivery of the object. Smolny announced that the stadium would be ready in July, and the general director of Ing-
transstroy-SPb "Vitaly Lazutkin argued that before December 2016, he would not be in time. As a result, the latter managed to push through a later date.

In June, the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg adopted an unpopular decision. The law on budget adjustment provided for an increase in the cost of the arena on Krestovsky Island by 4.3 billion rubles. Together with this amount, the total value of the "golden bowl" reached a record 43 billion. There is no other stadium in the world more expensive!

In this situation, no doubt, everyone is to blame. And the general contractor, and the Smolny administration, and the deputies. The team of Valentina Matvienko also had a hand in the failure - it was in the first years of construction that the cost of the arena grew by leaps and bounds.

The conflict could have been avoided if in 2013 the law enforcement agencies had set in motion an act of checking the Accounts Chamber, I am sure Petersburg deputy Boris Vishnevsky.- Let me remind you: of the 14 billion rubles allocated at that time from the budget of St. Petersburg, almost 7 billion were actually stolen. And no one answered for this. The only criminal case in the amount of embezzlement of about 400 million rubles was closed two years later due to the statute of limitations. Instead of punishing the guilty and establishing tight control over the construction site, new billions were thrown into this bottomless barrel. My personal opinion is that Transstroy should have been driven a long time ago. Change it to another contractor and control the costs of builders in the most careful way.

What's next?

Officials promise to carry out a simplified procedure for terminating the contract and quickly select a new general contractor. They are expected to complete within 2-3 weeks. But this is hardly believable. After all, Smolny has problems not only at the Zenit Arena - for more than 4 years they could not finish the interchange on the Moscow Highway, the equipment is still standing at the Poklonnogorsk interchange. In both cases, after the bankruptcy
It took years for general contractors to return to work on construction sites.

We have every decision of the city administration - it's a masterpiece, - grins TV journalist, director Alexei Lushnikov.- The beginning of the summer was "filled" with bridges on Vasilyevsky Island and the overhaul of Bolshoy Prospekt V. O., the overlapping of the Trinity Bridge, and slyness about the surrender of the Western High-Speed Diameter. Business people in private conversations have long been talking about Smolny's loss of competence in solving the simplest issues of the life and development of the city.

Today, St. Petersburg is at risk of not hosting the international football tournament Confederations Cup, which will be held in June 2017. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has already announced the possible transfer of matches from our city to a more prepared one. But this is not the worst. The image losses that we bear are simply irreplaceable.

Opinion of the authorities

Harakiri in the stadium?

Igor Albin, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg:

- The general contractor, apparently, believes that the city authorities decided to make themselves "hara-kiri at the stadium" and, having disgraced the whole White light, disrupt the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. And the mess and unreasonable spending of budget funds at the facility, the lack of a normal organization of work, money and materials are the fruit of my “sick imagination”, as well as the criminal cases that were initiated against stealing contractors (“SEM-5”, “TDM”, etc. ). Hard workers are simply insolent and demand to pay a salary for two months. The leadership of Transstroy (the parent company. - Ed.) already has a lot of problems - they themselves do not have enough money. Yes, and salaries of 500-600 thousand rubles for the administrative apparatus have greatly depreciated due to exchange rate problems.

According to Transstroy, our stadium is unprofitable and is not a business, but a charitable project of a company that, in this endless sea of problems, dreams of completing the construction of the stadium on time. However, she has been dreaming since 2008, and these dreams cost the city treasury dearly. But the facts say otherwise - these are just dreams against the background of the pathological greed of the company's management.

Opinion of builders

Clean Economy

Vitaly Lazutkin, General Director of Inzhtransstroy-SPb:

- The customer, represented by the city administration, did everything to disrupt the deadlines for completing the project. There was no project documentation, and previously completed work in the amount of 1 billion rubles was not paid. We did not see the announced and agreed increase in the stadium construction budget by 4.3 billion rubles. Losses due to the need to purchase imported equipment caused by exchange rate differences are not compensated.

The termination of the contract occurs at the moment when we have completed the most complex work requiring high qualifications. Of the problematic moments, there are systems of mechanization, automation and control of the sliding roof. It must be understood that without our specialists it will be almost impossible to complete all this. At the roll-out field, it is also necessary to install automation, an air cushion. There are only a few specialists, engineers who are proficient in these issues, and we have been gathering them into one team for a very long time.

Now the picture is quite simple - a clean economy. There are six months left until delivery. We are thrown out of the facility with a huge minus at the end of construction, and the new general contractor enters the almost finished facility and completes it in excellent financial conditions.

Now we continue to work as usual, study the comments that formed the basis of the notice of termination of contracts, and prepare a legal position.

In St. Petersburg, in disgrace, they opened the most scandalous stadium

The main long-term construction of the country is the most shameful sports facility Russia was supposed to open up just like that. The very first match at the "Raw Saw Arena", as the fans call it, ended in a grandiose scandal. Details - in the column of sports correspondent Znak.com Andrey Varkentin.

The Krestovsky stadium in St. Petersburg was built for a very long time, an incredibly long time. It's hard to believe, but in August 2007, the then governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, announced that Zenit would play the first match at the new stadium in March 2009. That is, eight years ago. Since then, the opening date has been pushed back several times. For example, in April 2014, the then Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko said: “The Zenit Arena stadium in St. Petersburg will be commissioned by May 2016 and will host the first match at the same time.”

Officials changed positions, but the stadium continued to be built. The estimate grew almost every day. It increased from 8 billion rubles to 48 billion rubles. And it's not over yet. So, the other day, the administration of the Federal Antimonopoly Service for St. Petersburg announced that the stadium would probably have to be redone.

It's hard to believe it, but Zenit CEO Maxim Mitrofanov said on April 11, 2016 that the club did not want to move to a new stadium at all.

“To be honest, we would not play our matches at this stadium now. But there are certain obligations for the host of the 2018 World Cup, which in this case is St. Petersburg. She is obliged to hold three events at the stadium before the Confederations Cup, it is not indicated, by the way, which ones, so de jure this is not necessary football matches. We will not go into details, but I can say that the football field that was created by the stadium contractors is dead. What we have now is grown by Zenith specialists. It is growing now in the best way. Because the engineering systems of the field do not fully work and have not been delivered. And also because it is not yet possible to open the roof for a number of reasons. And our field lacks air. The grass is bad, ”Mitrofanov noted.

Zenit did not want to play at the stadium. But it was necessary - the interests of Russia are above all - it was necessary to play three matches before the Confederations Cup. Although the stadium was not ready.

And now the day of the game - April 22, the match of the Russian Football Championship "Zenith" - "Ural". The roof leaked first. Right during the match, the workers fussily covered the holes with polyethylene. “The problem with the roof of the stadium arose shortly before the match - it turned out that the reflective film of one of the cards with an area of 120 square meters had a factory defect, it had to be replaced with polyethylene during the game,” explained Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Igor Albin.

Then it turned out that the lawn still died. And everyone is unhappy with them. “A specific field, it has not yet fully matured, young grass,” said Main coach Zenith Mircea Lucescu. Zenit football player Yuri Zhirkov almost vomited because of the closed roof. As the player will later tell, it was very difficult for him to play. Also, during the game and after, all those present could see the holes that remained in the lawn after almost every hard hit footballers.

But the stadium needs to be opened. The main VIPs arrived at Krestovsky - the former head of the RFU, Sergei Fursenko, and the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller.

In the first half of the match "Ural" - "Zenith" the game was equal, at the beginning of the second, Yekaterinburg went ahead, almost scored a goal. And apparently this scenario did not suit someone. After that, in the 61st minute, referee Alexei Eskov sent off two Ural players at once in just 60 seconds - Eric Bikfalvi and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

It was just incredible: first the second yellow card received Bikfalvi for a foul on Smolnikov. In fact, the Yekaterinburg player played the ball, which caused an angry reaction from the Ural players. Pavlyuchenko went to the judge, began talking to him in a raised voice and also received a red card, which was also extremely strange. Thus, Ural was forced to continue the match with nine men.

"Circus. Now, in order for Zenit to win at home against Ural, two must be sent off. And the first player, Bikfalvi, played the ball. And due to inertia, he hit the leg, ”the well-known sports journalist Igor Rabiner commented on his Facebook refereeing.

It really was a circus. But Eskov did not calm down and removed another player from Yekaterinburg - Roman Emelyanov, after which the Urals remained to play in eight. Such in the Russian football premier league It was never.

After the game, everyone was indignant - from ordinary fans to the management of Ural. “Win honestly at least once!” Alexander Dantsev says after the match. The man, whose voice is similar to the voice of the president of "Ural" Grigory Ivanov, continues: "What are you doing? Do not be ashamed at all, you have no conscience! There will never be football in Russia with such refereeing.”

Now even RFU President Vitaly Mutko paid attention to refereeing. “I believe that the FIFA referee should not lead the match this way, this is my position. As president of the RFU, I am responsible for whether he will receive the status of a FIFA referee or not. Here I am, having watched the match today, I did not see a FIFA referee on the field. A FIFA referee is, first of all, highly qualified. He cannot allow the situation on the field to be the same as he allowed it to be. And in fact, to a certain extent, he provoked this situation himself. I hope that the commission will consider all these points in detail. The situations he created were elementary, they could have been avoided,” Mutko said.

But, as you know, even such words will not change anything. Miller and Fursenko embrace and applaud - thank you all.

In St. Petersburg, the most scandalous stadium was opened in disgrace

The main long-term construction of the country - the most shameful sports facility in Russia - was supposed to open just like that. The very first match at the "Raw Saw Arena", as the fans call it, ended in a grandiose scandal. Details - in the column of sports correspondent Znak.com Andrey Varkentin.

It's hard to believe it, but Zenit CEO Maxim Mitrofanov said on April 11, 2016 that the club did not want to move to a new stadium at all.

“To be honest, we would not play our matches at this stadium now. But there are certain obligations for the host of the 2018 World Cup, which in this case is St. Petersburg. It is obliged to hold three events at the stadium before the Confederations Cup, it is not indicated, by the way, which ones, so de jure these are not necessarily football matches. We will not go into details, but I can say that the football field that was created by the stadium contractors is dead. What we have now is grown by Zenith specialists. It's not growing well right now. Because the engineering systems of the field do not fully work and have not been delivered. And also because it is not yet possible to open the roof for a number of reasons. And our field lacks air. The grass is bad, ”Mitrofanov noted.

Then it turned out that the lawn still died. And everyone is unhappy with them. "It's a specific pitch, it's not fully matured yet, it's young grass," Zenit head coach Mircea Lucescu said. Zenit football player Yuri Zhirkov almost vomited because of the closed roof. As the player will later tell, it was very difficult for him to play. Also, during the game and after, all those present could see the holes that remained in the lawn after almost every strong blow of the players.

But the stadium needs to be opened. The main VIPs arrived at Krestovsky - the former head of the RFU Sergey Fursenko and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller.

It was simply unbelievable: at first, Bikfalvi received a second yellow card for a foul on Smolnikovo. In fact, the Yekaterinburg player played the ball, which caused an angry reaction from the Ural players. Pavlyuchenko went to the judge, began talking to him in a raised voice and also received a red card, which was also extremely strange. Thus, "Ural" was forced to continue the match with nine.

It really was a circus. But Eskov did not calm down and removed another player from Yekaterinburg - Roman Emelyanov, after which the Urals remained to play in eight. This has never happened in the Russian Premier League.

But, as you know, even such words will not change anything. Miller and Fursenko embrace and applaud - thank you all.

https://www.site/2017-04-22/kak_v_pitere_s_pozorom_otkryli_samyy_skandalnyy_stadion

“We will never have football in Russia with such refereeing”

How the most scandalous stadium was opened in St. Petersburg in disgrace

The main long-term construction of the country - the most shameful sports facility in Russia - was supposed to open just like that. The very first match at the "Razpil Arena", as the fans call it, ended in a grandiose scandal ..

And the general director of Zenit, Maxim Mitrofanov, said on April 11, 2016 that the club did not want to move to a new stadium at all.

And here is the day of the game - April 22, the match of the Russian Football Championship "Zenith" - "Ural". The roof leaked first. Right during the match, the workers fussily covered the holes with polyethylene. "The problem with the roof of the stadium arose shortly before the match - it turned out that the reflective film of one of the cards with an area of 120 square meters had a factory defect, and had to be replaced with polyethylene during the game," explained Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Igor Albin.

Then it turned out that the lawn still died. And everyone is unhappy with them. "It's a specific pitch, it's not fully matured yet, it's young grass," Zenit head coach Mircea Lucescu said. Zenit football player Yuri Zhirkov almost vomited because of the closed roof. As later the player will tell that it was very difficult for him to play. Also, during the game and after, all those present could see the holes that remained in the lawn after almost every strong blow of the players.

But the stadium needs to be opened. The main VIPs arrived at Krestovsky - the former head of the RFU Sergey Fursenko and the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller.

In the first half of the match "Ural" - "Zenith" the game was equal, at the beginning of the second Yekaterinburg went ahead, almost scored a goal. And, apparently, this scenario did not suit someone. After that, in the 61st minute, referee Alexei Eskov sent off two Ural players at once in just 60 seconds - Eric Bikfalvi and Roman Pavlyuchenko.

"Circus. Now, in order for Zenit to win at home against Ural, two must be sent off. And the first player, Bikfalvi, played the ball. And due to inertia, he hit the leg, ”commented the well-known sports journalist Igor Rabiner on his Facebook.

Indeed, it was a circus. But Eskov did not calm down and sent off another player from Yekaterinburg - Roman Emelyanov, after which the Urals remained to play in eight. This has never happened in the Russian Premier League.

After the game, everyone was indignant - from ordinary fans to the management of Ural. “Win honestly for once!” Alexander Dantsev says after the match. The man, whose voice is similar to the voice of the president of "Ural" Grigory Ivanov, continues: "What are you doing? Do not be ashamed at all, you have no conscience! There will never be football in Russia with such refereeing.”

Now even RFU President Vitaly Mutko paid attention to refereeing. “I believe that the FIFA referee should not lead the match this way, this is my position. As president of the RFU, I am responsible for whether he will receive the status of a FIFA referee or not. Here I am, having watched the match today, I did not see a FIFA referee on the field. A FIFA referee is, first of all, highly qualified. He cannot allow the situation on the field to be the same as he allowed it to be. And in fact, to a certain extent, he provoked this situation himself. I hope that the commission will consider all these points in detail. The situations that he created were elementary, they could have been avoided, ”Mutko said.

Yesterday, the entire sports community and not only was shocked by the news that for the sake of the timely completion of the Zenit Arena stadium in St. Petersburg, which must be put into operation for the 2018 World Cup, the city government cut social facilities programs by billion rubles. For those who are unfamiliar with this shock situation - summarized below.

August 2016. Saint Petersburg. The long-suffering stadium on Krestovsky Island.

The authorities approved a plan for the redistribution of funds from social facilities for the completion of the stadium in St. Petersburg

The Government of St. Petersburg has approved a plan for the redistribution of funds for the completion of the stadium on Krestovsky Island and the surrounding infrastructure, informs the website of the government. The total amount will be 2.6 billion rubles.

Thus, the budget for the construction of schools will be reduced by 505 million rubles. The budget of preschool education institutions - 313 million rubles, cultural facilities - 126 million rubles, health care - 925 million rubles. 88 million rubles will be redistributed from the construction of a house in Kolpino.

The budget for the construction of a complex in Krasnoye Selo and the reconstruction of the optical-mechanical communication of a professional lyceum will be reduced by 155 million rubles. Also, the Northern Capital Construction Committee intends to redistribute 1.7 billion rubles for the completion of the arena. Another 888 million will be spent on infrastructure.

Among the facilities that will be cut funding for construction are, for example, a children's tuberculosis sanatorium, an ambulance station, a polyclinic for adults, kindergartens for 165 and 150 seats, and much more. Full list.

P.S. Since the website of the government of St. Petersburg has already blocked access to the shocking document, I will say that it provides for the transfer of funds from 29 budgetary social facilities. Their return is planned by autumn amendments to the 2017 budget and the planning period of 2018 and 2019. Officials assure that the redistribution of funds will not affect the commissioning of facilities.

Recall that in July the government of St. Petersburg terminated the contract with the contractor "Inzhtransstroy-SPb" due to a deficit of 2.5 billion rubles. At the same time, the company accused the city authorities of deliberately delaying the construction deadlines.

The stadium, which will host matches of the 2017 Confederations Cup and the 2018 World Cup, was founded in the western part of Krestovsky Island in 2007. His project was seriously corrected several times. During this time, the cost of the arena increased from the initially estimated 6.7 billion to a possible 43.8 billion rubles, in 2013 it was reduced, but has since grown to 39.6 billion. After the allocation of additional money, the cost should increase to 42.4 billion.

How the stadium on Krestovsky Island got more expensive

This is how the stadium on Krestovsky Island will look like.
■ 6.7 billion rubles - this was the initial estimate for the construction of the stadium, announced in 2007.
■ 14 billion - Smolny soon announced that mistakes had been made in the first calculation and more than doubled the cost of construction.

■ 23.7 billion - this amount was announced by Valentina Matviyenko, who held the post of governor of St. Petersburg, in the summer of 2009. At the same time, it became known that the construction time was "slightly late."
■ 27.8 billion - in 2011, the cost of construction increased again. The reason was the new safety requirements in connection with the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

■ 40 billion - at the end of 2011, it was announced that due to the increase in the capacity of the arena from 62 to 69 thousand fans, the cost of construction will increase to 40 billion rubles.
■ 43.8 billion - a year later, the administration of St. Petersburg submitted for approval by Glavgosexpertiza an updated estimate with even higher construction costs.

■ 34.9 billion - after the intervention of the Accounts Chamber in May 2013, the stadium "cheapened" significantly due to the abandonment of non-core areas.
■ 35.3 billion - in February 2016, the general contractor asked the city government to increase the estimate by 435 million rubles due to the rise in the price of imported equipment.

■ 39.6 billion - On May 30, members of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg agreed to increase the estimate for the construction of the Krestovsky stadium by 4.3 billion rubles.
■ 42.2 billion - in mid-July, the government of St. Petersburg terminated the contract with the general contractor for the construction of the arena, Inzhtransstroy-SPb. Metrostroy became the new general contractor. At the same time, the cost of building Krestovsky increased by another 2.6 billion rubles. It is planned to transfer this money from the funds reserved for the development of the infrastructure of St. Petersburg.

Many Petersburgers, and not only them, no longer believe that the stadium will be completed on time. And is it necessary? It is clear that this is the image of the country, but aren't kindergartens and schools more important? After all, for the funds allocated for the stadium, you can build about 45 residential buildings!

Here is how Mikhail Boyarsky, People's Artist of the RSFSR, well-known fan of Zenit, commented on the situation with the completion of the stadium:“In any case, the stadium needs to be completed. But schools, hospitals, kindergartens also need to be built. Where did all these billions go ... How could it be brought to the point that the stadium is being built at the expense of children ?!