Vitalii Kvartsyanyi: 'I am not a saint'

Vitaliy Volodymyrovych has long been a favorite of television viewers. Our colleagues sometimes even provoke the coach into "pearls." However, in a conversation with an "Express" correspondent, Kvarts showed himself in a slightly unusual guise...

...While Mr. Kvartsyanyy is resolving current issues, I look around his office. The coach, battered by life and journalists, has evidently decided to improve himself. Everywhere you look -- signs on the walls: "Silence is golden" (Kvartsyanyy explains that this sign appeared after PFL officials fined him seven thousand dollars); "Achieve the goal you set, and don't focus on fools and on what and who said" (this is obviously about journalists); "Never say what you think"; "Things are never so bad that they can't get worse."

-- Vitaliy Volodymyrovych, and when do you feel really bad?

-- At work. I used to not stress during training sessions or during matches. Yes, sometimes I ran onto the field during a match, shouted, but that didn't happen often. The players back then knew their task on the field and carried it out.

-- And what happened to them over these years?

-- I don't know, maybe I mutter too much unnecessary stuff about young people. I'm already fifty-three years old... I remember how they played back then! (Kvartsyanyy's team became Ukrainian champion in 1989. -- Author.) Yes, the speeds weren't as rapid, today's players are more powerful. Back then there were still more talented ones, so it was easier to form tactics. You'd tell them, show them -- and after two or three training sessions they'd carry it out during a match. They couldn't play badly! They didn't push away from the ball like today's footballers, but seemed to merge with it. Today, a footballer and the ball are two separate objects.

-- You're almost always dissatisfied with your players...

-- Sometimes. It's just that I have an eternal question about players' commitment on the field. They don't have that, excuse me, sacred attitude toward the match. The game is EVERYTHING! And they don't understand.

But that's only half the trouble. Today's players usually just do a job on the field rather than play for the spectators. That's the most important thing.

It's also worth paying attention to how footballers relate to themselves. I, for example, played football from the fifth grade. Back then I didn't miss a single training session. I didn't pay attention to rain or snow -- I ran to the stadium.

-- Maybe players are paid too much?

-- Maybe. Once a player had to grind away for about five years to get an apartment. Cars were only discussed for stars. And on their salary, players could maybe buy a carpet, scarce food items.

-- And do people advise you to restrain yourself a bit?

-- Yes, they say: look, TV cameras catch your every word. You understand, I don't want to pretend to be someone other than who I really am. Honestly: I often don't care what people think of me. I'm at work, I am as I am, and I won't put on a mask.

-- Do you fine players who are late for training?

-- Of course, it can't be otherwise. I'm a punctual person and I demand discipline from everyone I work with. But I will always understand a footballer who was late. At least I've learned to recognize when footballers are lying and making excuses.

-- You often substitute a player as early as the 15th or 25th minute of a match. Fans often laugh about this...

-- Yes, that's my peculiarity. However, I've been doing this since the eighties. I remember my "Torpedo" was playing in the second league. Our leader Fedetskyy spent the first seven minutes on the field laughing and joking with a friend from the opposing team. I substituted him immediately. This, by the way, is not a record, because I've substituted players in the third and fifth minutes too... If a player comes onto the field to twiddle his thumbs, I don't hesitate and send him to the substitutes' bench...

-- Are you superstitious?

-- I used to have talismans. Some advised me to eat certain things before matches... My teams used to go watch new detective films before games. For lunch they were given only a special broth. And they also traveled to away matches only after Anna German's song "Once a Year the Gardens Bloom..."

-- You've often been accused of organizing fixed matches. Do they exist in Ukraine or not?

-- I believe this painful topic is inspired by bookmakers. No coach or footballer plans to play fixed matches. How do you imagine that?!

Bookmakers don't want to lose a lot, so they make teams guilty. I've been through a lot, seen all sorts of things, and I can't say I'm a saint. But I firmly assure you that I'm not a supporter of fixed matches. Such matches hurt the spectators, for whom we play...

-- Do you discuss refereeing mistakes with colleagues?

-- First of all, it's bad that former footballers don't become referees today. Do you remember such class referees as Pyanykh, Panchyk, Avdysh? They're former footballers who understand the game. All coaches and players understand the problem, but they can't do anything about it.

Everyone needs to get together and say: we will live by the rules. I believe there should be very strict fines. So that everyone knows that for mistakes a referee will suffer financially or, for example, receive a disqualification for a year.

-- Recently you suffered a mini-stroke. Has anything changed in your life since then?

-- I lay in the hospital for a bit, but then I went home and returned to work. I was very worried about how much hasn't been done. I want to finish everything and win something in Lutsk. Yes, over my career I've won the Ukrainian championship in the second and first leagues, was a few steps away from "bronze" in the top league. But I want more...