Play-off of the Russian Minifootball Championship finished on May 4, 2014.
18 strongest amateur teams of Russia came to Volzhsky City of the Volgograd Region in order to participate in the final stage of the Russian Championship.
Amateur football leagues of Russia held the national championship for the 6th time. The first championship took place in 2009. This is the only Russian national mass football (mini-football) championship.
The final stage was preceded by regional and interregional competitions on 8 x 8 football. A total of 3,000 teams, more than 60,000 football players participated in the competitions, more than 30,000 matches was held.
18 teams, which had reached the final stage of the Russian Championship, represented 12 cities from 8 districts of Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Stupino, Dolgoprudny, Volgograd, Volzhsky, Stary Oscol, Orel, Saratov, Kazan, Ivanovo, Perm.
More than 10,000 people throughout Russia watched the live coverage of the national playoffs on LFL TV. This popular internet television of Russia has been highlighting all large competitions on mass football for quite a long time. More than 500 live broadcasts per year. Brigade of professionals consisting of a broadcast director, four operators and six commentators worked all five days and provided a live broadcast of all 30 matches.
“Dynamo” Saratov became Russian champion of 2014. The players of “Dynamo” team participated in the national playoffs for the fourth time. Prior to that, the top achievement of “Dynamo” was the second place at the Cup of Russia in 2012. And now – the long-awaited championship, which they have been in for a long time. The local “Sparta” finished up in the second place, the team “Zolotoy” St. Petersburg was the third one.
At the end of the playoff, two new champions got the invitation to the national team: Nikolai Kildishev, the top goal scorer of the championship and Maxim Hodin, the Saratov defender, considered the most valuable player of the tournament. The representative of the Volga “Sparta” Rinat Safargaleev, who had already participated in the first get-together, confirmed his high level and to a silver medal added also the title of the best midfielder of the Russian Championship.
The senior coach of the Russian team Dmitry Smirnov commented on the results of the championship: “For the final four days, we have not only identified the strongest amateur team of Russia, but have been able to see more than 250 best players in the minifootball format. It has been decided that two new players from among champions will join the national team at the next stage of preparation for Mini Euro 2014. The decision regarding another two or three potential candidates, who are under close attention of our coaching staff, will be made later, when we get back to Moscow, and will be able to re-examine their personal game, especially since we have more video material than enough. Besides finding new players for the national team, during the tournament, we kept a wary eye on those who had already played on the football field in the shirt of the national team of Russia in Greece during Mini Euro 2013 and the first training get-together in Stupino. We have planned some gets-together, so we will decide on the final entry not until the end of the summer. ”
All statistics of the tournament, “Championship Diaries”, video games can be seen on a special website of the Russian Championship: http://2014.lfl.ru/
