Shortly before the start of the new championship of the Russian Football Premier League, which started on July 28, the information in the section "Sponsors and Partners" was updated on the official website of the Krasnodar Football Club - most of them disappeared. If at the end of the championship of 2017/18 the status of the partners of the club was eight companies and trade marks, now six of them - Nefis Group (manufacturer of cosmetics and household chemicals from Tatarstan), GC Cherkizovo (poultry, meat processing), brewing company Baltika, Mayonnaise Ryaba (producer NMZHK), Richard tea (May May), trademark Sloboda (mayonnaise, ketchup, vegetable oil, GK Efko) are not on the list of partners of the club.

Among those who stayed - the general partner of FC "Krasnodar" company Constell Group and the manufacturer of smartphones Meizu. The club also had one new partner - the agricultural production enterprise "Yug", which produces vegetable oil, sauces and mayonnaise under the trademarks "Kuban favorite", "Secret of the cook", "Gustav".

As follows from SPARK database, owner of "Krasnodar" Sergey Galitsky is the owner of 90% in legal entities of Constell Group - LLC "New Technologies" and LLC "Plastictrade". This group of companies produces products for the "Magnet" network: confectionery products, as well as toilet paper, napkins, plastic bags, etc.

Vladimir Hashig, who holds a similar position in the football club, is also the General Director of the new partner of Krasnodar "SPP" South ".

All the departed partners of FC "Krasnodar" were among the suppliers of the "Magnit" trading network, co-owned by Sergei Galitsky. February 16, 2018 at the Sochi 2018 Investment Forum Galitsky announced the sale of a 29.1% stake in the Magnit network to the state-controlled VTB. According to the businessman, the transaction amount was 138 billion rubles. ($ 2.44 billion). After the transaction, Halytsky left about 3% of the network, and he moved away from operational management of it.

The press service of the NMHC refrained from commenting. Alexei Kedrin, Baltika's vice president, told RBC that the contract with Krasnodar was over, the parties fulfilled all their obligations and the company "is discussing the possibility of a new contract."

The general director of GK "Efko" Evgeny Lyashenko told RBC that he is not aware of this issue. "Magnet" is one of our largest partners, with whom we are connected by the history of long, sometimes uneasy relations. In some issues we find mutual understanding with them, others require additional elaboration for further development of mutually beneficial business. But we see that Magnit is changing. He began to listen to suppliers, "- said Eugene Shulepov, director of the brand division of GK" Efko ", answering the question about the relationship with" Magnet ".

Generous suppliers

"Krasnodar" has never disclosed the amounts and details of agreements with sponsors. As part of the execution of the contracts, the partners' logos were placed at the stadium "Krasnodar" during the home matches of the club. At the same time on the websites of the companies there was no information about the partnership with the football club, and their managers, confirming the fact of cooperation, refused to disclose the details of contracts and talk about the reasons for their signing.

Sergei Galitsky in an interview with RBC in 2014 said that he personally does not engage in sponsorship for "Krasnodar", and that they are all suppliers of "Magnet", called the consequence of the scale of his business. "We have about 10 thousand suppliers in Russia. Probably, there are no companies in Russia that would not work with us, "explained Galitsky RBC.

In a conversation with RBC, the managers of the two former partners of Krasnodar said that sponsorship agreements with the football club of Sergei Galitsky were signed within the framework of their commercial relationship with the Magnit network. According to them, the amount of the sponsorship contract with "Krasnodar" was 10% of the retro-bonus amount, which the supplier pays the network as a premium for a certain volume of sales, marketing promotion, etc. Retro-bonus is calculated as a share of the company's turnover in the trade network, for different suppliers and categories of goods it is different.

The press service of "Magnit" said RBC that there are no such conditions in the contracts of the network. "We do not consider ourselves entitled to comment on the sponsorship policy of our partners, either in retrospect, or now," the press service of the retailer noted.

According to one of the interlocutors of RBC, annual payments to Krasnodar under this scheme were about $ 3.5 million. The second interlocutor of RBC from the previous sponsors of the football club noted that his company "paid a little less, but the order of the figures is about the same." If the other partners of the club paid him $ 3-3.5 million a year, it turns out that the club received from the seven sponsors, directly not related to the owner, $ 21-24.5 million annually. The withdrawal of six of them, respectively, leads to loss of $ 18-21 million in the upcoming season.

Commenting on the practice of attracting partners in the main business to finance the football club, Ilya Gerkus, President of FC Lokomotiv, conducted an analogy with the London memorial to the animals that died during the wars: "The inscription on it reads: They had no choice (" They had no choice " - RBC). It's about the same situation. "

"The departure of sponsors from among the suppliers of" Magnet "was inevitable, - says the top manager of one of the former partners of the football club. - And it's not just about selling Halychyna's stake in the trade network, but also in the changes in the law "On Trade." According to the interlocutor of RBC, the amendments to the law "On Trade" that came into force in January 2017 limited the amount of the retro bonus to 5% of the supplier's turnover, and therefore it no longer made sense for the sponsors of the club from the suppliers of Magnit to agree to the conditions of the retailer. "It's about the amount [of the sponsorship contract] of several million rubles, maybe a little more than 10 million rubles. All the partners of the football club signed contracts for a year and simply did not renew them, and the meaning disappeared for us and for them. This shop curled up, "- says the source RBC.

Less than a quarter of the budget

The departure of sponsors will complicate the financial position of FC "Krasnodar", as revenues from them formed a significant part of the club budget. The last time the parameters of the annual budget of the club, Sergei Galitsky publicly reported after the end of the 2013/14 season: he said that it amounted to € 47 million ($ 65 million at the then exchange rate). In subsequent years, the costs of the football club were assessed by experts of sports portals sports.ru and soccer.ru, publishing annual ratings of budgets of Russian football clubs. According to their estimates, the annual budget of FC "Krasnodar" since the season 2014/15 was $ 75-80 million. The club did not comment on these figures, but did not deny it either.

Thus, in the 2018/19 season, FC Krasnodar can miss a quarter of the revenue side of its budget. And failure to enter the Champions League, bonuses for participation in which can bring to the club more than € 20 million, will not allow to compensate for the lost income.

The head of the press service of "Krasnodar" Denis Danilchenko declined to comment on financial issues related to the club, citing the lack of information. Aram Fundukyan, the financial director of the club, was not able to receive comments. The general director of "Krasnodar" Vladimir Hashig declined to comment on the situation with the departure of sponsors, referring to employment.

"Obviously, the main means to the budget of the club will have to be uploaded to Galitsky himself, having issued it as a sponsorship agreement with the companies that belong to him. There are no other ways out-the sale of tickets, boxes, season tickets at best cover the cost of operating the stadium, the revenues from the sale of telecoms are simply meager, and it is very difficult to get a solid contract with large advertisers on market conditions, "said RBC manager of one of the clubs of the Russian Prime- league.

Direct donation of the club on the part of the owner is contrary to the principles of the financial fair play of UEFA, according to which the club should function as a commercial enterprise and spend no more than it can receive from commercial activities. For domestic competitions such a ban does not work, but the leading clubs tend to comply with these principles, since in case of their violation they may not be allowed to participate in European tournaments.