Dmitry Gafin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dynamo Moscow, in an interview with Big Sport magazine, spoke about the club's development strategy, betting on its own pupils, women's football and attracting a new young audience.
— Dynamo is one of the brightest projects of Russian football over the past five years: a club with a legendary history has returned to the top both in terms of results and popularity. How did this happen and what is the strategy of the Dynamo project?
— When the new management team came to the club, we started from a relatively low point in terms of sports and commercial components. They began to move in parallel along two key vectors – sports and commercial strategy, which were developed and are now being implemented. It is also important to note investments in infrastructure: it was possible to put in order the training base in Novogorsk, to create a highly professional sports medicine center "Dynamo Lab" on the basis.
Sports director Zeljko Buvac, a well-known European specialist with extensive experience, who built successful Borussia and Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp, is responsible for the implementation of the sports strategy. In sports, our priority is to take prizes from season to season and, of course, to give the fans long–awaited trophies. Over the past three years, we have finished in the top three twice, played in the Cup final. We have a sports department, its main functions are development and selection. First of all, we look at the internal resources from the academy, and if they do not correspond to the level of the team, then we switch to external ones. The basis of this philosophy is to give an opportunity for the development of their pupils, without losing in achieving sports results.
— Pupils are supplied by the academy. Which of them would you highlight in particular? And how exactly does the Lev Yashin Dynamo Academy work and finance?
— For the first time in a long time, Dynamo has revealed and, more importantly, its own pupils continue to do it every year: Tyukavin, Zakharyan, Gladyshev, Kutitskiy, Bessmertniy, Lepskiy… To attract Dynamo's pupils and young players to the main squad in the leaders of the Russian Premier League by all possible metrics - the number of players, the percentage and amount of their playing time, and so on. Last season, 15 Dynamo Academy students took the field, and earlier this year five more people made their debuts, including Viktor Okishor, who has already become the author of the youngest double in the club's history. And Konstantin Tyukavin, who has been at Dynamo since the age of six, was recognized as the best player of the last championship at the age of 22.
How was this achieved? We really paid special attention to the Dynamo Academy, which supplies talents from year to year. An endowment fund has been created, thanks to which she is provided with uninterrupted long-term financing. We have raised the status of the director of the academy and children's coaches, we are equipping it with modern methods and technologies – both managerial and technical.
And this is happening not only in Moscow. Already in six regions of Russia – in Barnaul, Veliky Novgorod, Vladivostok, Voronezh, Makhachkala, Ulyanovsk – branches are functioning, from where there is an influx of players to the central academy in Novogorsk. The franchise direction is actively developing, thanks to which anyone can open a school under the Dynamo brand in their city. 115 schools have already been opened together with 50 partners, and their geography covers the whole country – from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.
As part of the international direction, five schools have been opened in Belarus, and we hope to further develop the franchise in the CIS countries. In total, more than 6,000 young football players are involved in Dynamo academies and schools. We also managed to organize international children's tournaments, which is very important for obtaining high–quality competitive practice - in the Far East with the participation of teams from China, in Novogorsk – with the participation of clubs from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We plan that tournaments will become regular. We are already seeing the effect of all this. We hope it will become even more noticeable in the future.
By the way, the academy has recently accepted not only boys, but also girls. In 2022, Dynamo created a women's football club, which immediately became one of the leaders of Russian football, but we did not limit ourselves to an adult team: teams of girls of different ages also appeared at the academy. So over time, Dynamo Housing and Communal Services will have its own pupils.
— How does the club work in conditions of international isolation and when to expect a return to European competitions?
— Initially, our strategy assumed the task of regular participation in European competitions. This could bring both substantial income and advantages in brand development. And it could also be a great showcase in order to promote their players on the European market. According to our sports strategy, after the 2021/22 season, we planned to play regularly in European competitions, where we could show our leading players (at that time, for example, the Pole Szymanski and the Croat Moro), then sell them for more money than those that we eventually got for them. It is clear that the strategy had to be adjusted. Now that the English Premier League or the German Bundesliga are closed from us, we are working without the most solvent markets for the sale of players. On the other hand, we managed to make successful deals with clubs from Spain and Italy – we prove that it is possible to work with them.
— You also mentioned the commercial strategy of Dynamo. What is its main essence?
— In my opinion, the main value of a football club is in its audience, fans. When we arrived, we took measurements and saw that the audience of Dynamo FC is mostly older people, often disappointed due to unsuccessful performances in the past, without high expectations from the club. Our task was, firstly, to motivate the core of our audience and, secondly, to attract a new, younger, energetic one, who may not have any football preferences yet, but who is ready to start rooting for Dynamo. We also wanted to attract a family audience – people who decide on weekends whether to go for a walk, go to a shopping mall, a restaurant or a theater, or go to football, where you can get the whole range of entertainment and emotions in one place!
The commercial department team has developed goals and objectives for working with the audience and promoting various communication channels with it. At this stage, in terms of digital audience, we are confidently among the top four among the clubs of the Russian Premier League, and in some social networks we are already in the top three. VTB Arena is among the leaders of the RPL in terms of attendance in recent seasons. Fans and market professionals celebrate our activity both at the stadium and in the media space.
— Dynamo has the largest betting contract of the Premier League – with the bookmaker BetBoom (over 1 billion rubles per season, according to official statements, the contract was signed in the spring of 2023 for 3.5 years). Why is the sponsor willing to pay so much?
— Commercialization of the audience is an integral task of the club. The signing of the largest sponsorship contract with the betting company BetBoom, which literally "blew up" the market, speaks about the success of this strategy. After our case, other clubs and the Premier League increased their contracts. The structure of our contract is a developmental one for both the club and our partner and implies various major activations. In addition to the title sponsor-bookmaker, in 2023-2024 alone we have acquired over 10 new partners from a wide variety of industries, including international companies.
— As part of this cooperation, Dynamo has opened a store in GUM on Red Square. What does this give the club?
— "BetBoom Dynamo House" in GUM, inaugurated for the centenary of Dynamo in April 2023, is a landmark place for the club in terms of image and work for the brand. And this is not only a store: there is a fan shop on the ground floor, and a cultural and leisure space on the second and third floors, where we also hold club events (player and sponsor signings, for example), sports broadcasts, concerts, lectures, sports activities, such as chess and yoga, with a gorgeous view of the Kremlin. A restaurant and a bar have recently opened there. We are presenting players in the heart of the capital – this attracts attention and is an important sign for many.
Together with BetBoom, we hold tournaments and show matches on media football in order to enter this site and start interacting with the audience of media football teams. And such stories as Alexander Ovechkin's goal and power play for Dynamo football in the game with Amkal were discussed and watched on different continents. For our fans, we have already held the BetBoom Fraternal Cup pre–season tournament twice – this summer and last - with the involvement of CSKA, teams from Serbia, famous artists, star guests and legendary veterans. At the exit, we received more than decent, especially for the off-season, attendance figures, broadcast views and online coverage.
— You mentioned Ovechkin. Celebrities regularly go to Dynamo matches. How is their interaction with the club structured and how are such ambassadors useful for Dynamo?
— Our club needed to expand the audience at an accelerated pace. We have taken the path of active involvement of celebrities and influencers. There are quite a lot of famous people among the original Dynamo fans, for example, hockey player Alexander Ovechkin, chef Konstantin Ivlev, musicians Lev Leshchenko, Yuri and Dmitry Malikov, actor Alexander Lazarev Jr. and many others.
We actively used this core. At the same time, they understood that a new, preferably young, audience was needed, which had its own favorite characters. So our commercial department has identified those ambassadors who meet our parameters and are loyal to Dynamo. So we have been joined by quite a lot of new people who have a large audience and who send her the right signals – actor Pavel Derevyanko, figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva, singer Vanya Dmitrienko, blogger Herman El Clasico and so on.
The most famous case was the involvement of children's video blogger Vlad Paper, who, by the way, has been for Dynamo since childhood, only for hockey Minsk. The results of Vlad A4's appearance are still visible today: the number of children and teenagers among our fans has grown noticeably, and, for example, over 5,000 children's tickets were sold for the match with his first autograph session at VTB Arena. But it is equally important that in a few years, when Vlad's fans grow up, many of them will continue to regularly go with friends and family to Dynamo. According to various surveys, we see that this case works great. Children and young people trust the choice of their idols and show interest in Dynamo.
Even celebrities, as well as numerous ordinary fans, are happy to wear our merch. Merchandising for us is also one of the communication channels, and not just a source of income. We believe that our own production and collaborations with well-known brands make us more recognizable and fashionable. We don't forget the story either: one of the best-selling collections is dedicated to the legendary Lev Ivanovich Yashin and his Golden Ball.
— Last season Dynamo imposed a serious fight for gold on Zenit. How realistic is it to compete with a club from St. Petersburg? And how much has the level of competition in our league changed in general lately?
— Everything is real. We should not look back at others, but continue to work and build on our strengths and capabilities. As for the level of competition, it can be stated that the last championship kept everyone in an intriguing state until the very end. It was interesting to follow the matches. Everyone notes that Russian football may have lost the stars who came before, but the overall level of physical fitness has become very high, and the intensity of football is growing.
We see quite a lot of young Russian football players emerging and developing. Of course, there are a number of problems, but we cannot say that the league is stagnating. The audience's interest in the RPL is objectively growing against the background of a decrease in interest in international competitions due to the absence of our teams there: this is confirmed, for example, by a study by the Russian Football Union and Mediascope, which was told by representatives of the RFU.
— What would you change in Russian football and what good do you see in it now?
— First of all, I would like to note that in recent years the prize money for Russian clubs has increased significantly, which was the fruit of the work of our club's management, among others. This is a great incentive for the development of all clubs and especially those that are not traditionally considered grandees. We believe that there is a potential for further growth in the monetization of contracts with RPL, because against the background of isolation, the product of Russian football is becoming more in demand by the domestic audience.
As for changes, it is critically important for development that funds are invested in improving the football infrastructure. First of all, in the construction of arenas, because in our climatic conditions it is difficult to play football most of the year and in most of the country. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the qualifications, pay and prestige of the profession of children's coaches. This profession should become respected and well-paid. I am sure this combination will bear fruit, and we will increase the base of young football players who will join Russian professional clubs. In our club and academy we are trying to move in this direction.