Director of the TV channels Football1 / Football2 Alexander Denisov in an exclusive interview with Football. ua spoke about the plans of the team to broadcast European cups and matches of teams, about video replay in Ukraine and many other things.

- A few days ago, the media group Ukraine won a tender for broadcasting matches of the Ukrainian national team until 2022. How hard was it to achieve this?.

- 4 rights packages were exhibited for the tender: two qualifications - to Euro 2020 and to the World Championship-2022. This package included a tournament called the League of Nations and the Euro-2020 itself. Tender is won on an exclusive basis - all types of rights are won. If we talk about the content component, then it matches the national team of Ukraine and the games of all European national teams. The number of matches specifically the national team of Ukraine in this package - about 40. The rights package covers a period of 4 years - until the start of the World Cup in Qatar.

- Were there any competitors?.

- This information is always confidential. UEFA strictly adheres to the paragraph on non-disclosure of any details, the number of participants and financial figures. On the one hand, it may seem that the application for a tender is a blindfold game, but on the other hand, based on experience, you can accurately calculate the price for this product and offer it to UEFA.

- Will the League of Nations be interesting for people? Will the share increase?.

- We do not measure a share, because we are paid TV channels. For us, the main indicators of demand for content are the volume of subscription and the demand for cable networks. Sports TV is not sharpened for ratings, it is sharpened by the volume of the audience, which is ready to pay for viewing. Proceeding from the Ukrainian realities, we, on the one hand, pay TV, and given the lack of laws and effective struggle against piracy, we are in a situation of some turbulence, it is difficult for us to defend our rights in the fight against scammers. Such is the difficult reality of pay TV in Ukraine today. Returning to your question - no one knows what the League of Nations is until it starts. Nevertheless, it can not be denied that there is a huge interest. Now the Ukrainian team held two friendly matches. Our national team is always an interest from the fans, but you yourself understand that in these matches there was no sports component. The League of Nations will replace friendly matches. In this main point. In this tournament there will be a fight for points, that is motivation. In addition to this at stake is an additional ticket to the EURO or FM and financial bonuses from UEFA.

- Will there be any thematic programs on the channels of Football 1 and Football 2 during the League of Nations?.

- Certainly.

- Are there any commitments from UEFA to show non-tournament matches of the tournament?.

- There are obligations to show the national team. Regarding the matches of other European teams, the translator himself chooses what to show. In group A, where the entire football color of European football is collected, it is known that there will be very rating matches. And we will show them.

- Recently your channels have broadcast the European Futsal Championship. Will you continue?.

- From our side it was a test show. We acquired the rights for rather modest money and were very satisfied. Previously, we did not have this experience, and we did not know for sure how the audience would react. As a result, we were very satisfied. The inflow of the viewer to the channel was very high. People with great pleasure watched matches. And not only with the participation of the Ukrainian team. We got a clear understanding - futsal is in demand.

- This year the TV channels run out of rights to show the matches of the Europa League and the Champions League. Do you participate in the tender?.

- Oh sure. If you recall the previous tenders, then there was a fierce struggle between competitors. Now every channel carefully compares its financial capabilities. Now the struggle is no longer on that high emotional level. We calmly go to the tender. Win - means win. If we do not win, then we will accept this.

- Is there any desire to make a joint project with the competitors in this regard?.

- I can not talk about all the details of the tender. In fact, we considered a variety of options. With the same representatives of 1 + 1 I have a personal relationship. We are closely cooperating on the UPL and we do not have any conflicts. Our Media Groups did not approach this tender with spears and the intention to wage war. The competitors will win - we will shake hands with them and wish them good luck. I think that on their part, in case of our victory, there will be an identical reaction.

- The presidential election is coming UPU. It is known that the current leader Vladimir Geninson will not run.

- As for Geninson, then there is no point in discussing the results of his activities especially since, for various reasons, the Clubs did not give TV rights to the Premier League. Guinnesson or one of the clubs is to blame for this, I'm not inclined to give an assessment, I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. In fact, two years ago this post could have been taken by Ilon Mask. Mask launched his Tesla on Mars, but he would not create a pool in existing Ukrainian realities. First, all rights must be transferred to the Premier League, and then you can ask its manager about commercial results.

- Is it possible that a person will come and decide to leave everything as is? And what about the future with a single pool?.

- Let's remember how everything happened. This entire story began with the president of the UPL Danilov, who was trying to take steps to create a single pool. There was a confrontation between one group of club owners versus another. Then, in order to harm Danilov and specifically the Premier League, Grigory Surkis, who was the president of the FFU, transferred TV rights to the clubs, knowing full well that it would be extremely difficult to create something in this chaos. Who won this decision? Perhaps, something was won personally by Grigory Surkis. What have the clubs won over these 10 years? While each club will realize the rights separately, someone from clubs will earn on the conditional dollar more, and someone on dollar less. But the systemically Ukrainian football will not develop.

- And how can it develop, what are the scenarios?.

- It will develop only in two cases. For example, Ukrainian football can follow the path of Belarus, when football is subsidized by state enterprises. Or another example. England, let's not touch, because for us this is an unattainable point. For example, Turkey or Poland, where the incomes of clubs from telecoms are high and allow clubs to exist on these funds, develop their own football academies or invest in club infrastructure. This can only be achieved through a pool and pay-TV. The fan pays for the product and thereby finances the clubs. Let's all the same return to England. Here you need to understand that this is not just an organization called the English Premier League so rich and generous that it annually just pays tens of millions to each club. Where does this money come from? This is a consolidated means of viewing football in homes and bars. At the expense of fans from paid viewing contains English football. While we are looking for artificial substitutes for a natural product, we will have just what we have today.

- Do you regret that in the summer they did not agree with Veres about the show of home matches of this team, considering that the team is fighting for the third place and the Europa League?.

- I respect Veres's results, but now it is not appropriate to speak of regrets. Negotiations simply reached a deadlock. The question is not that we did not believe in Veres and therefore did not buy it. It's just that we did not agree.

- How will you fill the air in the summer, when will the World Cup go?.

- In principle, we could show the World Championship, we had agreements with the right holder. However, for this purpose several factors had to converge. First, to put before a choice us should have Andrey Shevchenko. For this, the national team of Ukraine needed to enter the World Cup. Then the team would have to get permission to travel already at the state level. Perhaps we would have shown only the matches of the national team. But the national team did not go to the world championship and the question of the show fell away by itself. His position on the issue of refusing to display the World Cup 2018 Media Group previously clearly stated.

- What are you preparing for the Champions League final?.

- Activities will begin already on Thursday, May 24, when the final match of the Women's Champions League. The production of this match, which will be broadcast to dozens of countries will take on the TV channels Football 1 / Football 2. Also, on Thursday the fan-festival of the Champions League starts on Khreshchatyk. On the type of what was during the EURO 2012. Channels Football is the first in the history of Ukrainian channels, which received the right to organize in the official fan zone of the Champions League its own entertainment area with interesting activities. Inside the fan-festival will also be built a mini-football court, where matches will be held with the participation of the stars. A match of the team of friends of Andrey Shevchenko is planned against the team of friends Vitali Klitschko. At the same time, the members may have the most unexpected persons. For example, Sylvester Stallone. And we will show these exhibition matches on our TV channels. By the way, UEFA finally made the decision and the final match will be shown on the big screen in the fan-festival zone.

- How do you feel about video replay (VAR) and do they need Ukraine?.

- The current football is too dynamic, and hence the probability of error of the referee increases. But this does not mean that the system of video replay allows the referee to stop the match when he suddenly wants. There are only four cases that fall under the right of viewing the video replay by the arbiter.

This is a goal capture, removal, identification of a football player and a penalty. To VAR appeared in Ukraine, you first need to test the system at amateur matches. In the case of successful tests, FFU will receive from the World Union a license right to use video replay in Ukraine. Then it will be necessary to purchase expensive equipment and put it into operation. FFU wants to launch this innovation in Ukrainian football, we also expressed a willingness to help in the organization of the process.