Transcript of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Hi guys.

Boys: Hello.

Vladimir Putin: Preparing for the World Cup?

Boys: Yes!

Vladimir Putin: That's right. How old are you?

One boy: Thirteen!

Vladimir Putin: Thirteen and eight add up to 20 or 21 years. So you will play there, won't you?

Boy: Yes!

Vladimir Putin: Will you win?

Boys: Yes!

Vladimir Putin: You know, some Brazilians told me yesterday, "You got the World Cup but your team is not excelling." I said, "We've got plenty of time." We'll catch up, won't we?

Boys: Sure!

Vladimir Putin: I've come here specifically to speak with you. You won't let us down, will you?

Boys: No!

Vladimir Putin: Okay, fine. Do you enjoy training?

Boys: Sure!

Vladimir Putin: Have you been on this team long?

Boys: Yes!

Vladimir Putin: And where did you train before this pitch was constructed?

Boy: Here. There was a vegetable garden here.

Vitaly Mutko (Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy): It had a sand surface.

Remark: Clay.

Remark: But we could train here anyway.

Vladimir Putin: But now it's better, right?

Remark: Sure.

Remark: We also have meals here.

Vladimir Putin (addressing one of the boys): You certainly eat well, don't you?

Vitaly Mutko: Basically, there are two schools here. This is Yug Sport. It has its own football team. They're doing pretty well. What place did you take in the regional championship?

Remark: Second place.

Vitaly Mutko: Second place in the Krasnodar Region, can you imagine that?

Remark: And first place in the city.

Vitaly Mutko: And first place in Sochi. The local team wants to make it in the Premier League. We'll build a stadium for them. They'll have very good conditions here. Children play sports for free here. We also provide them with hot meals. I'm sure you remember that in 2005 you inaugurated the first Sputnik Sport in Sochi.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but it was a bit further from here.

Vitaly Mutko: Yes, a bit further. This is the second such complex.

Vladimir Putin: What a pitch! How much did it cost?

Vitaly Mutko: About eight million roubles, without the field surface. We have recently launched turf production in Russia – a new plant in the Ulyanovsk can produce enough material for 100 pitches annually. It's being done through a programme you approved in 2005. It suggests creating 500 pitches for children's sports schools by 2015. There are 1,400 football schools in Russia, where some 480,000 children play football. Our main goal is to pick 11 excellent players for the national team, which must win in 2018.

Question: Where will the 2018 FIFA World Cup be hosted?

Vladimir Putin: In 13 Russian cities.

Question: Including Sochi?

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

Question: At which stadium?

Vladimir Putin: At this big stadium, which we are building. This will be an Olympic stadium. Then we'll update it so it can host international football matches.

Question: What do you like better, football or judo?

Vladimir Putin: You have played football since you were young, right? And I have done judo since my childhood. I like combat sports, wrestling, sambo. Well, football is a spectacular sport. A good match takes your breath away, just like a good play.

Boy: Please autograph my ball.

Vladimir Putin: Sure. (Autographs it.) Good luck to you, guys!

* * *

The talk with young football players continued over tea

Vladimir Putin: Hi, guys. Did you finish your tea without me?

Voice:  No, we were waiting for you.

Vladimir Putin: For me? OK. Good. Thank you. I was telling the guys on the pitch about the World Cup. I hope that some of you will be defending our colours in 2018. I see that some boys are twelve or thirteen. How old are you, for example?

Answer: Seventeen.

Vladimir Putin: Seventeen. Well, you’ll be just the right age to play for our team in 2018.

Vitaly Mutko: These young players are already candidates for the national junior team.

Vladimir Putin:  Well, all the more so. And what about you?

Answer: I’m also seventeen.

Vladimir Putin: Also seventeen and a candidate for the junior team? Who do you play for?

Answer: I’m a halfback with Zhemchuzhina.

Vladimir Putin: Are you excited about the World Cup in Russia?

Voices: Yes, of course.

Vladimir Putin: Supporting our team?

Voices: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: How do you like it here? You like the workouts? This was your training ground before, wasn’t it?

Answer: Yes, but the pitch was pretty bad. It was just dirt. We were running all wet and muddy, that was a year and a half ago...

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it was hard. It’s better now, I looked at the pitch and it’s good, of course.

Voice: There are not enough pitches. We would like to have more.

Vladimir Putin: I know. I don’t know if you have heard about it, perhaps not yet: we will have 500 such pitches for the beginning.

Minister Vitaly Mutko was just saying that they have launched a plant in Ulyanovsk which will make field turf here in Russia. We used to buy it from abroad, now we will produce it ourselves, so there will be no shortage of such football pitches. We will spread them all over the country so that guys like you, who love sport and want to play sport, will have a place to do it. How are you doing?

Answer: We finished second in the regional championship.

Vladimir Putin: Do you live and study here?

Answer: Yes, we have a special class here. We train right here at the center. The school is next door.

Vladimir Putin: So you both attend classes and have your workouts here?

Answer: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Very convenient. What about your meals? Do you eat here?

Answer: No, we have them at school.

Vladimir Putin: Do you have one or two workouts a day?

Answer: Sometimes two, sometimes one. More often two. The senior group has one. We only have this pitch and …That’s why we can’t fit into the schedule.

Vladimir Putin: But in principle two workouts is the norm, right?

Voice: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: What do two workouts mean? You have PT in the morning?

Answer: No, we have classes in the morning. We, the senior group, go straight to school and in the meantime they…

Voice: … we have a training session, we have to report in time for the third class, and we have our workout at 8 o’clock, we are usually late…

Vladimir Putin: I beg your pardon…

Vitaly Mutko: There aren’t enough football pitches and this pitch is booked up. The special class and the school use it together. Their schedule is arranged this way: some have their workout and others their classes, and then vice versa…

Vladimir Putin: We will now be preparing for the World Cup, and we will build a lot of new stadiums to create additional opportunities.

Question: Will they have a Sochi stadium in Adler?

Vladimir Putin: The main stadium, yes, where we are planning to hold the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic Games. We will also prepare it for the World Cup. It is big enough. And stadiums will be built in 12 more cities, that makes a total of 13 cities. Yes, Kazan, Moscow, St Petersburg, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Yaroslavl…

Vitaly Mutko: Yaroslavl, Samara, Volgograd… In the Volga area it’s Volgograd, Kazan, Samara, Yaroslavl…

Vladimir Putin: And then Yekaterinburg.

Vitaly Mutko: Yes, Yekaterinburg in the Urals area, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad and Moscow.

Voice: All over Russia?

Vladimir Putin: All over Russia, I mean the European part of Russia. That means that each of these cities must have a stadium that meets FIFA standards and has the supporting infrastructure: highways, access roads, an airport by all means, and hotel complexes.

Vitaly Mutko: And quarters for the teams where they will be accommodated.

Vladimir Putin: Well, and naturally camps for the teams. In fact by 2015-2017 we should have a football infrastructure in place that meets the requirements of the World Cup.

You probably know that in terms of scale and the number of people who take part in the games and who come to watch them and the journalists who come to cover them, it is a bigger event than the Olympic Games.  

We are going to have the Universiade in Kazan. It’s for young athletes under 24 and there will be 11,000 competitors. The Sochi Winter Olympics and other Winter Olympics have about 5,500-6,000 participants. The Universiade, because it’s summer sports and there are 37 of them, will have twice as many participants. True, there will be fewer guests and journalists (the Olympics attract more), but the Universiade will have twice as many competitors. So, we will be preparing for it…

Voice: The Olympic Games are more important.

Vladimir Putin: That’s true, of course.

Voice: But football is more popular; everybody knows that.

Vladimir Putin: The World Cup has a bigger TV audience than the Olympics. So, a large burden rests on your still developing shoulders. But I very much hope that they will not always be like that and that you will be strong, powerful and talented and the nation will enjoy your beautiful and memorable play. Thank you, boys. All the best to you.

Voices: Thank you. Goodbye.