13.11.2008 13:14
Deputy Prime Minister of Russian Federation visits Barça
www.fcbarcelona.cat
His Excellency, Alexander Zhukov, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, visited FC Barcelona’s facilities on Thursday morning, and was escorted by club president Joan Laporta.
A delegation of the Russian Federation, led by the Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov,
while on a visit to the Catalan capital, has visited the FC Barcelona facilities. Zhukov is a huge
fan of football, and considers Barça to be his second favourite side after his beloved Spartak
Moscow
Interest in management model
The Deputy Prime Minister was particularly interested in learning first hand how FC
Barcelona is run not just as a sporting organisation of such global magnitude, but also as one that
it so socially implicated through its Foundation, and is therefore considered ‘More than a
club’.
Scoring at the Camp Nou
After a brief meeting in the Camp Nou boxes, the Russian delegation was led by the
president of the club and his vice presidents Alfons Godall and Rafael Yuste down to the pitch,
where they exchanged gifts. Admiring the enormity of the venue, Zhukov was unable to resist the
temptation of taking a few shots on goal from the penalty spot.
The visitors were then taken to La Masía, where they observed a few minutes of the first team
training session.
The Russians ended their visit with a tour of the club museum.
Members of the delegation
As well as the Russian Deputy Primer Minister, the group also included the Russian Ambassador for
Spain, Alexander Kuznetsov, the Russian Federation’s commercial delegate for Spain, Alexey
Rubinchik, and the general consul of the Russian Federation in Barcelona, Igor Akhanov.