Luzhniki - history and modernity. What has changed since the reconstruction

On July 19, 1980, the fire of the Olympic Games was lit in Moscow. The anniversary of this memorable event is dedicated to two
local lore stories - about the stadiums "Dynamo" and "Luzhniki".

The first mention of Luzhniki is found in the spiritual charter of Prince Yuri Vasilyevich in 1472. However, most likely
it was about a village in the Yakimanka region. A more reliable mention of 1638 is the Small Luzhniki settlement under the New Devichiy Convent.
The name Luzhniki is usually associated with a low meadow area that is flooded during high water. There are versions related to the professional activities of the inhabitants - either luzhnikov (tinkers, boilermakers), or peasants who grazed horses and harvested hay in the sovereign's meadows.

The decision to build a sports complex in Luzhniki was taken by the USSR Government on December 23, 1954. In January 1955, design began, the project was drawn up in 90 days, and in April 1955 construction began. All buildings on the banks of the Moskva River, including the church of the Tikhvin Mother of God of the 17th century, were demolished.

On July 31, 1956, the grand opening of the sports complex took place, and the 1st Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR was held. The sports complex was built in a record short time - in just 450 days, the whole country participated in its creation. Since then, it has been rebuilt many times in parts, the largest reconstruction of the complex was associated with the preparation of the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Initially, the complex was called the Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin and was a state enterprise. The modern official name - Open Joint Stock Company Olympic Complex "Luzhniki" - received in the spring of 1992 as a result of the privatization of this enterprise.

The territory of Luzhniki occupies an area of over 180 hectares, on which there are facilities intended for sports competitions, concerts and physical education and sports. The most important buildings are the Big Sports Arena, the Small Sports Arena, the Sports Palace, the Swimming Pool, the Druzhba Universal Sports Hall.

You can get to the city of sports by metro: the unique Vorobyovy Gory (Leninskiye Gory) station is located right on the bridge across the Moskva River. The facade of the station "Sportivnaya" is decorated with lamps in the form of torches.

And here is the final stop of several trolleybus routes at once. The control room and an elegant canopy for passengers appeared in the mid-1950s.

A small digression into the history of Luzhniki. Flood in 1908:

Construction of the BSA, 1956:

Festival of Youth and Students, 1957:

Closing ceremony of the 1980 Olympics:

Market in Luzhniki, 2000:

In 1998, the Grand Sports Arena was included by UEFA in the list of five-star European football stadiums, so far it is the only elite stadium in Russia. Until 2016, the arena will be reconstructed and in 2018 it is planned to host the final of the World Cup here.

The number of seats for spectators after the installation of plastic seats: 78,360 (after reconstruction for the World Cup will increase to 89,318). All seats of the Grand Sports Arena of the stadium are closed by a canopy built in 1997, 63.5 meters wide and weighing 15,000 tons, which is held by 72 steel supports 26 meters high each. Now the stadium has a fifth-generation artificial synthetic turf football field. Around it are treadmills. The stadium has four connected stands - A and C along the length of the field, B and D - behind the goal (tickets for them are cheaper, fans are usually accommodated here). During the 1980 Olympics, the capacity was about 103,000, but then the benches were wooden.

The large sports arena has been the home field of the Spartak football team (Moscow) for decades.

On the territory of Luzhniki there are many monuments reflecting the history of the sports complex and the sports glory of our country. Monuments to honored masters of sports Nikolai Starostin, Lev Yashin, Eduard Streltsov (sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov) have been erected on the Alley of Outstanding Athletes of Russia. Memorial plaques in honor of hockey legends Valery Kharlamov and Anatoly Tarasov are also mounted here.

The monument to those who died at the stadiums of the world recalls the most tragic day in the history of the sports complex - October 20, 1982, when 66 people died at the Luzhniki stadium. On a cold evening, not so many spectators came to the match "Spartak" - "Haarlem", tickets were sold for two stands, about 12,000 fans were accommodated in stand C. At the very end of the match, the Spartak team scored the second goal and the fans, who had already left their seats, Went back for more details. On the stairs there was a crush of oncoming flows of people, the steps were slippery, the railings could not withstand the pressure. In total, there are 81 entrances to the BSA and, according to the calculations of the stadium designers, tens of thousands of spectators could leave the arena in just ten minutes. The persons responsible for organizing the football match were found guilty of the incident. The death of dozens of fans was hushed up by the authorities, the truth about the biggest tragedy in the sports history of the USSR became known only in 1989.

The authors of the monument are architect Georgy Lunacharsky and sculptor Mikhail Skovorodin. The initiator of the creation of the monument is the Spartak fan club. The dominant of the monument is the face of a grieving mother against the backdrop of the stands of the stadium in their tragic break and the stairs where the tragedy took place.

On July 19, 1980, the sounds of fanfares announced the opening of the XXII Olympic Games, the Olympic flame burned over the Grand Sports Arena for 16 days. Luzhniki hosted competitions in seven sports: athletics, football, equestrian sports, gymnastics, judo, volleyball and water polo. From here, a huge Mishka, the inflatable mascot of the games, flew into the Moscow sky. The bear was caught and kept for a long time in the Luzhniki warehouses, but, as they wrote in the newspapers, it was lost during the years of perestroika. Another relic, the Olympic cauldron, was removed from the stadium during the reconstruction process.

On the Prestigious Alley you can see a monument dedicated to the Olympic Movement and opened in July 2001 personally by Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Vladimir Alyoshin worked at Luzhniki since the 1970s, he was responsible for the preparation of Olympic facilities, in 1982 he became the general director of the complex, and after privatization in 1992, its actual owner. Shortly after the resignation of Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, with whom he worked closely, Alyoshin left the post of director of his own free will.

According to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the Luzhniki hectares of land should belong to the city.

In 1992, a clothing market was opened on the territory of the complex, since 2003 it was moved outside the complex, and in August 2011 the clothing fair finally ceased to exist.

Specially for the Moscow Olympics, the Druzhba HSS was built; the building is constructed from reinforced concrete petals and from a distance resembles an inverted flower. The hall is designed for competitions in team sports, weightlifting, fencing, rhythmic gymnastics. If necessary, the movable stands can be extended or removed. At present, the Druzhba Universal Sports Hall is the largest tennis facility in Moscow, with 33 outdoor tennis courts and four indoor tennis courts.

The wardrobe is foldable to save space.

Workout competitions (strength exercises on the horizontal bar) and volleyball.

The small sports arena looks like an ancient Greek temple. The Dynamo hockey team plays home matches here, and the stands can accommodate 8,712 spectators. In the annals of the arena, there are competitions in basketball, handball, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball, and hockey.

The original lanterns installed in 1956 have been preserved on the territory of the sports complex.

In the pool building, in addition to water sports (now they teach scuba diving, aqua aerobics and diving), you can do gymnastics and boxing. Since 1964, in winter and autumn, the water in the pool has been heated up to +27 degrees. Swimmers entered the bath through warm corridors. In Soviet times, swimming, water polo, and diving competitions were held in the pool.

The author of the monument "Alpinists" is the honored master of sports in mountaineering, sculptor Yevgeny Abalakov. The monument is made of bronze and granite and is a sculptural group, which is considered the pinnacle of Yevgeny Abalakov's work, the embodiment of his unique personal experience.

Two sculptural compositions that are not directly related to sports were installed in 1964 on the embankment. This is a fisherman taming a hefty catfish, and a woman with a basket of fruit. The works were made according to the sketches of Vera Mukhina by sculptors N. Zelenskaya, A. Sergeev and Z. Ivanova.

In 2010, the chapel of Blessed Prince Vladimir was erected on the Luzhnetskaya embankment. The chapel is an octagonal building crowned with a tent and dome.

The Palace of Sports with a capacity of 11,169 spectators in Soviet times was more often used for hockey matches and competitions in figure skating, gymnastics and wrestling. Films of all-Union and international film festivals were also shown here. At that time, the palace was visited annually by 3 million people.

In 1954, it became clear that such a great country as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics needed a great stadium. None of the arenas that existed in the country at that time could be called great. Therefore, it was decided to start construction of a huge bowl of the stadium at the foot of the Sparrow Hills in Moscow - Luzhniki.

During its long history, the stadium has seen many important national events. Today we want to recall the 7 most famous of them.

Opening

In 1955, the first stone was laid, and just a year later, on July 31, 1956, exactly 60 years ago, the grand opening of the main stadium of Moscow and the Soviet Union took place.

Stadium "Luzhniki". 1956 Photo: RIA Novosti / Anatoly Garanin

The creation of the giant was timed to coincide with the first in the history of the Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR - a sports festival, which the arena later hosted regularly, every four years, until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At the time of opening, as, in principle, today, the Luzhniki stadium was the largest and most spacious arena in the state. But, if today its stands can accommodate about 80 thousand people, then more than 100 thousand people could have witnessed a sporting event - they were placed on wooden benches, which were much more spacious than the current individual plastic seats.

Olympics-80

In 1980, it was Luzhniki, which then bore the name of V.I. Lenin, became the main arena of the Summer Olympics, the first and so far the only one held in Eastern Europe.

The stands, which then accommodated more than 100 thousand people, saw many bright victories, witnessed great records and real sports tragedies. Most of the gold medals were awarded to their owners at Luzhniki. The magnificent opening ceremony of the Olympics was also held here. The stadium has become a real symbol of Moscow and the Olympic Games.

The opening ceremony of the XXII Olympic Games at the Central Stadium. V.I. Lenin in Luzhniki. 1980 Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Rodionov

The brightest moment of that Olympics took place in Luzhniki. During the opening ceremony, the legendary Olympic Bear flew from the center of the field. The shrillness of what is happening made the whole country cry along with the image of the mascot of Moscow-80, folded by the fans in the stands.

Until now, recalling the 1980 Olympics, the very moment when Mishka leaves the Luzhniki bowl and takes off into the distance, holding a huge number of balloons in his hand, pops up in his memory.

Tragedy-1982

On a frosty evening on October 20, 1982, a real nightmare occurred at the Luzhniki Stadium during the UEFA Cup 1/16 final match between the capital's Spartak and the Dutch Harlem.

The weather turned out to be bad. The thermometers in Moscow dropped to -10 degrees, it was snowing, a strong wind was blowing. By the end of the game, Spartak was leading with a score of 1:0, and the fans, confident that nothing else would happen in the match, reached for the exit even before the final whistle, so as not to stand in a traffic jam after the meeting.

Monument to those who died in 1982 after the match at the Luzhniki stadium. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Chivista

According to eyewitnesses, a girl stumbled on one of the lower steps. Several people tried to help her, but under the pressure of the crowd, they could not stand on their feet and fell. At that moment, the people remaining in the stands applauded happily - Spartak scored another goal in the last minutes of the game. In the same room under the stands, carried forward by the domino effect, people continued to fall, forming a huge pile. In the end, the metal railings could not withstand the human mass either - many fans flew down the stairs to the concrete floor.

Then, 66 people died from compression asphyxia as a result of compression of the chest and abdomen. Of these, 45 have not reached the age of 20, and the average age of the dead was 20.5 years. More than sixty fans were injured.

Cinema 1990

Another bright moment in the history of Luzhniki can hardly be called joyful either - the last concert of the rock group Kino. What was to be the starting point for world greatness is unfortunately remembered as the last appearance of the legendary Viktor Tsoi on the stage.

On June 24, 1990, a 45-minute Kino set was scheduled on stage at Luzhniki as part of a major celebration. At the end of the performance of the group, which gathered a full house in the stands, for the first time in ten years since the end of the Olympics-80, the Olympic flame was lit.

After the end of the concert, the group did not rise to the stage again. Tsoi retired to the country, where he began to record material for a new album. The great musician was not destined to complete it. On August 15, 1990, he got into an accident. According to the most popular version, Tsoi fell asleep at the wheel of his Moskvich, several kilometers before reaching Riga. His car drove into the oncoming lane and collided with an Ikarus bus.

Jackson-1993

Just three years after the death of the king of Russian rock, Luzhniki was waiting for a new concert - for the first time, a recognized king of pop music michael jackson. At the crowded Luzhniki Stadium, the legendary singer performed songs as part of his Dangerous World Tour.

"Luzhniki" met the most popular performer of the planet with heavy rain and huge puddles, which the stadium workers tried to liquidate right during the concert.

Russia made such a strong impression on Jackson that he soon recorded a ballad about loneliness - Stranger in Moscow, which can be translated into Russian either as a "traveler in Moscow" or as "a stranger in Moscow." He performed it during his second concert in our country in 1996. But he was already at Dynamo - Luzhniki were closed for reconstruction.

UEFA 1999

In 1999, Luzhniki once again found itself in the center of attention of the world sports community, for the first time since the 1980 Olympics. The Moscow stadium, awarded the 5-star FIFA status, was entrusted to host the final match of the second most important European club cup tournament - the UEFA Cup.

The French "Marseille" and the Italian "Parma" then reached the final. The victory was won by the Italian football players, who confidently defeated their rivals with a score of 3:0.

But for the Russian fan, the main thing was not the result, but the opportunity to personally watch the game of such world football stars as Gianluigi Buffon,Fabio Cannavaro, Juan Sebastian Veron, Hernan Crespo and reigning world champions Lilian Thuram,Alain Boghossian, Laurent Blanc and Robert Pires.

Champions League-2008

The next truly major sporting event Luzhniki had to wait nine long years. But the expectation was offset by the scale - for the first time in history, the Russian stadium was allowed to host the final match of one of the largest football tournaments on the planet - the Champions League.

The final turned out to be English - Chelsea and Manchester United played among themselves. Therefore, to hold this match, the country's government took unprecedented measures: all British fans were allowed visa-free entry to Russia for three days before and after the match - with an entrance ticket to the game.

Luzhniki Stadium on the eve of the final match of the Champions League in football. 2008 Photo: RIA Novosti / Ruslan Krivobok

As part of the preparations for the final, sectors for the disabled and VIPs were installed at Luzhniki. For the first time in a long time, the press center was reconstructed, where even wireless Internet appeared. At the same time, two color boards were replaced, and turnstiles were installed at all entrances. But what domestic clubs liked the most was that the artificial turf was replaced with a natural one.

The main and extra time of the match ended in a draw - 1:1. Therefore, 67 thousand happy spectators witnessed the post-match penalty shootout, in which the players from Manchester United turned out to be more accurate.

World Cup 2018

Today Luzhniki is closed again for renovation. In fact, after the "repair" of the stadium, only the walls will remain. Everything else will be brand new. The country is gearing up for the most important sporting event in its modern history, the home football World Cup in 2018. Luzhniki will become the main arena of the Mundial. So after 60 years, the history of the stadium, one might say, is just beginning.

On July 19, 1980, the fire of the Olympic Games was lit in Moscow. The anniversary of this memorable event is dedicated to two
local lore stories - about the stadiums "Dynamo" and "Luzhniki".

And here is the final stop of several trolleybus routes at once. The control room and an elegant canopy for passengers appeared in the mid-1950s.

A small digression into the history of Luzhniki. Flood in 1908:

Construction of the BSA, 1956:

Festival of Youth and Students, 1957:

Closing ceremony of the 1980 Olympics:

Market in Luzhniki, 2000:

The large sports arena has been the home field of the Spartak football team (Moscow) for decades.

On the Prestigious Alley you can see a monument dedicated to the Olympic Movement and opened in July 2001 personally by Juan Antonio Samaranch.

According to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the Luzhniki hectares of land should belong to the city.

In 1992, a clothing market was opened on the territory of the complex, since 2003 it was moved outside the complex, and in August 2011 the clothing fair finally ceased to exist.

The wardrobe is foldable to save space.

Workout competitions (strength exercises on the horizontal bar) and volleyball.

The original lanterns installed in 1956 have been preserved on the territory of the sports complex.

In 2010, the chapel of Blessed Prince Vladimir was erected on the Luzhnetskaya embankment. The chapel is an octagonal building crowned with a tent and dome.

I fell into the hands of a presentation of beauty that will bring in Luzhniki. , and now let's look at the renders of what they will do there for the 2018 World Cup. Let me remind you that the opening of the championship and the final match will be held at the Luzhniki Stadium.

The preparation of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex for the 2018 FIFA World Cup includes not only the reconstruction of the stadium, but also a significant renovation of the entire park. The renewal and reconstruction process will affect more than 70% of the entire territory of the complex (112 out of 159 hectares).

As part of their implementation, it was planned to cut down 1050 trees. Of these, 474 were within the framework of sanitary felling (according to the conclusion of the dendrologist), another 576 were needed for construction. To date, 273 trees have been cut down (245 for construction needs, 28 for sanitary cutting). Today sanitary felling of trees on the territory of the complex suspended- none of the 446 remaining trees of this category will be cut down.

The category of felling "for construction needs" was also significantly reduced. Of the entire volume, the clearing that cannot be bypassed by design solutions was identified (that is, there is no alternative in terms of the location of objects). The total volume of felling, which cannot be bypassed by design solutions, is 311 trees (of which 245 have already been cut down). Thus, another 66 trees will be cut down on the territory of the complex - exclusively for the needs of construction. At the same time, compensatory planting will be 1050 trees. For it, only mature trees with an already formed crown and root system will be used.

In these Internets of yours, there is now a howl of hysterics about cutting down trees. But major sporting events have strict safety and infrastructure regulations. In order to comply with them, it is necessary, accordingly, to rebuild the input group. Naturally, some trees will have to be cut down. But they will put the park in order and plant 1050 trees. Is it bad?

In the meantime, let's look at what will be done in Luzhniki.

1. Zones of landscape design of the complex. The red line is the boundary of the complex. The current fencing of the territory cannot be used in the future, both due to physical wear and tear and in connection with modern requirements for ensuring the safety of the territory. A new construction of a security perimeter is proposed in compliance with all modern security requirements, the installation of video surveillance systems. At the same time, the architectural appearance of the modern fence will use elements of historical decor.

2. The central entrance group from the side of the Sportivnaya metro station will be transformed taking into account the installation of a clean perimeter inside the complex. Screening pavilions are designed in such a way that there are no queues for entry.

3. It is proposed to reconstruct the existing fountains on the central alley, add artistic lighting to them, plant flowers around. It is proposed to pave the space around the fountains with chipped paving stones - this will allow separating the rest of the people sitting on the benches and riding bicycles and rollerblades in the central part. The paving pattern uses the Luzhniki trademark - swifts.

4. Central alley.

5. The prestigious alley overlooks the embankment of the Moskva River and will be actively used for mass events after the World Cup.

6. The cable car from Sparrow Hills also comes here. The red building on the lower right is the lower station of the cable car.

7. Luzhnetskaya embankment is one of the main objects of improvement of the territory of Luzhniki.

8. The project proposes to reduce the width of the embankment's carriageway to two lanes (currently 4 lanes), and organize a treadmill and lanes for rollerbladers and cyclists in the vacant space. The length of the paths will be almost three kilometers, and the bike path, thus, will connect with the existing bike routes along the Moskva River embankment into a single complex.

9. Sports grounds will be installed on the embankment - Workout complexes, water and snack vending machines. At the beginning and at the end of the route there will be service centers with toilets, locker rooms, sports equipment rental.

10. In winter, it is proposed to organize a skating rink on the embankment and the Prestigious Alley. The area of the ice rink can reach almost 3.3 hectares.

11. The Luzhniki Embankment will be transformed and become a popular place for jogging, cycling with the whole family, and walking by the water.

12. Walk of Fame is an open-air exhibition space dedicated to the achievements of Russian sports.

13. The alley is divided into sectors, each of which is dedicated to its own sports theme.

14. As part of the improvement of the alley, it is proposed to pave the alley with stone, carry out more saturated landscaping, plant flowers in flowerbeds and replace street furniture.

15. Exhibition space in the open air.

16. One of the main entrances to the Luzhniki territory for spectators is the entrance from the Vorobyovy Gory metro station near the metro bridge. This area will also undergo active landscaping.

17. It is proposed to create new flower beds framed with benches, replace street furniture, paving the territory with stone.

18. One of the concepts for the development of the area around the pool.

19. Improvement of the territory around the fountain "Stone Flower".

20. Similar to the walk of fame, stone paving, more saturated landscaping, planting flowers in flowerbeds and replacing street furniture are proposed here.

21. As part of the project, it is proposed to create several playgrounds with active play areas on the territory of Luzhniki.

22. Climbing wall and skatepark.

23. Playground with a ship.

24. Damn, very cool!

25. Ah!!! Want Want! Rope park.

CSKA will soon receive permission from UEFA to host home matches of the Champions League group stage at Luzhniki.

This was stated by the general director of the club Roman Babaev - according to him, the leaders of European football have no reason to refuse. In an interview with RT, former army soldier Evgeny Aldonin and ex-coach of the backup team Alexander Grishin called the move from the more intimate VEB Arena the right decision. And the well-known fan of the team, actor and parodist Mikhail Grushevsky, noted that this would allow CSKA to earn money.

“We will give everyone the opportunity to watch the match with Real Madrid”

Back in late August, it became known that CSKA wanted to host rivals in the Champions League group stage at Luzhniki. The club addressed this request to UEFA, and in the very near future the union should give an official response.

“I think everything should be fine. There is simply no official letter from UEFA yet. ... The commission has already passed. She had some requests. These are not even comments, but rather recommendations. There is no reason to believe that we will be banned from playing matches at Luzhniki, ”Sport-Express quotes the words of the general director of the club Roman Babaev.

CSKA submitted an application for holding Champions League matches at Luzhniki only on September 5th. Before giving the army team an answer, UEFA decided to check the stadium, which most recently hosted the semi-final and final of the World Cup.

“We can confirm that we have received a request from CSKA. Before a final decision is made on this request, inspectors will visit the stadium and inspect it. Additional information will be provided over time, ”the UEFA press service said.

In CSKA, the move to Luzhniki was explained by the desire to provide as many fans as possible with the opportunity to attend the match with Real Madrid.

“We analyzed the situation for a very long time before making this difficult decision. The main reason is on the surface: it is obvious that not all fans could get to the Champions League matches, especially with Real Madrid, at the VEB Arena. We have already faced this situation when we played against Manchester United and London's Arsenal. Then a huge number of people could not get to the stadium,” Babayev said.

Meetings with other rivals of CSKA in the European Cup group - the Italian "Roma" and the Czech "Victoria Plzen" - may not cause increased excitement among the fans. But, according to the rules, the club does not have the right to hold home games of the group stage at different stadiums, so the army team had to make a difficult choice between their own arena and Luzhniki.

“On the one hand, there was a great desire to play at my own stadium. On the other hand, we will provide everyone with the opportunity to watch the match with the best team in Europe. In addition, the issues of comfort and safety of the spectators were taken into account. Luzhniki recently hosted the World Cup final. This stadium is ideal for top category matches. A lease agreement will be signed, preliminary negotiations have already been held,” Babayev added.

“There was an idea to play in Luzhniki

A little earlier, the desire to accept Champions League rivals at Luzhniki was also announced at Lokomotiv, but the club intended to submit such a request only if it met at the group stage with one of the European giants.

“We make transfers with an eye on the main club competition. This is a very important tournament for us and for the fans. But we also pay great attention to the championship and the Cup of Russia. We had the idea to play in the luxurious Luzhniki in the Champions League if a big grand like Manchester United or Liverpool comes across. For one game, of course, we would like to collect this arena. It would be wonderful, ”Herkus said on the air of Match TV.

However, as a result, the lot determined far from the most status teams as rivals for the railway workers: the German Schalke 04, the Portuguese Porto and the Turkish Galatasaray. Then Lokomotiv officially announced that they were no longer interested in renting the legendary arena.

“We will play all home matches at our stadium, not at Luzhniki. We hope to see the full arena. There will be a wonderful atmosphere. I think we will enjoy first of all the game of our team,” Herkus said immediately after the ceremony.

"The club will make a lot more money"

CSKA, on the other hand, was more “lucky” with the lot, and now the army team is very likely to accept the current Champions League winner Real in Luzhniki. Not all fans of the army were happy with the temporary move, but most of them still supported this idea, including the famous actor and parodist Mikhail Grushevsky.

“It is clear that the postponement of matches is largely due to the arrival of Real Madrid. I am sure that this game will collect a full bowl of Luzhniki. It will be a picture to match the final of the 2018 World Cup. As for the meeting with Roma, its attendance will depend on the standings, but I think the stadium will be two-thirds full. Still, we are talking about the semi-finalist of the Champions League. The same applies to the match against Viktoria Pilsen. If for this game the army team retains good chances of reaching the playoffs, CSKA will gather at least half of the stadium, ”Grushevsky said in an interview.

The actor noted that CSKA fans dissatisfied with the move should be sympathetic to what happened.

“Fans can now tolerate a certain grumbling about this. Some reluctantly agree to move, because now the team has its own arena. But I'm sure if CSKA hadn't dropped Real Madrid, there would have been no move. It's worth it in every sense of the word to receive Madrid players at Luzhniki - the difference in revenue from ticket sales will be impressive. So the fans will grumble a little and agree with the position of the club's management: matches of such a level and status deserve such an arena, - Grushevsky added.

The former midfielder of CSKA, ex-captain of the Russian national team Yevgeny Aldonin also positively assessed the move.

Luzhniki is a chic stadium. It immediately reminds me of the World Cup. Everything is beautiful. The home arena of CSKA can accommodate only 30 thousand people, and this stadium is much larger. Therefore, the idea has the right to exist. A healthy decision. People always come to the Champions League. Yes, the game with Viktoria Pilsen is out of the ordinary, but the club's management probably figured out all the risks and drew conclusions. And the point here is not only the desire to earn money: such matches should be seen by as many fans as possible. It will be interesting for many to look at the reconstructed arena itself, because not everyone had the opportunity to attend the World Cup meetings. In addition, people will come to see the players of Roma and, in particular, Real Madrid with their own eyes, Aldonin commented on the position of the club.

And the former head coach of the CSKA backup team, Alexander Grishin, noted that a short-term move to Luzhniki would be pleasant for the players of the army team themselves.

“I think this is an absolutely normal decision. It is clear that Luzhniki will simply gather more people than CSKA's home stadium. Thus, the club will earn much more money. Moreover, I am sure that there will be a full house at the game with Roma. But in the match with Viktoria Plzen, empty places cannot be avoided. I think it will be nice to play in the Luzhniki and army players who have never played there," Grishin emphasized.

The coach noted that CSKA will not lose much from the fact that they will not perform at their stadium.

“There is not much difference here. The main thing is the crowded stands and fans who drive the team forward. The rest does not matter. Luzhniki - Spartak stadium? I wouldn't say so. Yes, the red-and-whites hosted rivals at Vorobyovy Gory for several seasons, but CSKA also played there in the early 90s, it's just that no one remembers this anymore. Yes, and with Real Madrid, the army team played here in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League - 2011/12, ”added Grishin.