“Torch” burst into the elite of Russian football with great noise. Voronezh residents instantly fell in love with the RPL audience with their bright performances, and the devotion of local fans inspired fans across the country.

However, in terms of football, the team did not do well at the start. According to the results of the first 8 rounds, the Blue-Whites did not win a single victory, taking a place in the play-off zone. The club did not find a better solution than to terminate the contract with Oleg Vasilenko, the man who helped return big football to Voronezh.

Fans of the “Torch” this move infuriated.

Vasilenko – the hero of “Torch”

Vasilenko is not the most media person in Russian football, although there are many interesting moments in his biography. The coach was an assistant to Guus Hiddink at Anji, collaborated with the South Korean national team when it was preparing for the 2014 World Cup, played with the Lithuanian team Trakai (now Riterai) in the Europa League. But at the same time, Oleg Petrovich had practically no experience as the head coach of the RPL team: in addition to eight matches with Fakel, the specialist only worked half the season at Ural.

Vasilenko arrived in Voronezh in 2020, when Fakel was going through hard times: for three years in a row, he had to fly out of the FNL, but thanks to the problems of other clubs, he remained in the league. The Voronezh residents also had enough problems with infrastructure and sponsors.

Oleg Vasilenko / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Pavel Bednyakov

The disastrous 2019/20 season led by Vladimir Beschastnykh, in which the team took 19th place, showed that Voronezh football needs drastic changes, and Vasilenko has become one of their main drivers. Oleg Petrovich immediately raised Fakel to the middle of the table: in the 2020/21 campaign, the team took ninth place. In the 2021/22 season, things went uphill. Through the joint efforts of the management and the head coach, Fakel returned to the media field. The club signed the necessary sponsorship agreements and reinforced the roster with new players, which quickly yielded results.

Of course, the team entered the new season as one of the weakest in terms of composition: of the eight signed newcomers, only three had experience playing in the RPL. However, at the same time, Fakel did not seem like an underdog that would definitely return back to the “best league in the world.”

“Insolent or scoundrels?”

The dismissal of Vasilenko after eight rounds came as a surprise to the experts, who were sure that Oleg Petrovich would be allowed to finish the first part of the season. Again, everyone was well aware that with the composition of the First League club, you can’t go far on emotions alone, but this team was built by Vasilenko himself, and the players trusted him. By the way, the dismissal was a shock for the players.

Photo: © FC Fakel

Fans took this decision very negatively. In social networks of official and unofficial publics, fans began to thank Vasilenko for the work done, along the way expressing dissatisfaction with the policy of the leadership. The people responsible for the media in the club itself played it safe and closed the comments under the post about the dismissal of the specialist, which also did not go unnoticed among users.

In one of the groups, there was even a poll where the fans had to choose who the Voronezh people were: “insolent or scoundrels?” Someone even called for a boycott of home matches so that decision makers would think about what they had done. This idea, of course, sounds loud, but for sure it will not be supported by a wide range of Fakel fans. However, if Fakel does not arrange a public send-off for Oleg Petrovich at the next match with Lokomotiv, the club may lose the love that it earned at the start of the season.

Arseny Israilov