Uzbekistan: They'll be Doing the Samba in Tashkent

After months of intensive negotiations, legendary Brazilian football coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is being unveiled as the new manager of Uzbekistan's richest football club, Bunyodkor.

Bunyodkor is owned by Miradil Djalalov, the managing director of Zeromax, a Swiss-registered company with extensive assets in Uzbekistan. The club would seem to be an unlikely new home for a man who led the Brazilian national team to World Cup glory in 2002. Yet, according to local media reports on June 10, the Brazilian coach reportedly inked an 18-month deal. Financial terms weren't immediately revealed.

The 60-year-old Scolari will be coaching a host of aging world-class players who have signed lucrative contracts with the Uzbek league champion. "Uzbek football now creates its own success story, especially Bunyodkor with its remarkable dynamism," Scolari said in remarks published on Bunyodkor's website.

Few people in Tashkent doubt that Bunyodkor has lots of money to throw around as it tries to cement a winning reputation by giving past-their-prime stars one last big payday.

Zeromax, which has been linked in press reports to Gulnara Karimova, President Islam Karimov's daughter, has poured millions of dollars into both the team and club holdings. Samuel Eto'o, a striker for Spanish super club Barcelona, was reportedly offered a short-term contract worth $25 million to play at Bunyodkor for just three months. He refused, but Barcelona has partnered with Bunyodkor and will be paid a reported $5 million for an exhibition match in Tashkent later this year.

Rivaldo, 37, a Brazilian soccer star who was a member of Scolari's World Cup-winning team, earns $131,370 per week at the Uzbek club as part of his four-year contract, the British Daily Mail newspaper has reported.

Bunyodkor is in a position to take advantage of a huge tax break extended to Uzbek football clubs in April of this year. The tax exemption covers "customs fees (except fees for customs
clearance) on imported goods, equipment and materials not produced in the country [that are] necessary for reconstruction of stadiums and strengthening the material-technical base of football clubs," and "all types of taxes and charges," except for social insurance payments.

Work is currently ongoing on a 35,000-seat stadium in Tashkent. The estimated construction cost approaches $150 million.

"Completion of a new football stadium in . . .Tashkent, which is scheduled for March 2010, will open a new era for the club. I know that I am in the right place at the right time and in the right team," Scolari told the team's website.

Although details of Scolari's financial package have yet to be revealed, John Duerden, Asia editor at the global football site www.goal.com, said it is likely be very, very large.

"As a rule, the more unfashionable the place is, the more money it takes. There is no doubt that the Uzbek league is a step down from England [where Scolari last coached]. But there is a long list of big-name players and coaches going to unfashionable clubs for big money. Scolari won't be the last," Duerden told EurasiaNet on June 10.

"Little is known about Uzbekistan in Europe and the assumption will be that the standard is low," Duerden continued. "But people move for money all the time in football."

Duerden also said the Brazilian connection at the Uzbek club made sense. "Sometimes [developing football countries] choose to benchmark leading nations and Brazil is seen as the best, though others follow the German or Dutch model," he said. "It also makes sense from a practical point of view -- language, helps new guys to settle and so on."

Scolari has a track record for turning little known squads into big winners, but Duerden cautions there may be only so far Bunyodkor can go.

"How far they can go is limited to Uzbekistan, where they are already champions, and the Asian Champions League," he said. "It [the league] is not the most prestigious in the world, but it does grant entry to FIFA's annual Club World Cup. That could be the limit -- a chance to be seen on the world stage."

"Bunyodkor could become the biggest club in Asia -- and Scolari will help with that -- but it is hard to say how big they will become in global terms," Duerden said.