Chelsea of Russia enjoy presidential backing in Cup bid

Zenit St Petersburg will play tonight with top-level backing in the form of their country's newly-elected president, Dmitry Med-vedev. Vladimir Putin's successor is a diehard fan who hails from St Petersburg and played a key role in their transformation into Russia's richest club.

Medvedev is also a former chairman of the gas giant, Gazprom, which is Russia's biggest company and the third largest corporation in the world. It was through his influence, in late 2005, that the wheels were put in motion for Gazprom to become Zenit's sponsors. The firm's cash has allowed manager Dick Advocaat, appointed in 2006, to spend $100m (£51.2m) on players.

His top-scoring forward, Pavel Pogrebnyak (10 goals in the competition) is suspended, but as Advocaat said yesterday: "With respect to Pavel, I have other players, and it is now up to them to perform."

They include the playmaker-cum-forward, Andrei Arshavin, a Zenit player since 1999, and a Russian international with 33 caps and 10 goals. "Arshavin is a quality player of exceptional talent and hopefully he can show that," Advocaat said.

Advocaat splashed out on others. Anatoliy Tymoschuk, the 29-year-old captain and Ukraine international, cost £10m from Shakhtar Donetsk. The Turkish striker Fatih Tekke cost £7m from Trabzonspor, and Alejandro Dominguez, a 23-year-old Argentine cost £4m. Zenit won the Russian Premier League in 2007, so will go straight into the group stage of the Champions League in 2008-09. And while they have stuttered in the early stages of the 2008 season, they have impressed in Europe.

Zenit's renaissance, which will include a new 65,000-seat stadium, has an intriguing backdrop. Since investing in the club, Gazprom have bought a majority stake in the oil giant, Sibneft, the former backers of Zenit's league rivals, CSKA Moscow.

In 2005, CSKA became the first Russian team to win major European silverware, beating Sporting Lisbon to lift the Uefa Cup. But since Gazprom bought Sibneft, CSKA no longer have major finances on which to draw, and Zenit have become top dogs.

Although Advoccat has a multinational squad a typical starting XI still features a majority of Russians. Tonight represents a milestone on a road to redemption for two of Zenit's players. One is the former Rangers utility player, Fernando Ricksen, sent packing from Ibrox by Paul Le Guen for drunken behaviour on a flight to South Africa. He spent time at Sporting Chance clinic before moving to Russia. Another is Konstantin Zyrianov, the Russian international midfielder who lost his wife and daughter a few years ago to injuries sustained when they jumped from their eighth-storey flat.

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