Foot Fault!

We all know Marat Safin as the immensely talented champion, who thanks to injuries and a whole lotta laziness, will always go down as a great underachiever in tennis circles. After his retirement last year, most undoubtedly expected him to fall back into a chilled and laid back life, with no more troubles or toils to stress. But we were apparently wrong as he recently announced that he would be running for election into the Nizhny Novgorod region of the State Duma (Russian Parliament). Today he spoke to Er.ru about his political ambitions’

“I’m not a politician, I do not know how to throw phrases. I originally established primaries in order to talk to people about myself. If the people feel good about you, they will vote. We all have problems and it’s most important that they are solved and do not accumulate. For me, this is a new stage, but in this field, I would like to reach the same level that I have achieved in tennis.”

“Look what condition (sport) is in now in Russia. The results speak for themselves. [It is] due to the fact that sport is very expensive. And we do not have, of course, the infrastructure, the children were doing. Even grown-ups “

“We have a culture, to promote a healthy lifestyle. Parents instill in children a craving for sports. If the parents play, then the children will too. Hence, the more people involved, the more opportunities.”

I don’t know why I find this all so amusing, but good on him. He certainly sounds the part there and he has already done very well for himself early on, campaigning around his district and is already one of the leaders in the early elections, ranking third with 151 votes.

But the big elephant in the room is that he has stated that he will “most likely” join Putin’s United Russia. I don’t mean to get all political and melodramatic up in here, but United Russia is such an infamously corrupted, power-hungry and backwards party. It really cannot be overstated, and Marat joining them in any way, shape or form would be, to me at least, so disappointing.