Penza, 13 November 2012. PenzaNews. Penza authorities decided to support the football club Zenit by cutting the budget of the rugby team “Empire” and cycling club. This was reported by the deputy head of the city administration Larisa Ryabikhina during the session of the City Duma Committee on education, health, science, culture and social affairs on Tuesday, November 13.

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“In connection with the celebration of the 350th anniversary of Penza, we faced a difficult task: to cut funding of sports teams of the city. In order not to cut down the budget by 30–40% of every club in three kinds of sports — rugby, cycling and football — we have decided to support the latter,” she said.

According to Larisa Ryabikhina, the administration of Penza made this decision due to the fact that children, choosing a sport of their life, often go for football, and not rugby or cycling.

“This difficult question of funding of sports from the city budget is placed annually. In 2013, we suppose football will be more promising,” she concluded.