By David Gold
June 26 – Sergei Cheban, the executive director of the Russian Premier League, believes Russia will double its revenue from television and commercial sources within the next two seasons as they look to compete with Europe’s top football leagues.
“In two seasons time we plan to double our revenues we generate from all TV and commercial activities,” Cheban told insideworldfootball.
“We are following the example of some of the European leagues, like the Premier League and Bundesliga.
“We hope to create some TV production to produce the footage of our league ourselves and sell the product to TV companies.”
Russia currently generates £37 million ($60 million) in television revenue, far behind what the top five European leagues – the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 – all make.
Yet the country has climbed to seventh place in the UEFA Coefficients rankings, which are used to decide how many teams from each country will participate in the Champions and Europa Leagues.
The influx of television revenue could further improve the Russian league’s competitiveness in Europe.
It is a period of transition in Russian football, with the Premier League season currently in the process of switching from a March to November schedule, to one which will run from July to March.
“The main idea behind this change is that Russian clubs are synchronised with Europeans,” Cheban explained.
“Now we will have a break like European teams this will allow us to perform better and our teams will be more competitive with European sides.
“We expect our clubs to participate in the later stages of the Champions and Europa Leagues.”
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