By David Gold
September 1 – The Russian Audit Chamber has launched an investigation into the Russian Football Union (RFU) accounts.
The investigation will analyse the period from 2010, examining “the expenditure of subsidy funds from the federal budget and other sources of funding in the fitness and sports sectors”.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was ousted as the head of the RFU in 2010 and replaced by Sergei Fursenko, who was forced to step down from his post this summer after Russia’s dire European Championship performance.
The investigation was triggered by a parliamentary question to the Chamber posed by Igor Lebedev (pictured below), a politician who is also a candidate for the new RFU President.
Lebedev had noted “a clear discrepancy between spending on a few foreign trainers and the funds assigned to football development”.
Reports also suggest that Fursenko’s office safe included a pre-signed contract with Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, who had been linked with the role that fellow Italian Fabio Capello eventually took on.
The decision on the new President is expected on Monday (September 3), with Nikolai Tolstykh, the executive director of the Russian Olympic Committee, favourite for the post.
Also in contention for the role are Evgeny Lovchev, a former Soviet Union defender and Russian Premier League chief Sergei Pryadkin.
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