By Andrew Warshaw
September 27 – The spat over alleged overspending by Russia’s wealthiest club Zenit St Petersburg has gone all the way to the top with Russian President Vladimir Putin wading into the debate.
Several Zenit players including national team captain Igor Denisov have complained about Zenit splashing out on Brazil striker Hulk and Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel just before the transfer deadline.
Denisov and Aleksandr Kerzhakov are expected to return to the first team this coming weekend after initially being sanctioned for lashing out at the extravagant salaries paid to Hulk and Witsel and questioning whether the new acquisitions, bought for a joint €100 million (£80 million/$130 million) in the summer, deserved to earn triple the salaries of some other players.
Hulk (pictured below) reportedly signed a €6.5 million (£5.1 million/$8.4 million) annual contract after joining from Porto, while former Benfica midfielder Witsel was awarded just under half that amount.
Putin (pictured top), a St Petersburg native, insisted that Zenit, bankrolled by Russian energy giant Gazprom, were spending the company’s money rather than that of the Russian state.
“I also complain sometimes,” Putin told local officials.
“I would like to note that it’s the companies that buy the players and not the Government.
“But fans also want to see world stars, not those who are on the wane but those who are at their peak.”
St Petersburg communists have urged Putin to save their club and replace Zenit’s Italian coach Luciano Spalletti.
“We have an explosive situation at Zenit and the whole city of St Petersburg,” the St Petersburg branch of the Communists of Russia party wrote in an open letter to Putin, posted on their website.
“It’s obvious, the team is out of control, there are internal squabbles between the players fighting over who gets bigger pay.”
The episode marks the latest embarrassment for the 2018 World Cup host nation, who this week officially handed over the technical report on the 13 candidate host cities to FIFA.
The report is a result of the inspection tour, which took place from April 12 to June 22, during which technical experts analysed the proposed stadiums and venue construction sites, examined airports and other infrastructure together with city and regional authorities vying for the right to host 2018 matches.
It evaluates host cities according to five criteria: current infrastructure, level of socio-economic development, investment programmes and plans for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as well as the effective use of the tournament’s legacy.
The final list will be announced in Moscow on Saturday (September 29) at a high-profile ceremony, with two cities due to be chopped.
Those currently in the frame are Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Krasnodar and Yekaterinburg.
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