July 4 – The Football Union of Russia (FUR) is to increase the tax on clubs that employ foreign coaches. The FUR already levies a tax on foreign coaches but a commission of coaching excellence that met yesterday is examining how much should actually be paid.
Andrei Leskakov, chair of the commission, told state news agency ITAR-TASS: “The main task now is to work out a general approach. We will agree the sums later.”
Clubs who have foreign head coaches currently pay 2.5 million rubles ($72.800) levy to the FUR if they are in the First Division and 5 million rubles (145,800) if they are in the Russian Premier League.
Two Russian First Division clubs last season had foreign coaches; Krylya Sovetov Samara paid for Francois Vercauteren of Belgium and Tosno for Nikolay Kostov of Bulgaria. It is likely that the tax for the clubs below the Russian Premier League will remain smaller.
But the commission is also looking at expanding the tax to include foreign assistant coaches. The FUR believes that clubs should be training Russians to fill these coaching positions rather than just seeking fast results by dipping into the pool of foreign coaches available.
Mikhail Gershkovich, head of the Union of Russian Coaches, said: “We have already met with the heads of the football clubs and will now propose expanding the tax to make the clubs pay for the foreign assistants to the chief coaches. We are convinced that those who make such a step should solve not only the task of achieving certain results but also that of training local specialists.”
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