May 6 – The political and financial chaos within the Russian Football Union (RFU) has triggered a no-confidence in current president Nikolay Tolstykh at a meeting of the RFU’s executive committee. Already there are calls for Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko, to take over the reins.
The RFU leadership has struggled with disappointing national team performance and a failure to land new sponsors. The financial situation reached a point where national team coach Fabio Capello and his staff went unpaid for six months despite government orders to settle his wages.
Mutko has become increasingly frustrated and critical of the RFU, not least in its failure to land new sponsors in the run-up to the World Cup in 2018, saying that the state cannot be expected to pay for everything.
Now there are calls from senior figures for Mutko to return to a post that he held from 2005-2009. Mutko has also previously been president of the Russian Football Premier League from 2001-2003.
Current president of the Russian Football Premier League, Sergey Pryadkin, said that Mutko is the man for the RFU presidency in the current situation, stressing that he could unite the governing body in the crucial time as they prepare for 2018.
Mutko currently has his hands full as Russia’s minister for sports and youth as well as overseeing preparations for 2018, indicating that he can’t do everything. But the strong feeling in Russian football is that something needs to be done.
Even Russian president Vladimir Putin at the recent Sport Accord conference in Sochi intimated that while Russia will be ready for 2018 he was not sure that their team would be, but said we have “experts” for that. A remark Mutko jokingly refered to later but an issue that must be preying on his mind as well.
Tolstykh’s position is vulnerable as the vote of no confidence and his potential resignation has been carried through as an agenda item for the RFU Congress to be held May 31. Tolstykh has been under increasing criticism because of the reluctance to build relationships with leading football clubs (and their powerful owners). It is hard to see him lasting in the role without their political or financial support.
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