By Mark Baber
July 8 – Russian Sports Minister and YouTube sensation Vitaly Mutko has been nominated to stand as a candidate in September’s election for a new president of the Russian Football Union (RFS).
The 56 year old Russian Sports Minister, famous for his attempt to speak in English when giving a presentation of Russia’s winning bid for the 2018 World Cup (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx5k7jKGQyU ), has been nominated by organisations including the Federation of Football for the Volgograd Region.
Mutko commented on the Volgograd Federation nomination, without committing himself to run for the position, saying: “I would like to say thank you to the region for their backing. I am happy that they put me forward. I will decide on what steps I will take later.”
Mutko, described as the big fish in the pond of Russian football, headed up the RFS from 2005 to 2009 and is seen as one of the leading contenders to take over from Nikolay Tolstykh was sacked in May after losing a vote on his position by RFS officials.
Under Tolstykh the RFS amassed debts to the tune of 1.4 billion roubles ($24.51 million) and has been unable to pay the salary of national team manager Fabio Capello, a situation which eventually required Russia’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov to come forward with a £3.9 million loan.
Mutko hails from St Petersburg and, with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is believed to be well-placed to improve the RFS’ financial position with his links to big corporations.
Nevertheless, Mutko’s candidacy is not a sure thing – whoever is elected on September 2 will only be in place for a year until new elections are held. Mutko, who has plenty of studying to do to fulfil his promise to be able to speak English by 2018, may prefer to sit this one out.
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