Russian football boss throws in the towel after early Euro 2012 exit

By David Gold

June 26 – The President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), Sergey Fursenko, has quit following his country’s early exit from the 2012 European Championship.

The coming years are particularly key for Russian football with the new calendar and the FIFA World Cup being held in 2018.

Speaking at the RFU annual conference earlier this year, Fursenko (pictured above) had himself said that Russia should be aiming to win that World Cup.

He had also said at the time that the immediate goal was to win this summer’s Euros, a lofty ambition which has come back to haunt him.

Fursenko said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I have made a decision that was hard for me, to leave the post of President of the Russian Football Union.

“I want to apologise to the supporters for this result.

“It’s a pity because the team was very strong, a very good job was done by Dick Advocaat.”

The RFU has not put any comment on its website, but it is reported that Nikita Simonyan will act in his place until a permanent successor is found.

Fursenko’s successor will now be charged with finding a replacement for Advocaat.

Russia set Euro 2012 alight on the opening day with a 4-1 win over the Czech Republic.

However, despite that result, they ended up going out while the Czechs won the group following a turnaround in results.

A 1-0 loss to Greece meant the debt-stricken nation finished above the Russians in second place on their head-to-head record and took their place in the last eight.

Co-hosts Poland finished fourth in a group in which Russia were favourites to qualify.

Things were not much better off the pitch, with the RFU fined €195,000 (£157,000/$245,000) in total for Russian fans’ behaviour during the tournament by UEFA.

Russia was also given a suspended six-point penalty for the qualifying stage of the next Euros in France in 2016.

The nation was, however, hit before the start of this year’s tournament by injuries to Lokomotiv Moscow defender Roman Shishkin and CSKA Moscow’s Vasili Berezutski, a regular starter and key centre back.

National team coach Advocaat (pictured below) also announced that he would leave after the tournament to return to his homeland of the Netherlands to manage PSV Eindhoven.

Fursenko had hired Advocaat to replace fellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who had taken Russia to the semi-finals of Euro 2008 with some of the best football in Europe, but they subsequently failed to qualify for the South Africa 2010 World Cup.

Fursenko, 58, took on the RFU role in February 2010, when he replaced Vitaly Mutko, now the Sports Minister.

Mutko earlier this week said that the recently concluded Russian league season, which lasted 18 months, was partly to blame for the early exit.

The season lasted that long because Russia is making a transition from their usual spring to winter football calendar to one which runs from autumn to spring, in line with Europe’s major leagues.

The decision to alter the calendar was one of the key changes made by Fursenko, but he came under fire over the move as pitches were criticised during the freezing temperatures in December and March.

The RFU has also been, along with the Russian Premier League, battling the issue of racism in football recently.

The issue has been thrust into the spotlight by the country’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup, and the RFU set up a taskforce to tackle the problem earlier this year.

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