By Andrew Warshaw
August 23 – A salary cap should be introduced in Russian football to prevent the influx of foreign stars being paid excessive salaries that could fall foul of UEFA’s new Financial Fair Play guidelines.
That is the view of Igor Lebedev (pictured above), deputy speaker of the Russian parliament and a candidate for the Presidency of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
While salary caps are ingrained in the psyche of American sports, they are something of a novelty in Europe.
But limiting wages would help Russian clubs meet UEFA’s strict new spending rules, according to Lebedev.
“This measure would help Russian clubs to comply with the demands introduced by UEFA Financial Fair Play and stop irrational expenditure of resources that clubs receive from state companies or the federal budget,” Lebedev insisted.
“It will be possible to control [clubs’] expenditure on salaries, which will not be supposed to exceed a certain percentage of the total budget.”
Eight of the 16 clubs in the Russian Premier League are owned by regional Governments, while three more, including champions Zenit St Petersburg, are the property of companies majority-owned by the Federal Government.
Unlike in Western Europe, only three are in private hands.
Russia, with its vast wealth, has become a major attraction for ambitious players and clubs trying to accrue the best possible transfer fees.
But Lebedev is not only worried about players’ wages.
New national coach Fabio Capello (pictured above, centre), who took over from Dick Advocaat, is reported to be on over $12 million (£8 million/€10 million) a year.
Lebedev believes too much focus has gone on foreign coaches instead of developing the game at the grassroots level.
“The disproportion between spending on hiring several foreign coaches for the national team and the money spent on the development of mass football in Russia is quite obvious,” he told Reuters.
“The RFU has ignored its own rules, taking dubious decisions and spending tens of millions of roubles from the state budget.”
Promoting his case for becoming RFU President, Lebedev said he would crack down on football hooliganism, an issue that caused Russia great embarrassment during the summer’s UEFA European Championship finals in Poland and Ukraine and which threatens to overshadow the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
If elected, Lebedev said he would seek powers to stop known hooligans from leaving the country during major tournaments.
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