By Mark Baber
December 31 – The Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko (pictured) has commented on plans to set up a new CIS League involving teams from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states.
The proposals gathered steam this week with the creation of an organizing committee.
Mutko, who was president of Zenit St Petersburg, then head of the Russian Football Union before being appointed Sports Minister and also chairing Russia’s successful bid for the World Cup in 2018, commented that: “If this league gets the status of a commercial competition, then let them play outside the football calendar dates, but the national federation will never agree that this tournament will receive quotas for European competitions.
“Our top clubs play 12 to 16 matches in European competitions, and they should be playing against Real and Barcelona on a regular basis. This should be their goal.”
The supporters of the new league include Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller. Gazprom-owned Zenit have been incensed at being handed a 3-0 technical defeat after a flare was from their fans’s sector during a game against Dynamo Moscow.
Zenit’s general director, Maxim Mitrofanov, threatened to pull the team out of the Russian Premier League if their punishment was too harsh. Zenit currently sit in third place in the table and face a fierce fight with CSKA and Anzhi for a Champions League place.
Miller has said “If the time comes to create this new league, we will act and take well thought-through steps, coming to an agreement with those people who support the aim of creating the championship.”
The most successful team of the old Soviet Top League was Dynamo Kiev who won 13 times, finishing as runners up 11 times. Moscow clubs (Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA and Torpedo) won 33 championships between them. Zenit won once in 1984.
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