By Mark Baber
January 14 – The Russian FA (RFU) and its former president Sergei Fursenko (pictured) have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by a state Audit Chamber investigation.
The investigation was launched following Russia’s exit from Euro 2012 and Fursenko stepping down.
The investigation looked into debts of 800 million rubles ($25.8 million) which the FA had on its books, following a complaint from Igor Lebedev, a politician who lost out to former Dynamo player and long-time football administrator Nikolai Tolstykh in the vote to take over as Russian FA president.
It was Igor Lebedev himself who announced via Twitter that “no violations of Russian law were uncovered.” and linked to documents which indicated “the RFU did not receive or use resources from the federal budget”.
Nikolai Tolstykh has stated the RFU is working to pay down the debt and “all obligations will be met in a constructive and smooth fashion”.
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