By Mark Baber
June 18 – Recent western media reports suggesting that Russia is “not giving up on a Football Super League” in the post-Soviet space turns out to be somewhat spurious with the current state of relations between Moscow and Kiev making it even less likely than was previously the case.
The report in the Guardian newspaper in the UK begins: “It appears Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions aren’t limited to economics and politics. The master of the Kremlin also wants to advance his agenda via sports, namely with the creation of a new football super league comprising leading teams from Russia and other formerly Soviet republics.”
The article, by Italian journalist Emanuele Giulianelli, turns out to be largely based on a June 11 article by the same author on eurasianet.org.
The anti-Putin tone of the article has been toned down in the Guardian, but the evidence that the Football Super League concept is still alive and well is the same.
According to the article “members of the Russian organising committee have not given up on the idea. Valery Gazzaev (pictured), a former manager of CSKA Moscow and the man who leads the committee, believes the project can move ahead on a smaller scale, with teams coming from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – countries that are currently part of the EEU.”
Gazzeev is quoted as saying on the committee’s official website at UFLeague.com: “Right now clubs from Belarus and Kazakhstan are expressing real interest in taking part in a unified football league.”
However, in an interview posted June 9 to the same web site, Gazzaev, whilst praising the benefits a United Football League would bring and saying clubs in Belarus, Kazakhstan would be keen, admits the situation in Ukraine doesn’t allow the plan to be carried through.
In November 2013 UEFA president Michel Platini said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the idea of the Super League went against the principles of European football’s governing body. The plan was also opposed by Sepp Blatter who said it was “impossible” and Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko who insisted that Russian money should stay in Russian football.
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