January 29 – The Russian Football Union’s (RFU) cash crisis continues with news that Moscow travel agency Akademservice has filed a lawsuit demanding compensation of 23 million rubles ($339,000). The RFU is already struggling to cope with the wage bill of its national team coach Fabio Capello and general manager Oreste Cinquini, who have been unpaid for more than 7 months, and are owed $9.2 million.
The news was announced on Moscow Court of Arbitration website though no details for the grounds for the claim were given.
Akademservice is a high street travel agency in Russia but also works with sports orgnaisations booking hotels and airline tickets. The agency has worked on major Russian sports events such as 2013 Athletics World Championship, the Kremlin Cups, 2005 and 2011 Figure Skating World Championships, and 2011 Curling European Championship.
According to Russian news agency Tass, it’s partnerships include the Russian Olympic Committee, the Russian Paralympic Committee, the Russian Football premier League, the 2018 World Cup organizing committee, the Kontinental Hockey League as well as over 40 Russian sports federations, including the RFU.
RFU president Nikolai Tolstykh (pictured) said that a special anti-crisis commission had been set up to tackle its financial difficulties and its budget deficit of 500 million rubles ($8.4 million). The RFU has received $750,000 from FIFA as its share of the 2014 World Cup payout, but this is nowhere near the level required to solve the problem.
For Tolstykh, the problem was increased by the involvement of laour agency Rostrud who issued a deadline to pay Capello and Oreste of January 19. The deadline was missed which incurred further fines on the RFU of 40,000 and 4,000 rubles.
Unless the wages are paid, the RFU faces a further financial penalty and Tolstykh could be suspended from his post for the period between six months and two years, according to Tass.
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