Former Russian Footballers Move To Toughen Foreign Player Quota

A week after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Russian sports managers to focus on cultivating domestic talent, a group of influential former Russian footballers "is putting forward a plan to restrict the number of foreigners allowed in the game to six per club by the year 2017," according to R-SPORT. The Russian FA in Aug. '12 "voted to allow seven foreign players." But if former internationals Valery Karpin, Sergei Semak, Sergei Rodionov, Nikolai Pisarev and ex-Dynamo Moscow midfielder Vladimir Leonchenko get their way, "no club will be able to have more than six non-Russians on their books by 2017." Leonchenko: "The issue is not only about the quantity of foreigners, but also of the quality." The initiative "is part of the group's incoming manifesto" as they seek election to the Russian Premier League's exec committee (R-SPORT, 4/1).