The struggling Russian Premier League football squad Torpedo Moscow is looking for a shirt sponsor and hoping for assistance from the Moscow city government, which reportedly owns a 75% stake in the club. Meanwhile, another top-flight club, CSKA, signed a sponsorship deal with a local bank. A spokesperson for Torpedo told SBD Global that the squad is in the process of looking for a shirt sponsor, and that the Moscow government is expected to help with that, but refused to give any more details. In Russia, local and federal authorities have often stepped in to save struggling squads, urging companies to sign sponsorship deals or just bankroll them. In Torpedo's case, Moscow city authorities could have more vested interests. Although, like with many other squads, the ownership structure has never been revealed, the city government reportedly owns a 75% share in Torpedo.
SMALL BUDGET CHALLENGES: Torpedo, which returned to the Premier League this season after a seven-year stint in lower tiers, is currently in 14th place out of 16, with one victory and one draw after seven games. The squad's budget of 500M rubles ($13M) is the lowest in the league. Torpedo has not yet paid its players bonuses for promotion to the Premier League, a sign of a dire financial situation that could only be repaired with the arrival of a major sponsor. Back in the Soviet era, Torpedo won the league three times. Following the privatization in the mid-1990s, the squad changed hands several times, with its performance being unstable. Torpedo was relegated from the Premier League in '06.
RICH GET RICHER: Meanwhile, one of the league's richest clubs, CSKA, signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the bank Novikombank, the value of which was not disclosed. The squad's shirt sponsor is the power company Rosseti.
Vladmir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.