In a bid to improve its dire financial situation, the Russian Football Union (RFS) is close to signing a sponsor contract with Russia's largest brewery, Baltika. However, against the backdrop of senior officials' statements that the organization is in a "pre-bankruptcy" state and its president's job is on the line after failure to pay national team coach Fabio Capello's salary on time, the new contract is unlikely to save the day for RFS. "Cooperation between Baltika and RFS is being discussed, and some agreements have been reached," a Baltika spokesperson told SBD Global, declining to reveal the value of the contract. According to reports in the Russian media, a four-year contract could bring RFS between 400M-500M rubles ($6.8-$8.5M).
COMING UP SHORT: However, this amount would be still far from enough to cover RFS' outstanding debts, among which are salary arrears for Capello, who has not been paid for several months. Sergei Stepashin, head of Russia's Audit Chamber and a member of RFS' executive committee, was quoted by the Russian daily Vedomosti as saying that RFS is in a "pre-bankruptcy" state. Russia's labor and employment inspection warned that RFS president Nikolai Tosltykh could be suspended if all debts to Capello are not paid by Dec. 19, but later it gave RFS a one-month extension. Meanwhile, the dropping value of the ruble only made things worse for RFS, as Capello's salary is denominated in euros and the organization's revenues are in rubles. Since June, Capello's salary of €8.8M a year has increased in ruble terms from 415.8 million to 749.3 million.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
