The exec committee of the Russian Football Union (RFS) has voted "no confidence" in organization President Nikolai Tolstykh due to RFS' poor financial state. The issue of firing Tolstykh is to be considered at the RFS conference on May 31, unless he chooses to resign before that date.
Tolstykh was elected RFS president in '12 and his mandate is to expire in Sept. '16. But the organization has been facing financial problems for more than a year, and the president has often been the target of severe criticism. Committee member Rokhus Shokh said on his Twitter account that only one member of the RFS exec committee voted against the decision.
Meanwhile, Russian Sports Minister and former RFS President Vitaly Mutko supported the move against Tolstykh. "If the decision was made, there were grounds for that," he was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency R-Sport. "We have been talking about Russian football so much, it is time to take concrete steps." The biggest controversy during Tolstykh's tenure has been national team coach Fabio Capello's huge wage arrears, which RFS was able to pay earlier this year only thanks to a loan from tycoon Alisher Usmanov.
Tolstykh is also widely believed to be responsible for RFS' failure to find a new general sponsor following the expiration of its contract with national gas company Gazprom in '12.
Still, some of the financial problems the RFS is currently facing were caused by factors beyond the president's control, such as the sharp devaluation of the ruble in the second half of '14.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
