Russian Football Union Announces Limit On Foreign Players In Russian Premier League

The Russian Football Union (RFU) said on Tuesday that a "new limit on the number of foreign players allowed in the Russian Premier League is to be introduced," according to Dmitriy Rogovitskiy of REUTERS. From the new season, which starts on Friday, teams "will be restricted to a limit six foreign players on the pitch at any one time." Acting RFU President Nikita Simonyan said, "A new scheme was adopted almost unanimously, only one member of the executive committee abstained." The "bigger clubs, including Zenit St Petersburg, CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Moscow," were not in favor of the proposals. Zenit coach Andre Villas-Boas said, "The new format will become the end of the development of Russian football. ...  The new system is the worst possible decision. It is the end of football" (REUTERS, 7/14).