Salaries of foreign players at Russian clubs have "escalated dramatically
as the Russian ruble has plummeted in exchange rate value," according to INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. Players,
with salaries "generally negotiated in euros, are now putting almost 40%
more on club wage bills." If the ruble "continues to drop in the foreign exchange markets to 100
rubles to the euro, then clubs will have found their costs of foreign
players to have more than doubled since the start of the year." The wage crisis for clubs "does not look like relenting and with the
transfer window about to open, many clubs will likely look to offload
their expensive foreign players fast" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 12/18).
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| Source: INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL |
ESPN reported Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich, Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov and Monaco Owner Dmitry Rybolovlev all lost hundreds of millions of dollars in "a matter of days this week as a result of Russia's current economic troubles." According to Bloomberg's Billionaires index, 15 Russian billionaires lost a total of $8.65B "in the space of 48 hours as a result." And among those 15 are Abramovich, Usmanov and Rybolovlev, with Usmanov having lost $809M, leaving his net worth at $13.4B. Abramovich lost $449.5M, leaving his net worth at $12.8B, while Rybolovlev lost $150.1M to leave his net worth at $9.8B (
ESPN, 12/18).
