The Russian Football Union (RFS) says the country's sports ministry was behind the reduction of foreign players allowed on rosters in the Russian Premier League. The number of foreign players who can be on the pitch at one time was cut from seven to six, a move that came as an unpleasant surprise for many clubs. "The idea came from the sports ministry," a spokesperson for RFS told SBD Global. "We just executed it." Incidentally, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, the new limit's ardent proponent, is widely believed to be in line to be RFS' new president, replacing Nikolai Tolstykh, who was fired two months ago. He held that position from '05-09.
CHANGE OF PLAN: Originally, RFS was leaning toward a "15 + 10" scheme, under which a Premier League club could register 15 Russian players and 10 foreigners, with no restrictions on how many of those could be on the pitch at the same time. So, when RFS announced the new rule earlier this month, some teams were taken off guard, and their coaches and officials openly criticized the decision. André Villas-Boas, the coach of league champions Zenit, was quoted by Russian news agency TASS as saying that the new limit is "evil." FC Lokomotive President Olga Smorodskaya said, "It will have a negative impact on Russian players. This is a nightmare and a horror as this measure is limiting competition." FC Lokomotiv Moscow and FC Krasnodar, which have been heavily dependent on foreign players, are among the squads that are going to be affected most.
NO IMMEDIATE IMPACT: A spokesperson for the RPL told SBD Global that the measure has not yet had a noticeable impact, and there is no trend for selling off foreign players. "All the squads have registered their main foreign players," he said. However, few signings of foreign players have been reported so far, and none by Zenit and runner-up CSKA, which have normally been active on the transfer market.
MORE CUTS LOOM: Meanwhile, next season, the number of foreign players in Premier League squads could be reduced even further as Russian sports officials see the limits as a key step to ensure Russia has enough local players to form a competitive national squad at the 2018 World Cup, which it is hosting. Mutko said, "I would want to have yet one Russian more on the pitch. This season will show how the limit is working. And I think we'll come back to discussing the limit on foreign players in the first half of next year."
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
