Football clubs “Krasnodar” and “Sochi” finished their performance in the tournament held in the United Arab Emirates; Eric Botheim wins arbitration against the Citizens

Made a rout

Last week, the “bulls” completed their performance in the Winter Cup of the Russian Premier League. In the third round, the team of Vladimir Ivic met with Rostov. By this time, there was no more intrigue in the tournament: the day before the match, Spartak won the cup. But it didn’t matter either: for the teams, participation in the cup was seen as preparation for the spring part of the season.

Krasnodar traditionally began to put pressure from the first minutes of the meeting. His attackers quickly ran to the opponent’s goal, creating danger. “Rostov” made a lot of mistakes, the actions of its players often ended in “cuts”. All this played to the benefit of the “citizens”. In the ninth minute of the match, Eduard Spertsyan crossed from a corner to the far post, where Junior Alonso won the fight in the air. The Paraguayan shot on goal – Sergei Pesyakov parried, but Kevin Lenini finished off the ball into the net.

“Rostov” tried to seize the initiative, take the ball, but all in vain. Moments at his gate happened regularly. In one episode, the Rostovites claimed a penalty, but Sergei Karasev, after watching the video, did not appoint a penalty kick. With such a game, a goal against the “yellow-blue” was a matter of time. And it happened in the 43rd minute of the match. Moses Kobnan opened up in front of the penalty area, took the ball, ran forward and shot into the far corner of the goal. Pesyakov could not reach.

Rostov also had chances, but Valery Karpin’s team obviously suffered in this match. In addition, Matvey Safonov stood well at the gate. Nikolai Komlichenko, a pupil of the Bulls, had good chances to score against his former team. In the middle of the first half, Kaio dangerously injured his shoulder. True, the Brazilian continued to play.

Rostov obviously wanted to win back after the break. The Yellow-Blues attacked a lot and created scoring chances. Krasnodar, as often happens after getting a scoring advantage, calmed down. But this did not change the situation.

In the 59th minute, Lenini passed the ball into the penalty area, Alexei Ionov threw a ball at John Cordoba with his heel. The Colombian ran ahead, outplayed Maxim Osipenko and shot into the far bottom corner, catching Pesyakov on the counter move. Then both teams made substitutions. In the 77th minute, Cordoba scored a brace. He was preceded by a beautiful rally, Ilzat Akhmetov played a wall with Nikita Krivtsov, the Colombian ended this combination with a goal – 4: 0.

With this game, the “bulls” completed the training camp in Abu Dhabi. In the Winter Cup, they took second place, losing to Spartak. Now Ivic’s team will prepare for the season at home.

Lost to the best lawyers in England

The story continues with the rupture of relations between Krasnodar and striker Eric Botheim. The Norwegian moved to the Bulls in December 2021. According to rumors, eight million euros were paid for it. After the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, Botheim suspended the contract, having received permission from FIFA to do so. The forward never played a single official match for the Black-and-Greens. A few months later, the footballer terminated the contract unilaterally. And he was the only one in the team to take such a step. The rest of the players either returned, moved to other clubs, or went on loan. The reason for Bothheim’s break was a clause in the FIFA regulations, according to which a player can leave when he is not paid a salary. It would seem that this is a fantastic situation for Krasnodar. The club has never delayed payments to its players. The Bulls decided to apply to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on this matter. Club lawyers worked on the appeal. It would seem that if the club disputes the decision of the player, he has good reason for this. Krasnodar wanted to reimburse the expenses. But the club lost. The arbitration court recognized the decision of the footballer to leave the Bulls as justified and at the same time ordered them to pay half a million euros to the Norwegian within 45 days, as well as interest that had accrued since March 11 of last year. If the bulls do not comply with the court decision, they will be banned from transfers. The restriction can last up to three windows.

Jørgen Ingebrigtsen, an employee of the agency representing the interests of the footballer, was clearly pleased with the results:

We have come a long way since March last year. A lot of work has been done and a lot of money has been spent. The best sports lawyers in England were involved in the case. So now that the verdict is known, we feel a certain satisfaction.

Now Krasnodar has ten days to ask the FIFA chamber for an explanation. He can also appeal the decision. It is possible that the proceedings will continue.

Bothheim, meanwhile, moved to the Italian Salernitana. True, there, in fifteen matches in Serie A, he scored only one goal and gave one effective pass.

Could, but did not score

Sochi also completed their performance in the Winter Cup of the Russian Premier League. The last game in the tournament was against Spartak. At this meeting, Kurban Berdyev put Denis Adamov in the gate. Vanya Drkushich, Sergey Terekhov, Artem Meshchaninov, Timofey Margasov and Ivan Miladinovich were on defense at the start. The central zone was occupied by Artur Yusupov, Ibragim Tsallagov and Christian Noboa. Georgy Melkadze and Vladislav Sarveli were in the attack.

The game began for Sochi residents with trouble. Already in the tenth minute, Sarveli, after a collision with Alexis Duarte, twisted his ankle. The striker was replaced by Joaozinho.

Spartak clearly dominated the field. Sochi agreed with the role of the second number. However, both teams had their chances. So, Melkadze could score twice. Somewhere the Georgians could not adjust to the ball, somewhere Spartak’s goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko played well. After some time, Sochi seemed to play out and began to act more boldly on the field, but immediately conceded a goal. In the 28th minute of the match, Balde Keita intercepted the ball in the center circle after Meshchaninov’s mistake and gave a soft pass to Ignatov. Mikhail ran away from Drkusic, went one on one with Adamov and, without approaching the goalkeeper, shot under the left post. Barça demanded a revision of the episode: it seemed to them that the goal was scored from offside. But the referee Vladislav Bezborodov clearly showed on the video replay that the goal was taken according to the rules.

Twelve more minutes and Spartak scored the second goal. This time, Danil Prutsev gave a chic long pass to Ignatov, who swept along the right flank and perfectly shot Keita. The Senegalese shot in one touch against Adamov.

Sochi scored right before the break. But, as the video replay showed, Melkadze was offside during the header. In addition, the attacker stepped on Maksimenko’s foot, thereby also violating the rules. The goal was cancelled.

After the break, Berdyev began to make substitutions. Three fresh players immediately left: Artem Makarchuk replaced Terekhov, Luka Djordjevic replaced Melkadze, and Sissako came on for Ivan Miladinovic. But the game “leopards” has not changed. Spartak attacked more – Sochi residents mostly defended. Adamov saved the team several times. Djordjevic could have scored a goal in the 75th minute, but Maksimenko played well here. The game ended with the defeat of the “bars” – 2: 0.

Sochi finished third in the Winter Cup of the Russian Premier League. Berdyev’s team continues to prepare for the spring part of the season without acquiring a single new player.