Russian football off-season: RFU remains in Europe, clubs go to Turkey and the UAE

Domestic football players and coaches are hard at work preparing for their return to the stadiums, less than a month and a half is left before the first cup matches. Teams travel to warmer regions for training, preferring Belek and Abu Dhabi to Sochi and Krasnodar. Meanwhile, the leadership of the national football union seems to be trying to find an understanding with the Union of European Associations. “MK” tells the latest news from the green fields.

RFU does not want to leave UEFA

The transfer of our football to Asia, which was actively discussed in the last days of December, does not seem to take place. To the delight of most fans and football experts.

The Russian Football Union (RFU) before the New Year paid an annual fee for membership in UEFA. At the end of December, the RFU executive committee created a working group to study the feasibility of moving from a European federation to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), since so far all Russian teams have been suspended from participating in European tournaments. At the same time, until January 1, the RFU had to pay a fee for its stay in UEFA in 2023. And as reported by “RB Sport”, before the New Year, a payment in the amount of 250 thousand Swiss francs was made.

On December 30, RFU President Alexander Dyukov announced that a joint working group with UEFA would be created to “develop a roadmap for the return of Russian teams to European tournaments.” At the same time, our main task is to take part in the selection for the 2026 World Cup. Since we have already been suspended from participation in the qualifying tournament for Euro 2024. And now the news has finally arrived. On January 10, RFU Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov told RB Sport that UEFA would form a working group in the coming days.

“We proposed candidates for the group not only from the RFU, but from Russia in general, they will not necessarily be football people, but not politicians,” Mitrofanov said, adding that it would be good to complete all the work by April 1.

At the same time, our football union has to solve one more, rather important task. The fact is that soon our collections will have nothing to play in, since the contract with the previous sponsor for the supply of equipment has already ended. And the available stocks will last only until the summer. In connection with the current political and economic situation, new partners are sought mainly among Russian companies. There are already three Russian brands in mind, Mitrofanov admitted. But this is only half the battle, because in addition to uniforms, football players also need boots. But with this in our country while the problems are more serious. And how this issue will be resolved is still unclear.

Clubs go to Turkey and the UAE

While the RFU is solving global political problems, the New Year holidays have ended for the clubs and the time has come for the traditional winter training camps.

The first to start training back in December were the players from Khimki near Moscow, who, under the guidance of their head coach Spartak Gogniev, held the initial winter training camp from December 15 to 26 in Turkey.

After the New Year, all 16 teams went to the training camp. And this time, the pioneers were the torpedo men, who went not somewhere to warmer climes, but to Tambov. Where head coach Andrei Talalaev prepared a very interesting program for his wards – boxing, hockey and swimming. Perhaps last year’s mass brawl at the match between Spartak and Zenit gave our clubs rich food for thought.

“The main thing is to tear the players away from their families after the New Year. It is necessary to change the mood from festive to working and bring the team to a single functional state. For this, various types of training are used, including non-football ones,” Talalaev explained this choice.

Joking aside, the press service of the Russian Premier League has published a very interesting study. According to which RPL teams still prefer to hold training camps abroad. True, taking into account the situation not in Europe, but in Turkey and the UAE. In addition to Torpedo, only Sochi have begun preparations for the resumption of the season at home, but this is not surprising. Although they, after two weeks on the home fields, will still fly to Abu Dhabi.

Some of the clubs will visit both Turkey and the UAE – Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA, Orenburg and Sochi. Zenit was the only RPL team to choose Qatar for the training camp, where the World Cup was held at the end of 2022.

During the training camp, the teams will hold not only friendly matches. Spartak, Rostov, Krasnodar and Sochi will take part in the already traditional Winter League tournament from 1 to 11 February in Abu Dhabi. Which, according to the head of the refereeing committee of the RFU Pavel Kamantsev, will be judged by Sergey Karasev and Pavel Kukuyan.

“By agreement with the Russian Premier League, the commercial tournament in Abu Dhabi will be served by some of the best referees and assistants in the RPL. The competition will be held simultaneously with the winter training camp for referees and will give referees and assistants a unique pre-season practice, which will allow them to best prepare for the resumption of league matches and the Cup of the country. In addition, additional media activities with the participation of referees as part of the work at the tournament are being discussed with the RPL,” Kamantsev told Match TV.

Also, according to the RPL website, matches with the participation of Dynamo, CSKA and Orenburg will be held in the UAE, at least five more meetings between the League teams are scheduled during February in Turkey.

Of the other meetings announced by the clubs on their websites, by this time most of the rivals represent the First League – these are Alania, Neftekhimik, Yenisei, Volga, Rubin and Krasnodar-2. Akhmat will play a match against Chaika from the Second League, and one of the rivals of Torpedo will be the youth team of Lokomotiv U-19.

Of the foreign opponents, Bulgaria is the most widely represented so far: Spartak will meet in the UAE with Levski and Botev, Dynamo will play a match against Arda. Two clubs will play with the Belgrade “Partizan” – CSKA and “Akhmat”, Grozny will meet with another team of the Serbian Superleague – “Vojvodina”.

SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING MATCHES

January 17

Krasnodar — Levski (Bulgaria)

Wings of the Soviets – Sumgayit (Azerbaijan)

January 18

Dynamo — Green Herons (UAE)

Lokomotiv — Bunyodkor (Uzbekistan)

January 19

CSKA — Orenburg

Akhmat – Partizan (Serbia)

Wings of the Soviets – Szeged (Hungary)

Torch – Spartak Subotica (Serbia)