How Sanctions Have Impacted Russian Football

just four and a half years ago Russia hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup I time the Russian Premier League was ranked as the sixth best league in Europe as per uefa's country coefficients ahead of the domestic top flights in Portugal Belgium and in the Netherlands and just outside of the so-called Big Five not only that Russia was actually closer to France in fifth place than Portugal were to them in seventh and for good reason in the 2011-12 season both Zenit St Petersburg and CSK Moscow reached the knockout stage of the Champions League with Zenit repeating defeat in 2013-14 and in 2015-16 cska reached the quarter-final of the Europa League in 2017-18 where they lost 6-3 on aggregate to Arsenal and as recently as the 2000 and 2021 season just one year before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and subsequent UA for suspension three Russian teams qualify fight for the Champions League group stage that meant that Russia had as many teams in the Champions League group stage as France did and three times as many as either Portugal or the Netherlands make no mistake all was not perfect when it came to Russian Football the country's fourth most successful Club Deena Mount Moscow were relegated in 2015-16 the once free spending ANSI makachkala lost funding all of their star players and were relegated and in the space of just a few years several Russian premier league and Russian Football League clubs had gone bankrupt and been dissolved on a macro level whilst their clubs may have been reasonably competitive Russia's population is close to double that of any other UEFA Nation making them relative Underachievers given that football is Russia's most popular sport lots of money have been thrown at Russian football and the national team and fail to win a single game at either Euro 2016 or at the 2014 World Cup nonetheless this was still a serious football nation very well represented in UEFA competitions and at their own World Cup in 2018 they beat Spain in the round of 16 before losing to eventual finalists Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals it was also an area in which Russia was continuing to focus considerable attention investing large amounts of State resources hosting the 2021 FIFA Beach soccer World Cup winning the rights as the 2022 Champions League final and bidding toast Euro 2028. but following Russia's Mass escalation of aggression in Ukraine their suspension from all UEFA and FIFA club and international competitions and severe economic sanctions and boycotts that go far beyond football football in Russia has suffered a seismic blow there has been an exodus of foreign players including most of the league star players Revenue has been slashed and Prospects of a return to either FIFA or UEFA anytime soon given the situation in Ukraine seem vanishingly Slim So in this video following a couple of requests but primarily because I thought that it sounded quite interesting we're going to take a detailed look specifically a house sanctions on Russia both sporting and otherwise have impacted the nation's most popular sport and from multiple businessmen mysteriously falling out of sixth floor Windows to internet National footballers suspected of attempts in Murder there is certainly a lot to unpack on February 24 2022 Russian Champions and League leaders said at St Petersburg traveled to Seville for the second leg of their knockout run playoff tie against Real Betis xenotid earned their place in the draw by finishing third in their Champions League group behind both Juventus and Chelsea thus dropping down into the Europa League meanwhile Betis got there by finishing second in their Europa League group ahead of Celtic but behind Bayer Leverkusen it was a cagey Affair from start to finish with few chances for either team in direct contrast with the thrilling first leg which Betis won 3-2 in Russia in the 90th minute though Zenith looked to have snatched an equalizer and taken the game to extra time courtesy of a headed goal by Dimitri chistyakov but the AR had other ideas after Consulting his monitor the Turkish referee halil umatmela said no goal and with it the last remaining Russian team in AUA for competition in the 2021-22 season was scent packing it was a game played to a strange backdrop of hissing and whistling from Bettis fans before the match began with a handful of presumably very hastily acquired Ukraine Flags scattered around the estadio Bonito Villa Marine earlier that day at 4 50 a.m local time to be precise Vladimir Putin had announced his decision to launch what he called a special military operation in eastern Ukraine claiming that Russia sought the demilitarization and denassification of Ukraine and accusing the governments in Kiev of having carried out a genocide over the past eight years within minutes of that announcement explosions were reported in Kiev Hawk Eve Odessa and the donbass since that day there have been tens of thousands of deaths on both sides Europe has witnessed its largest Refugee crisis since World War II and whilst much less significant within the grand scheme of things but perhaps more personally to this video no Russian club or national representative team has competed in any UEFA or FIFA competition when discussing sanctions and boycotts on Russia are the sporting or otherwise it is important to be specific about what we mean and what those sanctions actually are contrary to popular opinion for example Russia or the Russian Football Union have not been banned or kicked out of FIFA or UEFA they haven't even been fully suspended by either organization officially as was confirmed in a joint statement by FIFA and UEFA on February 28th four days after Putin's announcements and bombs first fell on Ukraine's major cities Russian teams whether that be National representative teams or Club sides have been suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice this might seem like mere semantics and pedantry but it is actually quite an important distinction it means that whilst Russia's men's national team were banned from competing in the FIFA World Cup and Russia's women's team despite already having qualified were banned from competing in the UEFA women's Euro 2022 tournament both teams are still able to play international friendlies and both have done so since February 24 2022 it's also worth noting that neither UEFA and especially FIFA seemingly ever wanted to ban Russian teams from their competitions both organizations have always been extremely reluctant to implement sporting punishments for what they deem to be non-sporting issues the only recent instance comparable to Russia's suspension which isn't even all that recent anymore was Apartheid era South Africa who were suspended from FIFA in 1961 and unlike Russia actually expelled from the organization in 1976 only rejoining in 1990 to after a new Football Federation had been established which allowed all Races to represent South Africa's national teams in the case of Russia FIFA and uefa's reluctance was further intensified by their close proximity and ties to the Putin regime Russia hosted six group games at Euro 2020 and a quarter-final defying the recommendation of the world anti-doping agency the Russia be barred from hosting major sporting events with UEFA President Alexander safarin reassuring Vladimir Putin in person that Russia had his full support and that he was sure that they would make good hosts on a visit to Russia in November 2019. UEFA also had significant financial ties to Russia with Russian energy Giant Gas prom which is both majority States owned and by far the largest corporation in Russia being UEFA there's most lucrative sponsors and the headline sponsors of the Champions League since 2012. that deal was worth over 40 million euros a season to UEFA but was terminated by the organization on the same day the Russian teams were suspended from their competitions FIFA remarkably or even further enmeshed with the Kremlin Russia obviously hosted the 2018 World Cup having won a ludicrously corrupt bidding process and in the Years both building up to and following the tournament Gianni Infantino struggled to go more than five minutes without waxing lyrical about Vladimir Putin in a bromance that was so extreme that it probably could have got them both arrested in Russia Infantino said of Putin quote we are a team together we will show the world what we can do claiming that myths and prejudices about Russia had been shattered at the world cup and thanking the Russian presidents on behalf of all of world football in 2019 infantino's obsequiousness was rewarded when he was invited to the Kremlin to receive the order of friendship from the Russian Federation personally from Vladimir Putin following all of this falling Banning Russia from any of their competitions and indeed the World Cup just four years after they had hosted it was not only humiliating for FIFA but personally conflicting for Infantino that's why FIFA and UEFA only sprung into action and suspended Russian teams once all of their opponents began declaring that they would refuse to play against them starting with Poland the Czech Republic and Sweden on February 27th followed by England on February 28th with more football associations expected to follow suit this created an unmanageable situation for FIFA who initially proposed allowing Russia to compete in their competitions but simply under another name as they had done at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo but realizing other countries wouldn't budge they were left with no other option but to suspend them on February 28th amusingly they then put out a statement condemning Russia and trying to make it look as though they were always going to suspend them which they weren't and donated one million dollars to humanitarian causes in Ukraine in a very transparent attempt to try and Escape criticism FIFA's total cash Reserves at the time by the way stood up 1.6 billion dollars and will be much larger than that now financially Russia's Exile on the international stage is relatively insignificant even if the men's team had won their playoff semi-final and final thus qualifying for the World Cup compete in the World Cup group stage is only worth 9 million US Dollars and the UEFA women's Euros even less of course it is worth a lot more than that indirectly both in financial terms but far more importantly in terms of prestige as well as being the Pinnacle of most footballers careers and the most eagerly anticipated sporting events for football fans themselves at Club level the financial consequences are much more severe the Champions League in particular pays out the most prize money of any sporting competition on the planet and uether paid out 83 million pounds two Russian clubs in the 2020-21 season alone contrast that with zero pounds in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons and while some Russian clubs are independently wealthy the financial and reputational hit has been enormous it's not not just sporting sanctions that have impacted Russian clubs either Russia's isolation has seen thousands of companies including some of the largest corporations in the world pull out of Russia meanwhile the expulsion of Russian Banks from Swift has further entrenched that rupture the financial repercussions of that have been enormous including for Russian football clubs who have in effect suffered massive revenue losses on three fronts firstly all their income from UEFA competitions secondly almost all of their overseas commercial deals and even some domestic ones due to the ensuring financial hardship and thirdly because of FIFA's decision on March 7 2022 to allow foreign players based in Russia to unilaterally suspend their contracts and sign for clubs outside of Russia consequently budgets have been slashed cutbacks have been severe and there has been a mass Exodus of foreign players out of the Russian Premier League whilst Russia's escalation in Ukraine has caused Europe's largest Refugee crisis since World War II of ukrainians domestic authoritarianism economic sanctions and the threat of conscription have also conspired to create the greatest migration out of Russia itself since the October revolution in 1917. footballers have been among the most notable D parties with dejan lovren who was one of the League's last remaining foreign Superstars and had publicly spoken out against Russia's 2022 World Cup ban among the most recent players to have left Russia leaving Zenit to rejoin his former Club Leon this month lovren was one of only three players still contracted two Russian clubs on contracts said to be worth in excess of 50 000 pounds a week at the time of his depart last week with the others being former Barcelona player Malcolm who's then it signed from Barca for 40 million pounds and polish International gregoris krakowiak who while still officially contracted to FC krasnodar suspended his contracts following Russia's Invasion hasn't played in Russia since the invasion and is currently alone at al-shabab in Saudi Arabia even Mario Fernandez a naturalized Russian citizen who had been living in Moscow since 2012 and has won 33 caps for the Russian national team has returned to Brazil after more than a decade living in the Russian Capital joining International on a year-long loan deal from CSK Moscow we are talking about a league here we ought not forget which once employed the likes of Hulk Axel witzel and Claudio marquisio on Mega contracts competing for signings financially at least with Bonafide Europe paying Giants now Malcolm is the only massive Adder who remains reportedly earning in excess of 100 000 pounds a week at Zen at St Petersburg and the League's next high Sterner Dutch International Quincy promise who makes over 40 000 pounds a week at spartac Moscow is suspected of attempted murder in his native Netherlands set to stand trial in Amsterdam in March for allegedly having stabbed his own cousin at a family party families eh what are they like that incident occurred Jordan promises time at iax in 2020 having previously had four very successful Seasons playing in Russia and in 2021 he returned to spartak promise has reportedly since begun the process of becoming a Russian Citizen and of acquiring Russian citizenship Russia does not extradite its citizens to the Netherlands or to any countries for that matter so promises reasons for sticking around this despite the sanctions chaos and the freedom to suspend its contract at any time would seem to be pretty clear-cut if not being all that much of an endorsement of Russia itself or of Russian Football what skeletons Malcolm must have lying in his closet one can only imagine promise is currently the joint leading scorer in the Russian Premier League this season with 14 goals meanwhile Malcolm is third on 12. once again as with Russia's suspensions from FIFA and UEFA competitions you will note that foreign players haven't been given the ability to unilaterally terminate their contracts in Russia only to suspend them meaning that whilst they are free to play for other clubs they remain under contract at their Russian clubs unless they are able to negotiate a contract termination or their clubs accepts a bid for them still the financial implications for Russian clubs are massive since the contracts of those who chose to suspend their contracts are still gradually being run down over time thus reducing their market value and what those clubs can get for them it is for this reason that a lot of older players on shorter contracts and with less sell-on value have been allowed to go out on loan meanwhile younger players who are worth anything have tended to be sold though still typically for below market value since foreign clubs know that Russian teams hands are tied former West Ham center-back Fabian balboina and Ukrainian International even audits for example both in their 30s have gone on loan to Corinthians and to vfl bockham from dinaman Moscow meanwhile highly rated Georgian International kavichvalia who had only just turned 20 one at the time left Ruben Kazan to join Dina Melba Toomey and within a little over three months he had been sold to Napoli for a still Bargain Basement 12 million euros Reuben Kazan who had a very International Squad were particularly hard hit by fifas ruling around contract suspensions losing seven players in total the second most of any team in the division and going from finishing fourth the previous season and qualifying for the UEFA conference League to getting relegated last season in total 20 foreign players immediately suspended their contracts with Russian clubs and the number of foreign players playing in the Russian Premier League went from 162 at the beginning of the 2021-22 season to 102 at the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign and several more have followed since the beginning of this season every Ukrainian playing in the Russian premier league has left unsurprisingly meanwhile Zenit assistant manager anatolai Timmy shook who is Ukraine's most caps for footballer of all time caused controversy in Ukraine by remaining in Russia and refusing to condemn Russia's actions having his assets Frozen by the Ukrainian government and his title strips from him by the Ukrainian association of football polish International mache Rebus formerly of Leon who has a Russian wife also chose to remain in Russia leaving locomotive Moscow last summer but only in a move to their Cross City rival spartak a a response the Polish Football Association banned him from representing the national team which meant that he wasn't included in Poland's 2022 World Cup squad Norwegian International Matthias Norman was also banned from representing his country after deciding to remain in Russia spartak incidentally who Rebus joined is owned by Russian multinational energy corporation Lou Coyle whose board of directors issued a statement following Russia's Mass escalation in Ukraine in February 2022 describing it as a tragedy calling for a quick answer the conflict and expressing Sympathy for the victims given that Luke Coyle is Russia's second largest company after gazprom this was viewed as being one of the most high profile internal criticisms of Russia's war in Ukraine and Lou Coyle's longtime chairman ravil maganov who headed the company's board of directors that issued the statement died in September 2022 after supposedly falling out of a six-story window at the Moscow Central Clinic hospital magarov is one of a number of businessmen in Russia to have flirted with are the criticisms of Vladimir Putin or the war in Ukraine before very unfortunately falling to their deaths from a great height or to have died in equally mysterious circumstances one Russian State News Agency Tas claimed that maganov committed suicide and had been taking antidepressants another Bowser an outlet which is known to have close contacts with the Russian police suggested that he might actually have fallen from a balcony while smoking and Lucile themselves put out their own statement which said the maganov had passed away following a severe illness CCTV cameras could clear up any confusion but unfortunately and entirely coincidentally no doubt they had been turned off at of his death four repair Works equally coincidentally I suppose Vladimir Putin just so happened to pay a visit to the Moscow Central Clinic hospital on the exact day of maganov's death supposedly to pay his respects to Mikhail Gorbachev not only is the Russian Premier League hemorrhaged players including most of the League's star players it's obviously now become incredibly difficult for them to replace them not only have their resources been thwarted and drained by economic and sporting sanctions any player worth their salt wants to compete against the best players in the biggest competitions something which they can no longer do playing in Russia if you're a young player in particular Russia no longer affords you a shop window like the Portuguese or Dutch leagues and therefore a potential move to one of Europe's top teams it is effectively a dead end there will still be foreign players who will go to Russia Brazilian Duo Ivan and Gustavo mansoon who joins Zenith online from Corinthians in the summer just to give two examples but they are going to be of a much lower caliber Zenit who are owned by gazprom and have already won the last four Russian Premier League titles are likely to be the best insulated Russian Club from the country sanctions and economic hardship gazprom enjoyed record profits of 42 billion euros in the first half of 2022 despite Russia's Invasion as countries continue to buy Russian gas the fact that gas promise majority States owned effectively run by the Kremlin means that the degree of its investments in football will be largely up to Putin and his cronies it is important to maintain a veneer of normalism during wartime especially when the war itself isn't going quite as planned and football is a relatively inexpensive of way of doing that so don't expect to see crumbling infrastructure or an exodus of Russian players out of the country's top flight anytime soon instead what you will see is a steady decay of quality which has already firmly begun and most likely a fair amount of irritation among Russian football fans that their teams don't get to compete in football's biggest competitions PFC Sochi for example who were only founded in 2018 so that the fished Olympic Stadium built for the 2014 Winter Olympics and then converted into a football stadium at considerable cost for the 2018 World Cup would have an occupant finished as runners-up in the Russian Premier League last season meaning that in a normal campaign that would have seen them qualify for the Champions League their very first taste of European football but instead well they got effectively nothing further down found the Russian Football League pyramid particularly outside of the professional ranks there are reports of several Russian footballers having been conscripted to fight in Ukraine even former Everton midfielder denier billier lethanov who now coaches in the second tier of Russian Football was drafted into the Russian army in September 2022 though it was later revealed that he wouldn't be called up after his military registration data was brought up to date during a visit to the military commissariat which and I'm not a Russian military expert I think is a fancy way of saying that after they realized he was a famous person and not just some impoverished 20-something living in the Caucasus it must also be said that whilst Russia has become extremely isolated in Europe not everyone shares that condemnation though outward support for Russia is practically non-existent only Belarus North Korea Eritrea Syria and of course Russia themselves voted against a U.N motion to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine 35 countries including China and India the two most populous nations on Earth abstained from voting altogether a large majority 141 did still condemn The Invasion and whilst Russia hasn't severed all of its International Partnerships maintainingly a few key ones few of the countries with which Putin still enjoys diplomatic relations with are what we might call footballing Nations it is for this reason that though some Russian Industries have only experienced minor disruption able to maintain relatively similar levels of trade and service with countries that Russia remains on speaking terms with football doesn't fall into that bracket the Russia men's national team's three friendlies since the invasion and their suspension from both FIFA and UEFA competitions for example have come against Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan and Uzbekistan they still only managed to win one of those games and their next Clash in ashgabat against Turkmenistan has already been penciled in for March the women's team similarly have played just four games since the invasion two against Serbia and two against Belarus at the end of November Serbian Champions red star belgr gray traveled to Saint Petersburg for a friendly match against the Russian Champion Zenit which the house won three won Serbia are just about Russia's last remaining friends in Europe aside from Belarus which is practically a Russian vassal State at this stage but only a disappointing crowd of 17515 turned up to watch the match this was a long way from a Champions League group stage tie that the residents of Saint Petersburg have grown a accustomed to in recent years there was some talk when FIFA and UEFA first suspended Russian teams which persists in some quarters to this day of Russia leaving UEFA and applying to join the Asian football Confederation instead there is precedent for confederation changes though they have historically been few and far between and such a move would solve few of Russia's problems whilst anti-ukrainian Invasion sentiment may be weaker in Asia than it is in Europe most Asian countries have still condemned Russia so it is hard to see them signing off on their affiliations to join the AFC and even if they somehow did some teams could still refuse to take to the pitch against them as was the case within UEFA putting Russia back in exactly the same position just in a weaker Confederation and the AFC in the same position that UEFA was almost a year ago from Russia's perspective and particularly for from a Russian Football perspective the AFC lacks the glamor and Prestige of UEFA the euros and the UEFA Champions League both commercially and directly for the clubs themselves it is much less lucrative basically there would be few positives for anyone involved hence why I think that it is unlikely much more likely I think is the prospects of Russia trying to start their own tournaments though even that might be a bit of a fast given that teams that would likely be involved or attempting to make guest appearances as Qatar did in other federations tournaments though once again it is hard to imagine which Federation would have a majority of members who would agree to that all in all the outlook for Russian Football is Bleak the contrast with 2018 when Russia did ostensibly at least even if it was only ever a facade appear to be a more welcoming and outward looking country he gave a lot of Russians and especially younger Russians a great deal of Hope and optimism about what the future may told how quickly that has been crushed Russia is now more censorious and authoritarian in many respects than even the Soviet Union was post glasnost and parastroika from a footballing perspective Russia has been cut off from the rest of the world with the exception of the occasional meaningless friendly against a minnow which is something once again that didn't even happen during the Soviet era from sixth in uefa's country coefficients in 2018 Russia now ranks 18th behind Denmark Norway and you guessed it Ukraine and given the Dynamics of Russia's war with Ukraine it is hard to see how Russia gets readmitted to FIFA or UEFA competitions again anytime soon of course this all comes in the con context of absolute devastation in Ukraine and is not meant as a plea for sympathy or thoughts and prayers for Russian Football aside from the greatest tragedy of all which is of course the needless loss of human life even from a purely footballing perspective the Ukrainian Premier League's 2021-22 season had to be terminated unlike Russia's thiefer also gave foreign players the right to unilaterally suspend their contracts in Ukraine which the vast majority did unsurprisingly given the circumstances and this is what some football stadiums in Ukraine now look like with one of the country's two most successful clubs shaktar Donetsk not having been able to play in their home City for over eight years now all of that should go without saying but this is the internet in the year 2023 so I thought I'd best just clarify in case this video took me about three days to research and there is a great deal that time restraints and the length of this video already forced me to leave out from kit manufacturers pulling out of Russia and their Replacements the bank that previously sponsored Russian Premier League football whose founder was forced to sell up to the state has moved to Cyprus and is presumably doing his best now to avoid any non-ground floor Windows the controversial fan ID system introduced by the Putin regime which has further irritated a lot of Russian football fans and has even been met with unusual opposition from Russia's famously meek and tamed so-called opposition parties and the vast amount of travel that teams are now having to do by train in regions close to Ukraine due to airports having been siphoned off for military use but hey such is life and I still think that we have covered quite a lot of ground nonetheless I hope that you all enjoyed it or at least found it somewhat interesting or informative hit the like button if that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and make sure that you are subscribed of course and of notifications turned on for hide CC sounds you can also find me on either Twitter or on Instagram via the username at hrtc Sims on both should you wish to do so

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 256,917

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Russia, Sanctions, Russian Premier League, UEFA, FIFA, Champions League, War, Ukraine, Economic, Finance, Zenit, Moscow, Putin, Infantino, World Cup, 2018 World Cup, Impacted, What On Earth, Documentary

Id: HnwBpOfHLQc

Length: 34min 9sec (2049 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2023