The Russian Football Union on Wednesday said it did not have enough money to pay national team coach Fabio Capello, amid wider salary problems at football clubs around the country due to the falling rouble.
The coach of the struggling Russian squad has not been paid since June, with officials arguing his wages should be tied to the team’s performance.
“It’s no good when the financial upkeep of the head coach of the Russian team is not being paid. But they should have thought about the sources to finance the contract when they drew it up,” Sergei Stepashin, a member of the Russian Football Union executive board, told Interfax. “And now we need to search for those sources.”
Capello, whose salary has been estimated at £6.8m a year, signed a four-year contract extension in January after Russia qualified for the World Cup. His wages are believed to be in a foreign currency, meaning it is likely the costs for the Russian Football Union are far more after the euro has soared in value from about 45 roubles at the beginning of the year to almost 57 roubles on Wednesday.
The contracts of most top players are in euros, and several Russian football clubs have reportedly had trouble covering expenses.
“Expenditures have gone up by 50% but incomes have remained the same,” Spartak Moscow owner Leonid Fedun told Russian media at the weekend, adding that five Russian Premier League teams funded by the government are facing “serious difficulties”.
Yevgeny Giner, president of reigning champions CSKA, has also said recently that Russian teams have less money to spend on players this winter.
Premier league team FC Rostov in southern Russia has not paid its players since June, although it has said it will do so this month, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press. One reason for the delay has reportedly been the arrival in Russia of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
“A lot of the money that should have been diverted to the football club, because it is [the government] that funds the football club, is funding refugees in Rostov, and that’s why it’s got as bad as it is,” the source said.
The Russian Football Union has been funded by sponsors including some of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, such as Roman Abramovich. But it has had financial troubles in the past and reportedly had to take out bank loans this year to pay some staff.
Capello took over the Russian team in 2012 after resigning as England manager. Russia was eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup in Brazil earlier this year. Igor Ananskikh, head of the parliament’s sports committee, and other politicians have called for the coach to testify before them over the team’s weak showing.
Stepashin hinted Capello’s pay could be resumed following the team’s next match.
“I’m confident the issue with paying his salary should be solved on 15 November, the day of our match with the Austrian team. It should be solved by those responsible for signing the contract with Capello,” he said, naming Russian Football Union head Nikolai Tolstykh and sports minister Vitaly Mutko.
