On 29th May 2018, Zenit St. Petersburg finished fifth in the 2017/18 RPL, their worst finish since 2008. Roberto Mancini - brought in prior to the campaign at a high cost in an attempt to take the Piter-based outfit to the next level - failed miserably. It was on this date that Zenit appointed their former midfielder Sergei Semak as their new manager for the 2018/19 season and beyond. Some doubted Semak, seeing him as too inexperienced after just one full season at modest Southern club Ufa … [Read more...]
Analysing Dinamo Moscow’s Involvement in Football Leaks
December 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Football Leaks | IEC The latest set of revelations in the FootballLeaks campaign conducted by the EIC Network involve several Russian clubs. The leaks show that the owners of four RPL clubs, namely Dinamo Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, Rubin Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg pumped millions of euros into the clubs between 2012 and 2015 in various seemingly illegitimate ways. It was also revealed that in certain cases, UEFA let the clubs off with either a lenient fine or no punishment altogether. … [Read more...]
Analysing the Potential Emirates-Anzhi Sponsorship Deal
December 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Anzhi Arena in Makhachkala. Photo: Andy Shenk/RFN If there's a club in Russia that never fails to surprise, it's the pearl of Dagestan, Anzhi Makhachkala. In the 27 years the club has existed, Anzhi has seen it all. They've been purchased by a billionaire, signed players like Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto'o, defeated Liverpool in the Europa League, got relegated to the FNL and then became worst team in Europe. Now, it has emerged that the Southern club could join many others in Europe … [Read more...]
Of Honour, Morals, and Spartak
October 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Carrera lifting the RPL trophy with his players in 2017 | Photo: Getty Images Let me start from afar. Some time ago, I read a great book written about one hundred years ago called The American Credo - a half-humouristic collection of facts an "average American" believes in, with a serious preface that is about four times bigger than the actual collection. And in the serious part of the book, there's a great juxtaposition between "people of honour" and "people of morals". A man of … [Read more...]
Zenit Training Observations
August 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Football as a sport is continually developing. From medieval roots, the beautiful game is now a much more high-stakes affair, with vast sums of prize money along with television and advertising revenue up for grabs. Additionally, contracts represent huge investments from clubs in a player’s performance, potential value, and health. To that end, the world of football has become a highly professionalised environment, as expectant owners try to ensure adequate returns on their investments. … [Read more...]
