Russia to elect new football chief as Hiddink waits for
talks
Photo: RIA Novosti
The new president of Russian football's governing body
will be elected in Moscow on Wednesday in a vote that will decide the
future of national team coach Guus Hiddink.
Former Zenit St. Petersburg president Sergei Fursenko is the clear favorite
to take over as head of the Russian Football Union (RFU). Russian media
reports suggest that Fursenko is unwilling to continue paying Hiddink
wages in excess of $5 million a year.
Hiddink has been linked with a number of clubs, including Liverpool and
Juventus, since Russia failed to make the 2010 World Cup, but has said
he will wait until the RFU elects a new head before deciding on his future.
Despite his failure to get Russia through the qualifiers, Hiddink was
earlier offered a new contract up until Euro 2012. His current deal runs
out this summer.
The previous RFU head, Vitaly Mutko, stepped down late last year after
President Dmitry Medvedev said that the organization should not be headed
by a political figure. Mutko has served as sport, tourism and youth minister
in the government since May 2008.
If Fursenko comes out on top in Wednesday's vote by RFU delegates, his
links with Gazprom mean the energy giant is likely to take over from billionaire
Roman Abramovich as the main source of funding for Russia's top football
body. Abramovich's National Football Academy stopped paying Hiddink's
wages at the beginning of this year.
Fursenko's rivals are Sergei Kuzmin, the vice-president of lower-league
club Volga FK, and the chief of the fund for the development of football,
Alisher Aminiov.
National Football Academy head Sergei Kapkov earlier pulled out of the
race, saying he had been told to withdraw by "respected people."
While Kapkov was expected to offer a genuine challenge to Fursenko, the
majority of experts believe that nothing now stands in the way of his
victory in Wednesday's polls.
Former Spartak player Yevgeny Lovchev suggested to RIA Novosti that Medvedev
and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, both St. Petersburg natives, were strongly
in favor of Fursenko.
"We have a vertical power structure and the authorities appoint Petersburg
people everywhere," he said. "The president and the prime minster
don't play football, but both understand the significance of the country's
number one sport."
