Protecting reputation: is it worth the RPL to amend the regulations and prevent the emergence of farm clubs

Over the past few days, there has been talk about the situation around Spartak and Khimki. Last week there were rumors that five Muscovites would play the next season as part of the championship debut. And then Dmitry Gunko, known for working with the red and white youth team, was appointed to the post of head coach of the Moscow Region team.

This caused a serious resonance in the sports community. The red and blacks were immediately dubbed the farm club of ten-time Russian champions, and some representatives of the league took care of developing retaliatory measures. So, at the RPL meeting, representatives of Krasnodar came up with a proposal to seriously limit the teams' lease opportunities.

The day before, well-known journalist Sergei Egorov said what exactly was contained in the amendments to the regulations, the main goal of which was to oppose the creation of farm clubs within the Russian Premier League. In particular, clubs should be deprived of the right to loan more than three players to another, and should not prohibit any player from entering the field against the team to which he actually belongs. Thus, all RPL participants will find themselves on an equal footing, and cases will also be excluded, similar to what happened in 2018, when Tula's Arsenal was forced to pay € 120,000 to Zenit for Artyom Dzyuba's participation in the match against St. Petersburg.

It should be noted that Krasnodar's proposal has a rational grain. Nobody forbids giving several players on loan to another club at once, but on the condition that he plays in another division of the country or the national championship. Otherwise, there is a risk of creating unhealthy competition when one of the teams cannot count on a number of players in games with an opponent. But it's one thing when one or two cannot enter the field, and quite another when their number is five or more.

A year earlier, the transfer of Orenburg midfielder Alexei Sutormin to Zenit for 50 thousand rubles caused outrage. Both teams are sponsored by Gazprom, which immediately sparked a discussion in the media. At the same time, there was a transfer in transit through the Rubin, which further added fuel to the fire. And one of the most notorious events of the start of the championship was the relocation of six blue-white-blue reserve players to Sochi. True, then it was issued in the form of a full-fledged transfer, not a lease.

Throughout the year, the issue of creating farm clubs in the RPL was actively discussed by the teams themselves, experts and journalists, but active actions began to be used only at the moment when Spartak and Khimki were in the spotlight.

Already now, many are saying that next year the meetings between Spartak and Khimki will not be of interest from a sports point of view. At the same time, there are also rumors that the ten-time champions of Russia will receive an additional six points from Ufa, where the current general director of the red-and-white Shamil Gazizov previously worked.

It is worth recalling that in June the clubs actually resolved issues related to the situation with the coronavirus among themselves. Rostov could not agree with Sochi and was forced to release the academy graduates into the field, while Dynamo managed to postpone the match with Krasnodar. At the same time, Ufa completely avoided any sanctions, although several players had suspicions of coronavirus.

As a result, the unsuccessful start of the summer segment hit Rostov hard, which could not get out of the crisis. In the remaining seven meetings, Valery Karpin's wards won once and took only fifth place in the standings. At the same time, the mentor himself could not stand it, and after a goalless draw with Orenburg, he harshly criticized the league, calling it “Rospotrebnadzor the Russian Football Championship”.

Of course, Leonid Fedun may react painfully to the decision to forbid him to give five players on loan to Khimki. Especially in light of the fact that a year ago six of them went to Sochi at once. But you need to understand that in the future this will benefit Russian football and help shield it from accusations of lack of a competitive principle.

Of course, at the moment it is not enough just to accept the amendments submitted for consideration by Krasnodar. If the clause on limiting the number of rented footballers seems absolutely logical, then the penalty for a ban on playing against your team seems ambiguous. In Europe, such moments are also prescribed in the contract and allow clubs to earn extra money. In addition, this can completely exclude the option of transferring strong athletes to the competitor's camp, because in this case there is a risk of depriving yourself of the most important points.

Perhaps, in such realities, it would have become impossible for Oleg Shatov to temporarily move from Zenit to Krasnodar with a subsequent entry on the field in the match of the 25th round of the 2017/18 season. Then the midfielder hit the gates of Petersburgers and brought victory to the wards of Murad Musaev, and his participation in the match became possible only after the payment of 10 million rubles.