Alignment with quality: why the RFU should think about reducing the number of teams in the RPL and FNL

The unsatisfactory results of Khimki and Rotor again forced us to think about the advisability of increasing the number of RPL participants.

Over the past year, this idea was repeatedly discussed at meetings of the leaders of the championship, but in the end it was decided to refrain from this.

At the same time, the well-known commentator Georgy Cherdantsev believes that currently it is worth thinking about cutting the league.

“It seems to me that it is simply indecent to raise the issue of expanding the RPL to 18 or even more 20 teams in the coming years.

Such weak teams as Khimki and Rotor are driving the league level under the plinth.

"Rotor" also does not read the sanitary regulations.

Rather, the league needs to be reduced, not expanded, ”Cherdantsev wrote on his Twitter page.

After eight rounds, the teams complete the Premier League standings, earning only five points in total.

At the same time, none of them has yet learned the taste of victory, and Khimki conceded seven goals in one match from Krasnodar.

As part of Rotor, an outbreak of coronavirus was recorded, and therefore Volgograd could not take part in two meetings in a row - with the same Krasnodar and Rostov.

As a result, one technical defeat was counted for them, and the second will be rendered in the near future.

If the situation does not change in a week, then the game against Rubin may become the last for the newcomer - according to the regulations, the club will be removed from the championship for three unplayed matches.

Moreover, the problems are not limited to gaming.

Suffice it to recall the epic around Khimki's entry into the RPL, which developed over the course of several months.

For a long time, the club did not give a final answer regarding the rise in the class, and problems with funding were indicated as the reasons.

Subsequently, the former mentor Sergei Juran publicly announced that the place of the red-blacks in the Russian championship was sold, which caused a huge stir in the sports community.

As a result, the decision to compete in the top division was made two and a half weeks before the start of the championship.

It is noteworthy that they talked about the Rotor in a similar vein.

In early July, a rumor appeared that Volgograd residents might give up their place in the elite due to financial difficulties, but in the end it was not confirmed.

It is worth noting that Khimki and Rotor are far from the first RPL debutants, experiencing serious problems both in terms of play and financial plans.

Suffice it to recall Tambov, which is forced to play in other regions due to problems with the stadium.

The fact is that the renovation of the Spartak home arena took a long time, which is why the team continues to wander around the World Championship facilities.

Last season, the Wolves managed to play in Saransk and Nizhny Novgorod, and this time they returned to the Mordovia Arena.

In the 2018/19 season, Yenisey was in a plight.

Although Krasnoyarsk residents had their own stadium, they did not have sufficient financial resources even to fight to maintain their registration.

As a result, only 20 points and the last, 16th place.

Even the crashed Anji, which had difficulty finding the funds to pay the players, turned out to be higher.

And before that there were "Tosno" and "SKA-Khabarovsk", which did not hold out in the RPL for one year.

At the same time, the Leningrad team ceased to exist altogether, even if it finally won the Russian Cup.

Such examples only reinforce Cherdantsev's words and indicate that the Russian Premier League needs to think about finding the optimal number of participants in the championship.

And if at present it is difficult to find even 16 teams in the country that will have serious capabilities, a powerful lineup and their own stadium, then it would be more logical to consider the possibility of reducing to 14 (or even 12).

It is noteworthy that the owner of "Spartak" Leonid Fedun voiced such a proposal back in December 2017.

“In my opinion, it’s time to start the discussion in order to reduce the number of RFPL teams to 14 starting from the 2019/2020 championship and hold competitions according to the following formula: 26 rounds are held before the winter break, some of which, five to six, are to be played like in Europe, on Wednesdays, "Fedun told Sport-Express.

In general, the reduction of the championship looks quite logical.

Thus, it will be possible to restrict access to the top division of clubs that have no chance of competing for high places and do not have the necessary infrastructure, as well as to increase the level of competition.

There will be much fewer meetings with notorious outsiders, which will allow avoiding such one-sided games as Krasnodar - Khimki.

As for the format of the tournament, there are options here.

You can use Fedun's idea and after two circles divide the participants into two equal groups.

Leaders will compete for gold medals and tickets to European cups, and outsiders will determine candidates for demotion.

There is also an option with the playoffs, as in the Belgian championship.

All this is due to the fact that the top officials of Russian football have long voiced the opinion that representatives of the RPL play too few matches during the competitive year.

At the end of 2019, the head of the Russian Football Union (RFU), Alexander Dyukov, expressed the opinion that in the domestic championship it is necessary to increase not only the number of meetings, but also their intensity.

In his opinion, only in this case the players will compete on equal terms with foreign competitors.

RPL President Sergei Pryadkin agreed with him.

“The general opinion is that 30 rounds is not enough.

There are several options: expanding the league to 18 teams or introducing playoffs.

But there will definitely be a reform: we will increase the number of matches, ”Pryadkin said.

On paper, this all seems perfectly logical.

In the largest European championships, teams play 38 matches each, and this is not counting national cups, the Champions League and the Europa League.

Unlike most Russian footballers, conventional British, Italians and Spaniards are accustomed to working in a similar mode and often outperform their colleagues in physics.

It is possible to compensate for this only by putting domestic players in the same conditions and providing them with the necessary amount of practice.

Nevertheless, these transformations are impossible without changing the regulations of not only the Russian Premier League, but also the National Football League.

After all, the lack of competition among the 16 clubs lies not so much in their number as in the low threshold for admission to the country's top division.

It is obvious that a team with a budget of less than a billion rubles cannot compete on equal terms not only with the giants, but also with the middle peasants of the RPL.

And the absence of his own arena deprives him of the opportunity to earn money at home matches.

Therefore, the only condition for carrying out reforms is a revision of the regulations and an increase in the criteria for admission to both the top division and the second most powerful division.

With this, it will be possible to avoid the appearance of obvious outsiders in the championship and increase both the quality of football and the level of intrigue.

In this case, the FNL participants will not be significantly inferior in class to opponents from the RPL, and when changing divisions, they will be deprived of the need to reassemble the roster.

In Russia, one can quite often observe how the debutants of the Premier League are bought by the players who have left it, while forgetting about their own.

And the point here is solely in the difference in class between the performers.

In this regard, it is enough to pay attention to the same English Championship.

It has very strong teams that are quite capable of imposing a struggle on many representatives of the Premier League.

The transfer value of Fulham's season debutant is € 157.25m, the 15th best in the league (not only lower league promoters Leeds and West Brom, but also Sheffield and Burnley) ...

It is almost impossible to imagine such a thing in the RPL.

Of course, such measures can cause a general reduction in the number of teams in the country, but by and large it is inevitable.

Over the past 18 years, the number of Russian clubs has decreased from 145 to 102, mainly due to funding problems.

There are no more private teams, and the regional budgets do not have the necessary funds to act as sponsors.

Therefore, one of the main questions is that for the Russian Football Union (RFU) the number of clubs or their quality is of paramount importance.

In the first case, a reduction in the number of RPL participants will help to start moving in this direction and give a chance to improve the situation in domestic sports.

In the second, there is a risk of increasing the gap between the giants and outsiders, as well as the emergence of teams doomed to extinction due to lack of livelihood.