The Cup of the Russian Premier League, the idea of reviving which appeared in early April, when domestic clubs were suspended from participating in European competition, is slowly taking shape.
The working group on the creation of the tournament held a regular meeting, and new details of the project appeared in the media.
Its approval by the executive committee of the RFU is scheduled for July 15.
If the leadership of the union arranges everything, new, unusual competitions await the fans next season.
The RPL Cup is planned to be held according to the system with a double elimination and a super final.
The working group proposes to hold the decisive match between the meetings of the 30th round of the Russian Championship and the final of the Cup of the country.
First, a standard group tournament is held: each team of the quartet plays six matches.
And then the most interesting begins: the two strongest clubs go to the “play-offs of the winners”, and the weakest go to the tournament for the losers.
In the second part of the RPL Cup, two grids will run in parallel.
At each stage, the clubs that have taken off from the struggle in the strongest part of the tournament go down to weaker opponents.
The Super Finals will feature the top teams in their playoffs.
As for the details, the project developers want to limit the representation of Moscow clubs, including Khimki, in each group to a maximum of two teams.
Unlike the Russian Cup, it is planned to introduce extra time, at least at the superfinal stage.
Also, all clubs support the use of VAR, however this largely depends on finances, so it is likely that the system will be introduced only at the playoff stage.
As Ilya Gerkus, the former president of Lokomotiv, noted, the fans should like the tournament, since the team is given the opportunity to win the trophy, even if it stumbled at some point.
“The format may be a bit complicated, but for the fans, I think it will be interesting, they will get used to it.
Because the teams have another chance to prove themselves.
In general, I think everyone will be satisfied: there are more games, plus a new tournament with commercial overtones.
These are not just friendly matches, but meetings with pretty decent, substantial amounts of prize money.”
- said the specialist in an interview with RT.
At the same time, according to Gerkus, the format is attractive not only for top clubs, but also for teams from the middle of the standings.
“They will be able to redistribute their forces somewhere, try to win this tournament - the League Cup, since the circle of contenders for the championship is quite narrow in the championship, and there will also be an opportunity to earn some money,” added the ex-president of Lokomotiv.
The main match of the tournament will be the superfinal.
According to Herkus, this meeting will have an additional prize fund due to the huge ticket revenue.
“The Super Final is the last game between the bottom and top bracket winners.
It will be held on a neutral field.
An analogue of the Russian Super Cup?
There is no big prize fund, no such prize money.
In addition, the superfinal will have a huge ticket revenue.
If you hold a meeting at the Luzhniki Stadium or the Gazprom Arena, these are potentially additional hundreds of millions of rubles, which, of course, will also affect the prize fund.
In fact, the RPL Cup is the first purely commercial tournament in the history of Russian football, ”the functionary emphasized.
Therefore, it is not surprising that during the absentee voting, 15 out of 16 representatives of the RPL clubs immediately supported this format.
And if no one has any questions now about how the teams will play, then not everyone is sure that you can earn money at the tournament.
In particular, at a meeting of the executive committee of the RFU, which took place on May 24, the owner of Spartak Leonid Fedun expressed his concerns.
That is why the tournament project was sent for revision until July 15.
The authors of the idea of the League Cup in one of the first versions announced that they would be able to attract about 2 billion rubles for the season, and in the updated versions of the presentation, this figure increased to 4 billion rubles.
First of all, through the sale of media rights, as well as the conclusion of a contract with a betting company.
According to the head of the RPL Ashot Khachaturyants, such amounts are due to the fact that the tournament should be, first of all, financially attractive.
“It is necessary that the clubs could choose whether to concentrate on the results of the championship or the money in the League Cup,” Sports.ru quotes the words of the functionary.
However, the assessment of the commercial component of the League Cup is still only preliminary.
And on its basis it is difficult to make a decision, especially when it comes to serious financial investments from clubs.
Since it will take about 1 billion rubles to hold 77 matches.
Therefore, according to Dynamo CEO Pavel Pivovarov, it is planned to get the opinion of independent experts, as well as start negotiations with potential sponsors.
As the specialist noted, in order to approve the League Cup on July 15, the project needs to be structured.
“It must have a financial model, a legal structure, a ready-made calendar, rules for holding and competition regulations,” Pivovarov explained.