Sanctions decisions by FIFA and UEFA
Suspension from international competitions has become the main event of 2022 for domestic football, however, as well as for the vast majority of other sports.
A week after the start of the NWO, UEFA and FIFA imposed severe sanctions on the RFU.
All national teams and clubs have been banned from participating in tournaments under the auspices of the organizations "until further notice".
Thus, the main national team lost the chance to compete for a ticket to the World Cup in the play-offs.
And "Spartak" was not allowed to hold meetings of the 1/8 finals of the Europa League with "Leipzig".
In early May, UEFA extended the restrictions for the next season.
Seriously complicated the life of domestic teams and FIFA's permission to foreign players to suspend their contracts.
This led to the departure of a number of legionnaires from the RPL.
Attempts to challenge the verdicts of higher instances have not brought success.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) took their side.
Everything that happened pushed the RFU to a historic step.
At the end of the year, the executive committee of the federation will consider a possible withdrawal from UEFA and applying for a transition to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
According to the President of the RFU, Alexander Dyukov, in the current realities, this will become a window of opportunity for Russia.
Friendly matches of the Russian national team
The national team actually started this transition even earlier, having played three friendly matches in the fall with rivals from Central Asia.
All of them are unlikely to be remembered by the fans.
It was possible to win a difficult victory with a score of 2: 1 only over Kyrgyzstan, although Valery Karpin's wards were far from perfect and failed to demonstrate bright football.
Meetings with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan ended in goalless draws.
Moreover, both in Dushanbe and in Tashkent, the guests inflicted a total of only seven shots on target and had almost no real chances to distinguish themselves.
Of the pluses, one can only single out the record of Sergey Pinyaev, who, at the age of 18 years and 15 days, became the youngest debutant in the history of the national team.
But to play with Bosnia and Herzegovina did not work out.
Initially, the blue-yellows were supposed to arrive in St. Petersburg in November.
However, back in September, the leaders of the team announced that they did not want to fly to Russia.
The Ukrainian Football Association also made its contribution, demanding from UEFA and FIFA not to allow the match to take place.
As a result, three weeks before the game, the Bosnians announced it was postponed indefinitely.
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The unconditional superiority of "Zenith"
The outgoing year, like the previous one, passed in Russia under the sign of the total dominance of Zenit.
There was still no team in the country that could throw down the gauntlet to him.
The Petersburgers went through the second part of the last RPL season with almost no downturns and secured their fourth title in a row already in the 27th round, when they left Lokomotiv no chance at home.
Moreover, the wards of Sergei Semak for the entire championship suffered only three defeats.
In the current draw, they are close to taking gold medals again.
After the first part of the tournament, the blue-white-blue are ahead of the nearest pursuer by six points.
A competent transfer campaign only widened the gap between the hegemon and the pursuers - the leader, unlike his opponents, retained almost all the legionnaires and strengthened himself pointwise.
In addition to the championship, Zenit won the Russian Super Cup in 2022.
Moreover, he did not just get another trophy on duty, but scored four unanswered goals for Spartak at the Gazprom Arena.
Only the Cup of the country did not submit to the Petersburgers, where they lost to Alania in the quarterfinals.
Sensational silver "Sochi"
Sochi unexpectedly took the second place in the previous draw of the national championship.
On the one hand, we can say that the southerners took advantage of the problems of competitors.
Lokomotiv, Spartak and Dynamo survived the change of coach.
CSKA failed to compete for medals under the leadership of Alexei Berezutsky, and Krasnodar lost almost all foreigners.
On the other hand, Vladimir Fedotov did an excellent job.
Left in the summer of 2021 without a number of leaders (Mikhi Mevli, Anton Zabolotny, Ivan Novoseltsev and others), he successfully built an almost new team.
As a result, Mateo Cassierra, who moved from Belenses for €1.2 million, with 14 goals shared the second place in the race of scorers of the tournament with Dmitry Poloz.
Rodrigao, who signed as a free agent, became one of the best defenders in the league.
And Christian Noboa, at the age of 36, scored seven goals and assisted partners four times.
However, after the end of the 2021/22 season, Fedotov went to CSKA, while Rodrigao and Cassierra moved to Zenit.
The new mentor of the Sochi team, Vadim Garanin, who had not previously trained in the RPL, could not cope with his work and gave way to Kurban Berdyev, since the southerners left for the winter break only ninth.
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The ongoing mess at Loko
Changes of mentors in the past year have experienced almost all RPL teams.
However, Lokomotiv stands apart in this regard, which six specialists managed to steer in 2022.
After the start of the NWO, Markus Gisdol left the country without warning.
His place was forcedly taken by assistant Marvin Compper.
At the end of the last season, the railroad workers were de jure headed by Zaur Khapov, who has the necessary license.
They entered the new one under the leadership of Josef Zinnbauer, and played the last matches before the break led by Andrey Fedorov.
Finally, in November, Mikhail Galaktionov accepted the red-greens.
Such leapfrog could not but affect the results.
In 17 matches of the RPL, Lokomotiv scored only 13 points and went on a winter break in the play-off zone - in 14th position.
In the autumn, a disastrous performance led to the departure of not only Zinnbauer, but also the chairman of the board of directors of the club, Alexander Plutnik, who was replaced by Yuri Nagornykh.
At the same time, Muscovites spent more than €13 million on newcomers in the summer.
Some transfers have raised big questions, such as the transfer of defender Mario Mitai for €3m or the purchase of striker Marco Racognac for €2.5m, who has not yet scored a single goal.
It was possible to earn money only through the sale of Alexis Beck-Beck to Nice.
Coaching castling of the Moscow giants
In addition to Lokomotiv, three other metropolitan giants also changed coaches this summer.
Spartak won more than the rest from castling.
After the departure of Paolo Vanoli, the decision to appoint Guillermo Abascal, a young and practically inexperienced independent work, in his place raised serious questions.
Yes, and the first pancake came out lumpy - a rout from Zenit in the Super Bowl.
But gradually the Spaniard instilled in the team his football - bright and attacking.
In addition, the specialist managed to reveal some of the players in a new way.
First of all, this concerns Alexander Sobolev, who scored seven times in the current RPL season and gave the same number of assists.
And Quincy Promes scored 14 goals at all and shares the first line in the scorers race with Vladimir Sychev.
Dynamo, under the leadership of Slavisa Jokanovic, on the contrary, moved away from the attacking style of Sandro Schwartz and abandoned high pressure.
In summer and autumn, the blue and white invariably gave the ball to the opponent and acted extremely pragmatically and accurately.
According to media reports, the leaders of the team were dissatisfied with this.
As a result, Muscovites began to play more boldly and won four victories in the last five rounds.
CSKA, led by Fedotov, on the contrary, had a bright start, but closer to winter it was blown away and dropped to fifth place.
One of the reasons for the decline was a large number of injuries.
In the summer, the army team delighted fans and in the first four rounds, for example, scored 10 points out of 12 possible, scoring 11 goals.
The legionnaires Jorge Carrascal and Jesus Medina also demonstrated excellent football.
However, after a break for the matches of the national teams, they abruptly lost and even stopped getting into the base.
But Fedor Chalov has maintained stability and has scored ten times already, including upsetting Spartak twice in the derby.
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Silent change of ownership in Spartak
The success of the red-whites is especially valuable from the point of view that in the summer the club experienced much more serious changes than its rivals.
In addition to Vanoli, sports director Luca Cattani left his post, having managed to invite Abascal to Russia.
A few days later, the real "bomb" struck.
The president and chairman of the board of directors of the red and white Leonid Fedun, who bought a controlling stake from Andrei Chervichenko back in 2004, announced his resignation.
The entrepreneur went through different times with his offspring, but, it seemed, he would never leave him.
However, he ceded his share to LUKOIL, and also sold the Otkritie-Arena.
The company announced its desire to implement a number of strategic initiatives in order to create a more transparent and participatory decision-making system.
It was also planned to "attract professionals" with experience in the sports industry.
The first of these was Briton Paul Ashworth, who replaced Cattani.
In turn, Fedun said that he was leaving a "competitive young team" and promised to continue to cheer for her.
At the same time, the long-term owner managed to leave on a positive note.
In May, Spartak won the last trophy under his leadership - the Russian Cup.
Goals by Sobolev and Promes brought the red-and-whites a victory over Dynamo in the derby.
Daniil Fomin in the 99th minute could have transferred the confrontation to extra time, but did not convert the penalty.
And the fans will forever remember the magnificent atmosphere at the crowded Luzhniki Stadium and tens of thousands of people singing together with the singer MakSim the song “Do You Know” adored in fan circles.
Unexpected rise of Sychevo
The appearance of an attacker at the top of the sniper race, about which practically nothing was known before, is a new RPL trend.
Last season, Hamid Agalarov showed himself brightly in Ufa.
And in this it was time to shine for Vladimir Sychev from Orenburg, whose name was almost unknown to the fans.
A native of Simferopol, a couple of years ago, he played in the Crimean championship and thought about ending his career.
However, in his debut season at the elite level, he made a splash.
Already in the second round, the striker, coming on as a substitute in the match with Ural, scored a hat-trick.
After that, his place at the base was not subject to doubt.
And Vladimir did everything to not give a chance to competitors.
He upset Lokomotiv, Sochi, Khimki and Akhmat once, CSKA and Dynamo twice each, and Krasnodar three times.
As a result, Sychevoi went on a break, leading the list of scorers along with Promes.
He chalked up three more goals in the Russian Cup.
It is not surprising that Karpin drew attention to the high-scoring player.
The striker made his debut for the national team in the match with Tajikistan.
It seemed that in the near future he would move to one of the giants, but the forward unexpectedly accepted the offer of the Wings of the Soviets.
At the same time, Vladimir clearly showed himself not only in sports terms.
What is at least a marriage proposal to his girlfriend right during a meeting with Sochi, and the football player’s love for pizza has become a meme.
The failed transfer of Dziuba
But in the career of another domestic striker this year there has been a decline.
At the end of May, Artyom Dzyuba announced that he would not renew the contract with Zenit.
In the farewell video, the football player, who appeared in a Deadpool commemorative costume, emphasized that "new adventures await superheroes."
It quickly became clear that he would not stay in Russia, but would try his hand abroad for the first time.
The list of countries in which there was interest in the player was gradually narrowed and eventually limited to Turkey.
At some point, it seemed that the Russian was about to sign an agreement with the local giant Fenerbahce, but the negotiations were unsuccessful.
Only at the end of August did the footballer accept the offer of the much more modest Adana Demirspor.
Unfortunately, the foreign voyage of the ex-captain of the national team turned out to be unsuccessful.
It all started out promising though.
In his debut match, on his 34th birthday, Dziuba hit the gates of Fenerbahce on the road, even though the goal did not help the team avoid defeat.
However, in the next meeting, the newcomer was replaced already at half-time, and after that he only appeared on the field twice.
In November, the contract was terminated, and Artyom spent the rest of the year as a free agent.
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© Seskim Photo
Failed transfer of Zakharyan to Chelsea
Another Russian was on the verge of moving to an English top club.
We are talking about Arsen Zakharyan and Chelsea.
Shortly before the closing of the summer transfer window, information appeared about the interest in the midfielder from the Londoners.
According to his agent Pavel Andreev, the British club made an offer to buy, and negotiations on a personal contract were in the final stages.
However, in a few days the parties did not manage to reach an agreement.
As noted in the camp of the blue and white, it was not possible to carry out the transition due to a number of "technical reasons".
But it is possible that the young midfielder will still join the Chelsea squad in the near future.
At the same time, information appeared in the fall that Zakharyan intends to change his sports citizenship and continue to play for the Armenian national team.
Allegedly, in this case, the chances of his departure to England will increase.
But the local football federation then emphasized that they did not know anything about it.