The sad tale of FC Moskva concluded as the club was formally withdrawn from the Rosgosstrakh Championship of Russia.

In a simply word statement, the league announced:

“Based the statement of management “Moskva” and in accordance with the charter regulations RFPL since February 17, 2010 the football club “Moskva” ceases its membership in [RFPL] on the voluntary basis.”

Though many had hoped that the situation would be reversed before the 15 February deadline imposed by Sergey Pryadkin, President of the Russian Football Premier League, without financing the club could not go on.

Echoing comments by CSKA Moskva manager Leonid Slutsky in preeminent Russian media outlet Sport-Express. (Спорт-Экспресс) when he called the loss, “a tragedy”, the withdraw of FC Moskva is loss that will not be easily replaced from a local perspective as well as the younger players it helped develop.

The Citizens will be replaced by Alania Vladikavkaz who finished third in the First Division last season. This poses a particular problem with competition because with effectively three new sides to the top flight, Sibir Novosibirsk and Anzhi Makhachkala the other two, the bottom of the table could be sorely lacking. In consideration that Krylya Sovetov’s fortunes are far from settled, the RFPL will need to decide if the Samaran’s fold to either promote Volga Nizhny Novgorod and retract Kuban Krasnodar’s relegation.

Prepared by J. Davies
©Europa League News, 2010.
All rights reserved

As first outlined on 3 February, per pre-eminent Russian media outlet Sports-Express (Спорт-Экспресс), FC Moskva has withdrawn from the Rosgosstrakh Championship of Russia.

Sports-Express notes that club owners, Norilsk Nickel can no longer validate the financing FC Moskva’s football operations. Though there was hope that financing would be found and urgent pleas by supporters, that ended as ownership announced their decision was final.

Through the transfer window the Citizens bolstered their coffers with €20 million via the sales of Edgaras Česnauskis, Alexandru Epureanu, Roman Hubník, Vitali Kaleshin, Maxi López, Kirill Nababkin, Aleksandr Samedov and Dmitri Tarasov but it was still not enough.

The loss of FC Moscow, in conjunction with the financial woes of Krylia Sovetov, is deeply troubling aspect for the sport in Russia. Though the junior development programs are a haven for top quality players the financial instability of professional clubs must be a top priority for the recently elected Russian Football Union president Sergey Fursenko. The far reaching positive aspects of the sport within society as a whole cannot be ignored and more progressive solutions must be sought.

Prepared by J. Davies
©Europa League News, 2010.
All rights reserved

The Moskva derby that pitted Dinamo versus the Citizens at Vostochnaya Street’s Eduard Streltsov Stadium saw the “white-blues” come out victorious 2-1. In recent weeks, Andrey Kobelev has seen his side to return to near complete fitness and stirred the hopes of the “white-blues” supporters with a series of solid performances. Tempers ran hot in the match and twenty-one minutes in a skirmish broke out with Zvonimir Vukić receiving a straight red-card, forcing the Citizens to play a man down. Four minutes later Dinamo took the 1-0 lead as Kirill Kombarov sent a drive to the back of the net from twenty-eight metres. The Citizens were waging a mighty assault but exposed to Dinamo’s counter attack and ten minutes later Leandro Fernández doubled the margin. Though FC drew one back with an own goal courtesy of Denis Kolodin that was as close as it would get as Dinamo claimed the full three points with a 2-1 victory. The victory pulls Dinamo to eighth in the final standings whilst ending FC Moskva’s hopes for Europe. November was not kind to Miodrag Božović’s side as after a five match unbeaten streak that lasted through October, they lost their final two matches and fell out of European spot with a sixth place finish. The Citizens will need to either win the Russian Cup or have Zenit do so if they are to squeeze into the Europa League.

©Europa League News, 2009. All rights reserved