Russian tentacles in football

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The fact that football is the most popular sport in Europe means that it is a very greedy industry for everything that is not related to football. Historically it has been used for political propaganda and with the arrival of what is known as modern football advertising became popular. Usually, it is used to earn money and there are not a few Russian names that appear on the list Forbes of the world’s richest people each year.

Abramovich is the first surname that comes to mind when you think of a Russian billionaire investing in football. He arrived at Chelsea in 2003 and at Stamford Bridge they have to love him like the star he is because he totally changed the history of the club. Until his arrival, the team had one league, five cups and two Cup Winners’ Cups in its record, in addition to having passed through the Second Division several times. Today, Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and therefore in Europe.

As soon as he arrived, Abramovich was a revolution in the London club. Just landed in the capital learned that Zola, the club’s biggest star until then, had left for Cagliari. His first management was to call Massimo Cellino, president of the Italian team, to correct the error: “How much does Zola cost? He Isn’t he for sale? And how much does Cagliari cost? He had to keep the desire, but not the money in the account. That same summer he spent €170M on purchases (that figure, in 2003, was a real outrage) without earning a single euro from sales. Crespo, Verón or Makélélé were accompanied in the following years by Essien, Drogba or Shevchenko, as well as José Mourinho, the creator of the first great Chelsea in history.

Abramóvich, who is estimated to have a fortune of 14.5 billion dollars obtained in his day through his oil company Sibnefthas been forced to set aside ownership of the club, for the time being ceded to the Foundation, after English government pressure due to his links with Putin. This Wednesday announced that the club was for sale with a detail in its statement: all the net profits from the sale will go to a foundation that helps the victims of the war.

However, and although he is the most famous, this is not the only Russian owner that English football has, since Maxim Demin is the current majority shareholder of Bournemouth, which he joined in 2011. With a notably more modest investment than Abramovich’s, under him the club rose to the Premier League in 2015 with a highly admirable project thanks to Eddie Howe. They play in Second since 2020.

Back in London, Arsenal had in Alisher Usmanov (who is estimated to have a fortune of 18.4 billion dollars) one of its most important shareholders. Usmanov, co-owner of Red & White Securitiesparticipated in the club from 2007 to 2018when the current owner of Arsenal, Stan Kroenke, bought the 30% that belonged to Usmanov and, in this way, fired the Russian from the board gunner. Until this Wednesday, Usmanov had sponsorships at Everton through his companies USM, Megafon and Yota which have been suspended.

In Ligue 1 and at the same time as PSG, Monaco received an external financial boost. It was thanks to Dmitry Rybolovlev (Forbes estimates a heritage of 6.7 billion dollars), which acquired two thirds of the club when it was in the Second Division. His promising project convinced Claudio Ranieri, who agreed to join the club in Ligue 2 in July 2012 to promote him that same season. Little by little the investment increased until, in 2013, he spent 160 million euros on transfers having entered only 5 million in sales. That year, in addition to paying salaries like those of Berbatov, Carvalho or Abidal, who arrived free, they signed James Rodríguez, Falcao, Moutinho, Kondogbia, Toulalan…

Beyond this summer, Rybolóvlev did not make huge investments but he did provide the club with an enviable sporting direction to end up creating its most successful project to date, the 2016-17 Monaco that won Ligue 1 and reached the Champions League semi-finals. Players like Bernardo Silva, Bakayoko, Lemar or Fabinho had arrived seasons ago as promises and that season they performed like stars. Not to mention, of course, Mbappé, signed from the Bondy quarry at the age of fourteen. Monaco have not been able to compete for the title for years, but they continue to be a reference at European level as a generator of young promises.

In the Netherlands we find the Vitesse, which since 2010 has had a foreign owner. First it was the Georgian Merab Zjordania, who in 2013 sold it to the Russian Alekasandr Tsjigirinski. The latter was sold to his compatriot Valeri Ojf, who was already within the club’s board years ago, in 2018. His hand was felt when he signed as new coach Leonid Slutsky, a legend of the benches in Russian football who only lasted a season and a half in charge. Beyond that, the Vitesse, which won a Cup in 2017, is experiencing one of the sweetest stages in its history this season playing the round of 16 of the Conference League.

In addition to these properties, Russian money heavily influences football through Gazprom, the country’s largest company. This oil and gas company has sponsorships with Zenit (which it has owned since 2005), Schalke 04, Chelsea or Red Star, as well as UEFA through the Champions League and FIFA. After the outbreak of the war, some of these sponsorships have been broken due to Gazprom’s relationship with the Putin government. It is not surprising that, as has happened with these contracts or with Abramovich’s management at Chelsea, European football continues to force itself to distance itself from any relationship with the Russian government given the strong social pressure that exists today against its actions in Ukraine.