Russian tycoon Usmanov to extend loan for Capello’s wage arrears repayment — source
СпортRussian billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov will grant a loan to the Russian Football Union (RFU) to partially repay wage arrears to Italian head coach of the Russian national football team Fabio Capello, a source told TASS on Thursday.
Capello and Oreste Cinquini, the Russian football team’s general manager, have been unpaid for about eight months. According to earlier media reports, the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) debt to Italian managers totaled some 600 million rubles ($9 million).
The source did not voice the sum of the loan, but said that in the nearest future the RFU would issue an official statement confirming that Usmanov grants money for wages repayment to Capello and Cinquini.
In an interview with TASS earlier in the day, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that the RFU would likely be granted a loan to repay wage arrears to Capello and the issue would be settled within the next two days.
"We will settle the issue of the wage arrears to Capello in the next two days," Mutko told TASS. "I personally cannot stand this situation any longer."
Russian Football Union debt to Fabio Capello
According to results of an inspection carried out in November by the Federal Agency for Labor and Employment (Rostrud) the RFU’s debt to Capello alone stood at 181.5 million rubles, which ought to be repaid within a month, i.e. by December 19.
As the December 19 deadline passed Rostrud announced that it decided to grant an appeal from the country’s governing football body and extended the date for RFU’s required wage arrears payment for another month, i.e. until January 19, 2015. Rostrud, however, imposed financial fines of 40,000 and 4,000 rubles on the RFU and its President Nikolai Tolstykh respectively for the failure to pay salaries on time.
The Italian manager was not paid again as the deadline expired in January and Rostrud ordered another sudden inspection of the RFU. In case Capello is not paid, the RFU faces a financial penalty and Tolstykh may be suspended from his post for the period between six months and two years.
The RFU experiences financial difficulties and as of December its budget deficit totaled 500 million rubles ($8.4 million at that time). Following the session of the RFU’s Executive Committee in December, Tolstykh said that a special anti-crisis commission was intended to be set up to tackle the financial difficulties of the organization.