Russian football should scrap its foreigners quota because its makes local players complacent, a candidate for the Russian FA presidency told R-Sport on Wednesday.
Teams in the Russian Premier League are required to have a minimum of four Russians on the pitch at any one time. Last season five Russians were required.
This shelters Russian players from competition, so they stagnate as players, according to Igor Lebedev, a politician for the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and one of seven candidates for the post of Russian Football Union president.
“Nowadays Russian footballers who’ve made it into the first-team at their clubs understand that they’ll be going onto the pitch anyway because they have a Russian passport in their pocket,” Lebedev said.
“It turns our football not into a game for professional footballers, but a game for passports.”
Lebedev pointed to Lokomotiv Moscow striker Dmitry Sychev, 28, who was a star for Russia at the 2002 World Cup, but who, Lebedev said, “hasn’t progressed for the last four years.”
“By abolishing the limit, people like him will go to work, on himself, on his skills,” Lebedev said.
Lebedev has said that, as president, he would introduce an ice hockey-style salary cap on clubs and crack down on hooliganism by calling for British-style policies that prevent proven hooligans from leaving the country during major tournaments.
The other candidates are Russian Premier League head Sergei Pryadkin, Russian Olympic Committee executive director Nikolai Tolstykh, Soviet international Evgeny Lovchev and football officials Alisher Aminov, Valery Beletsky and Vladimir Tumaev.
