MOSCOW — The Russian government will bring in tough restrictions on the number of foreign players in the country’s top soccer league in order to develop home-grown players for the 2018 World Cup.
With his ministry poised to gain new powers to limit the number of foreigners in the Russian Premier League, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says he will "cut back on foreign players in a very tough way," in comments on Tuesday reported by Russian agency R-Sport.
His comments come after a bill allowing the sports ministry to limit foreign players in team sports passed the first of three readings in the lower house of parliament last week.
Current Russian league rules allow clubs to field up to seven foreigners at any time, a state of affairs which Mutko said was crowding out Russian talent and limiting local players’ game time.
"I liked to watch football teams when they had the players that they’d produced," he said. "In football, we’ve got just four Russians on the teamsheet for the match and there are 16 teams in the league. Well, count how many Russians are playing. We have serious work to do in this area."
While the proposed law also covers other sports such as hockey and basketball, the discussion around it has focused almost entirely on soccer, especially following the Russian team’s exit in the group stage of last year’s World Cup.
The idea of a state-imposed limit on foreign players was first proposed a year ago by President Vladimir Putin, shortly after the Russian hockey team disappointed fans by crashing out of its home Olympics in the quarterfinals.
Separately, Russia is also examining the possibility of naturalizing some foreign players who ply their trade in the Russian Premier League. The main candidate appears to be Ari, a 29-year-old Brazilian forward for FC Krasnodar who became eligible for Russian citizenship after marrying his Russian wife in December.