Penalty hijacking: Dzyuba faces sanctions for scandalous interview about Loko

While Artem Dzyuba is preparing for the spring part of the season with Akron Togliatti, his previous club, Lokomotiv Moscow, has achieved interim success in an attempt to get even with the star striker for his harsh remarks against the management and coaching staff of the Railwaymen. The Ethics Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) imposed a fine of 250,000 rubles on the 36-year-old player for his November interview where he criticized Loko general director Vladimir Leonchenko, the team's head coach Mikhail Galaktionov and his assistant Oleg Lyovin.

History of the conflict between Dzyuba and Lokomotiv

On February 4, the RFU ethics committee met for about four hours, considering two issues, one of which had to do with Dzyuba and Lokomotiv. In explaining its decision to fine Dzyuba 250 thousand rubles, the committee referred to Article 15 of the ethics regulations, on the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation.

- "Today we have considered the statements of soccer player Artem Dzyuba in an interview with Match TV channel," the official website of the RFU quotes the words of the chairman of the ethics committee, Andrei Stukalov. - We studied the text of the interview, as well as linguistic expertise submitted along with the appeal. At the meeting heard representatives of the player and the club Lokomotiv. Based on these documents and received explanations, the committee members concluded that the interview contained words that detract from the business reputation of the subjects of soccer. The ethics regulations oblige soccer subjects to respect and guarantee the inviolability of honor, dignity and business reputation of other soccer subjects, so the player was fined 250 thousand rubles.

Artem Dzyuba played for Lokomotiv from February 2023 to June 2024. At the end of last season, the club did not renew the contract with him. Already in September, the footballer was employed by Akron Togliatti, for which he is still playing. And in November he gave a big interview to Match TV, in which among other striking statements got to his recent bosses. First of all, the team's head coach Mikhail Galaktionov.

- You see, Mikhail Mikhailovich is a very good person, I think, in general," Dzyuba said in the Match TV interview. - But, unfortunately, he's a little bit, how can I say it right... he's very shy. He listens, reads all the comments. He reads everything that is written even on the fence, it's very important to him. He wants to seem good to everyone, so strong. But he's very indecisive.

Artem was even harsher on Loko general director Vladimir Leonchenko and Galaktionov's assistant Oleg Levin.

- How they behaved when I arrived and how they behaved when they gradually got rid of me - these are completely different situations, - explained Dzyuba. - Basically, for me it was a shock and a surprise. Another such disappointment.

- I do not respect Leovin. Leonchenko is a man who destroys everything around him and does not like, above all, himself. Not a single person said anything good about Leonchenko, I have not met such people before, - gave emotional assessments Artem Dzyuba. - I am ready to tell them about it on any program, on any air. But they, of course, will never go for it.

Vladimir Leonchenko became Lokomotiv's general director in December 2020. Before that, he headed the Union of footballers and coaches for almost 15 years. According to Dzyuba, the conflict between them began from those times because of the fact that the footballer supported another similar structure - the All-Russian Footballers' Trade Union, the general director of which is Alexander Zotov.

- You know, Vladimir Leonchenko hates me from the word completely since the times when there was a trade union of footballers, - said Dzyuba. - There I did not support him, Alexander Zotov appeared with another union. And we, all footballers, supported Zotov, because it was fair. Leonchenko is a vindictive person. To my face, of course, he would never dare to say anything to me. But he was building intrigues all the time. Because we extended for the next year with the maximum salary ceiling. Because I came in at 50% of the ceiling, and from the new season I had the maximum, like Dima Barinov. And I needed, as you know, to score 10 points on a goal+pass system to extend for another year. And here again I ran into the topic that you can't put such things in the contract.

According to Dzyuba, towards the end of last season he was no longer put in the lineup precisely to avoid activating the option to extend his contract. And at halftime of one of the games, Leonchenko allegedly burst into the locker room and asked Galaktionov in raised tones why he didn't change Artyom, who could score the points missing for the new agreement.

- I have to hand it to Mikhail Mikhailovich, he stood up for me: "This is one of my best players, leaders. Let me handle it myself. And they almost fought. They clashed and were separated by Pashinin (assistant head coach - Ed.) - summarized Dzyuba.

It is worth noting that these quotes are not all that Dzyuba said about the current Loko managers.

- "Lokomotiv should have somehow agreed with Dzyuba in advance on a more civilized parting, so that he did not have the idea to make all those statements that appeared in the interview, - shared his opinion with Izvestia former president of the Railwaymen Nikolai Naumov. - After all, when they signed the contract with Artyom, they knew who he was, and how he can speak in public about former managers. And not to anticipate such a moment - very imprudent.

Consequences

In November, when the interview came out, Lokomotiv delayed with a response for two days. And then issued a very strange press release, where it did not give a direct refutation of everything Dzyuba had said. Instead, it criticized Match TV for publishing this text and the RPL for not taking a position on this interview.

- "We regard the assessments and manner of statements made by Artyom Dzyuba in his answers as a gross violation of sports and business ethics and a demonstration of disrespect for the Russian soccer community," read a statement on Loko's official website. - We also consider it absolutely unacceptable to publish an interview of such content and its promotion on information resources directly cooperating with the Russian Premier League, discrediting both the RPL itself and the clubs representing the league.

In January, it became known that at the request of RPL president Aleksandr Alayev, the RFU ethics committee will hold a meeting to study Dzyuba's statements. It turned out that at the initiative of Lokomotiv Lokomotiv a linguistic examination of the interview was conducted. Its results of more than 50 pages were sent to the RFU. According to the ex-president of Loko Nikolai Naumov, the "railroaders" only rekindled interest in the statements of their former player.

- "There is a famous saying 'You can't put a handkerchief on every mouth,'" said the club's ex-manager. - Everyone has long forgotten about what Dzyuba said about Lokomotiv. And then, almost three months after that interview, the club recalled all of his words, giving the media and fans a reason to pick apart the content of what Artyom said again. And the details he gave are extremely unpleasant for the current Loko management. So I don't know if it was worth going to the ethics committee. In my opinion, the club did it for nothing. As for the decision itself, there can be no questions to the RFU. If the ethics regulations stipulate a fine of 250 thousand rubles, then everything was decided correctly. The committee did not initiate the case itself, but only responded to the request of the club and the league, having no formal grounds to ignore them. Perhaps this fine will be a lesson to Dzyuba and other players that you can't speak in such a way about other subjects of soccer. You can criticize, but without insults and humiliation.

"Lokomotiv" left for the winter break in the Russian championship in fifth place in the RPL after 18 rounds with a gap of four points from the first line. Before that, it had been at the top of the table for most of the tournament. But Dzyuba claimed that controversy within the team would cause its results to deteriorate in the future. The club declined to comment on the ethics committee's decision. Dzyuba's representative, Leonid Goldan, said he was "not commenting yet".