Sport-Express recognized Dyukov as the most influential person in Russian football

Alexander Dyukov, President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), has topped the ranking of the most influential people in Russian football for the fourth year in a row. The list was published by the newspaper Sport-Express on March 10.

The ranking includes coaches, sports officials, agents, journalists and lawyers who shape the football agenda in Russia.

As Maxim Allanazarov, deputy editor-in—chief of Sport-Express, noted, the main task of the rating is to show those people who are interested in football what the balance of power is within our football.

Dyukov has been the head of the RFU since 2019, and during this time the national championship continues to develop, despite sanctions and international isolation.

"As for the national championship: he continues to stay awake. He feels good. He's interesting and he's bright," said Alexander Kuzmak, a sports columnist for REN TV.

The second place in the rating was taken by the Secretary General of the RFU Maxim Mitrofanov. As noted in the article, their joint work with Dyukov made it possible to strengthen the position of Russian football and maintain its popularity in difficult conditions.

The third place was taken by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, who is also known as the main fan of Zenit St. Petersburg. The club's president Alexander Medvedev, who took tenth place, also made it to the top ten.

"Such an assessment is primarily an assessment of Zenit's achievements. Both sports and marketing," Medvedev said, adding that the club continues to support the international agenda by holding friendly matches with foreign teams.

The seventh position in the ranking was taken by the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin. Under his leadership, the national team won all the test matches in 2024. At the end of the year, Karpin left the post of head coach of Rostov, deciding to focus on his work in the national team.

"Three years in this mode, national team-club-national team-club, to put it mildly, is not very easy. I didn't have enough emotions. Because football is a sport, it's an emotion. But it's hard without emotions," Karpin admitted.

In addition to football officials and coaches, the rating also includes business representatives working in the field of sports law. In particular, Sila International Lawyers, whose lawyers represented the interests of Russian clubs and football players in disputes with international organizations.

"We participated almost everywhere as lawyers. This includes the transfer of Fedor Chalov to PAOK, and the transfer of Matvey Safonov to PSG, Daniil Khudyakov. One of the last things we did was Uzbekistan national football team player Husanov joined Manchester City. We also helped him to make a contract," said Yuri Zaitsev, partner of the company.

Tips for the union: why there is no alternative to Dyukov in the RFU

The incumbent head of Russian soccer is running unopposed for re-election for four years

Earlier, on February 8, Dyukov stated that he believes in the return of the Russian national teams to international tournaments in his new term in office. He was re-elected to the post of head of the RFU on February 2.

Prior to that, on December 25, 2024, Alexander Dyukov announced that the Russian national football team could play matches with rivals from Europe in the first half of 2025. Maxim Mitrofanov, Secretary General of the Russian Football Federation, told Izvestia at the same time that the Israeli Football Federation was in favor of allowing Russian teams to participate in international competitions.