Khimki experience: the collapse of the Moscow region club confused the situation at the joints

On the day of the first transition matches for the right to play in the RPL next season, it became known that Khimki were leaving the Premier League due to financial problems, despite the fact that they retained their place there on a sporting basis. Now it is not entirely clear how to interpret the regulations of the Russian championship in terms of replacing the Moscow region club. This will be decided by the Executive Committee or the bureau of the RFU Executive Committee. But now it is almost certain that Pari Nizhny Novgorod will remain in the RPL even in the event of a defeat against Sochi. However, following the results of the first match, Nizhny Novgorod achieved an away victory over the southern club (2:1). Meanwhile, another representative of the Premier League, Akhmat Grozny, lost the first match to Ural Yekaterinburg (1:2) and was on the verge of relegation to the First League, which has already led to the voluntary resignation of the head coach of the team Sergey Tashuev.

Khimki

The fact that the financial problems of the Moscow region club are very serious was known back in the winter. They didn't decide to do that until the end of the season. Despite this, the players and coaches, who have not been paid a salary since the end of last year, fought to the very end, regularly scored points and eventually finished in 12th place, which gives them the right to remain in the RPL without transitional matches.

But the debts were never paid. Only in April, when the players went on strike and refused to go to training for two days, RPL President Alexander Alaev intervened in the situation, who arranged early payments to Khimki of prize money for participation in the tournament from the league's television contract and its contract with a sponsor. This money was enough to pay off a small part of the debt, but then the business stalled again.

As a result, the RFU licensing commission refused to allow Khimki to participate in the next RPL season. It happened on Saturday, May 24, immediately after the end of the last 30th round of the championship in the Premier League and the 34th round in the First League.

On Wednesday morning, May 28, the RFU announced that the appeal committee had not satisfied the complaint of the Khimki residents against the decision of the licensing commission. Now their only option is to appeal the verdict in the last instance to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS), but this will need to be done as soon as possible, before the RFU executive committee approves the results of the season in June.

In their official statement, Khimki announced that they would not participate in the next RPL draw, which could be interpreted as a refusal to complain to CAS. On the other hand, there is still time to file a complaint, so Pari Nizhny Novgorod has to fight with full force in the matches against Sochi, just in case.

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Another problem is the vagueness of the wording of the regulations regarding the team that will replace Khimki in the RPL. Given the priority in favor of the Premier League clubs, it should be someone from the RPL clubs who got into the transition matches if they lose the joints. That is, Pari Nizhny Novgorod, which finished 13th, if Sochi lost, or Akhmat, which became 14th if Nizhny Novgorod won, if Ural lost. If both RPL clubs win the matches, then Orenburg, which has relegated directly to the First League from 15th place, can take the place of Khimki. But the comment of the RFU Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov on this topic turned out to be quite streamlined.

"In such cases, by a decision of the RFU Executive Committee (bureau of the Executive Committee), taking into account the opinion of the RPL and the FNL, such clubs can be replaced, while clubs that played in the Russian Premier League have an advantage over clubs that played in the First League in the 2024-2025 season," Mitrofanov said. — Thus, the final decision on the replacement of Khimki in the next RPL season will be made by the executive committee or the bureau of the RFU Executive Committee, taking into account all circumstances, including the results of the transition matches.

Interestingly, the collapse with the exchange of teams between the leagues at the end of the season also happened in the FNL, where Novorossiysk Chernomorets took third place, which was supposed to play with Akhmat. But back in April, it became known that the Novorossiysk club would have big problems. The fact is that his home stadium does not meet the standards of the Russian Premier League. According to the regulations, in this case, the club can declare an object located in the territory of the same region, in this case the Krasnodar Territory, as a reserve arena.

The Ozon Arena, where Krasnodar plays, and Fisht Stadium, where Sochi plays, were suitable for this. But in both cases, Chernomorets failed to agree on the lease of these facilities. And if Krasnodar's home arena belongs to the club itself or its owner Sergey Galitsky, then in the case of Fisht, Sochi residents rent it themselves, and the stadium is owned by the region. But this did not help Chernomorets to declare a "Fisht" for the RPL.

As a result, Ural Yekaterinburg, which finished fourth in the First League and became fifth, got into the joints... Sochi, which, according to the sporting principle, should not have played in transition matches at all. It is noteworthy that in the match of the last round, Sochi played with Chernomorets away, losing to him with a score of 1:2, which led to a dropout from the joint zone. But at the same time, Sochi did not release the entire main squad in Novorossiysk, as if realizing that he, and not his opponent, would fight for a place in the RPL in any case.

"There has not been such a mess in the organization and conduct of competitions in our football for a long time," Andrei Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak and ex—vice president of Khimki, told Izvestia. — Although everything happened to us, but here the valiant leaders surpassed themselves. I don't even want to say completely obvious platitudes like that the regulations need to be clearly prescribed in advance, to think about which clubs you give licenses to, whether they have financial guarantees and what they are backed by. The wording that the executive committee bureau will make a decision, taking into account the opinions of the RPL and FNL and taking into account the circumstances, including the results of the meetings, is particularly impressive. That is, five or six people (or how many are in the bureau of the executive committee) will decide on the basis of some personal views who will play in the RPL? The most disgusting thing is that even now the RFU is not trying to find a better option. For example, I would schedule two more play—off matches in an emergency mode - between Orenburg and Fakel, who were eliminated directly. And they would have identified among themselves who would replace Khimki. Or he automatically left Paris NN in the RPL, and sent Akhmat and Orenburg to the joints. But I did not leave everything at the mercy of the subjective opinion of several persons unknown to us from the bureau of the executive committee.

Ural – Akhmat

The first half was played under the conditions of strange refereeing decisions by the chief referee of the match Kirill Levnikov. He did not score a goal against each of the teams, and the cancellation of the Ural goal raised big questions. As well as the non-assignment of a penalty against Akhmat in one of the episodes.

It seemed that the Grozny club would take advantage of the situation. He left for the break, leading the score. The goal was scored by Georgy Melkadze, who scored well from a free kick. But in the second half, Ural turned the game around. Martin Sekulic scored twice, first from the penalty spot, then from the game. The hosts could have scored more, but in the end they prevailed with a minimum score. After the game, Akhmat's head coach Sergey Tashuev resigned. His assistant Fedor Shcherbachenko will prepare the team for the second leg.

"Of course, the emotions from the victory are only positive," Ural President Grigory Ivanov told Izvestia. — The guys did well, they managed to turn the tide of the match that started unsuccessfully for us. I don't want to comment on the refereeing in hot pursuit, we will analyze the moments with a cool head and give an assessment. But Kirill Levnikov is a high—level judge. It's just that everyone makes mistakes, and referees are no exception. The main thing is that the team pleased the fans, who came in large numbers to the stadium. 20,000 spectators drove the team forward, and it did not let them down. Now we need to prepare for the match in Grozny — there will be no less difficult game.

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Sochi – Pari Nizhny Novgorod

Nizhny Novgorod played very poorly in the first half. Sochi had an overwhelming advantage. And it seemed that Paris NN had finally relaxed from the realization that, most likely, even in case of defeat, it would not be eliminated, but would take the place of Khimki.

But Robert Moreno's team took advantage of the game only once. In the 14th minute, they opened the scoring thanks to a goal from Roman Pasevich. However, closer to the break, the game turned upside down due to the removal from Sochi - Vladimir Pisarsky received a direct red card.

The guests took advantage of this just before leaving for the locker room, when Alexander Troshechkin equalized the score. In the second half, even outnumbered, Sochi had the advantage for a long time, but in the end, Paris NN's class and one-player head start took their toll. In the last minutes of the meeting, Viktor Alexandrov scored the second goal against the southern club.

"We must pay tribute to Paris NN that even after the RFU's decision on Khimki, they did not relax and fought to the end in this match," Dmitry Bulykin, a former forward of Nizhny Novgorod Volga, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — In principle, Sochi played no worse and could have achieved victory. There is a very decent team there, many players have remained since last seasons, when Sochi were in the RPL. But now Nizhny Novgorod is going home as the favorite of this fight and is close to removing all questions about its right to play in the Premier League.

The second leg matches will take place on Saturday, May 31. The game will start at 17:00 in Nizhny Novgorod and at 19:30 in Grozny.