Factory defect: Torpedo was excluded from the RPL

Torpedo Football Club has been officially excluded from the upcoming Russian Premier League World Cup. The decision was officially announced at a meeting of the Russian Football Union's Control and Disciplinary committee on July 10. Read the details in the Izvestia article.

Torpedo was excluded from the RPL: the reason

According to the RFU KDK statement, the club was suspended from participating in the RPL 2025-26 draw "for attempting to arrange match-fixing in football competitions." In addition, the club was fined 5 million rubles.

Torpedo CEO Valery Skorodumov and club co-owner Leonid Sobolev have been suspended from any football-related activities for 10 and 5 years, respectively.

On June 21, the Moscow Meshchansky Court detained Skorodumov and Sobolev. They were suspected of trying to bribe the referees to achieve the desired athletic results of the team.

Arbitrators Maxim Perezva and Bogdan Golovko were involved in the scandal. The latter served the match of the final 34th round of the KAMAZ-Torpedo First League championship (1:1). According to the results of the game, Torpedo directly qualified for the RPL.

Perezva said that he had received an illegal offer from Torpedo, but refused a bribe of 1 million rubles. Golovko remains detained at the moment, and he and the leaders of the football club face up to seven years in prison.

Torpedo was excluded from the RPL: reaction

Commenting on the decision of the RFU KDC against Torpedo, REN TV columnist Alexander Kuzmak noted that the capital club repeated the fate of many regional teams due to the mistakes of incompetent management.

— The decision of the RFU and the RPL to exclude Torpedo is an absolutely legitimate fact if the club owner's guilt in working with the referees is proven. There is nothing surprising here," the expert said.

In turn, sports columnist Alexey Osin also noted that the decision of the football authorities to expel Torpedo was the right step.

— Clearing the league of such things is a positive phenomenon. It's a pity, of course, that a club with that name got "distributed", it's a shame. But the responsibility here lies with the club's leaders," he said.

Alexander Kuzmak added that the root causes of the Torpedo crisis lie in the 1990s, when, after the collapse of the USSR and the sale of the former owner, the ZIL plant, the club was unable to find a permanent source of financing.

— Problems started with the stadium, with the match. All this eventually resulted in the fact that, by and large, random people took the Torpedo," he pointed out.

Discussing the fate of the club, the expert suggested that Torpedo could cease to exist following the example of other Russian teams in a similar situation. However, it is also possible to reboot the entire structure if new sponsors are found.

— Either Torpedo will sink into Oblivion, or it will start from scratch, from the level of the Third League of the PFL, and from there it will rise. But for this, there must be a lot of money with serious managers who would undertake the revival of the club," Kuzmak said.

Even before the decision of the RFU KDK, Leonid Sobolev, through his lawyer, announced that he would dissolve Torpedo in case of exclusion from the RPL. Commenting on this prospect, Alexey Osin allowed the club to cease to exist, but called on the football authorities to intervene in the situation.

— I think that the League should enter into this process and try to preserve the Torpedo, which has been tortured over the past twenty years. Either the League will get involved, or they will try to find the owner with the help of the authorities. After all, our teams were saved," he concluded.

Who will replace Torpedo in the new RPL season

According to Sport-Express, the main candidate for participation in the new Russian Premier League draw is the Orenburg club, which left the top division following the results of the 2024-25 season, taking 15th place.

Grigory Ivanov, President of football Ural, also expressed a desire to get a place in the RPL, citing the result of the play-off matches with Akhmat Grozny (2:1 and 0:2). In the return game, referee Sergey Ivanov did not count the goal of the Uralians, later the RFU expert refereeing commission officially recognized