Herkus named tickets to the RPL a golden ticket after expanding to 18 teams

Thanks to the expansion of the Russian Premier League to 18 teams, trips to it will become golden tickets for teams from the second division (FNL), former Lokomotiv CEO Ilya Gerkus told RBC Sport.

“It’s not all bad, you don’t need billions that much to play in the Premier League. "Nizhny Novgorod" participates with a much smaller budget and participates quite well, especially now the prices for players will fall, salaries will decrease. The money that will be paid under new contracts is quite enough. From this point of view, the Premier League participants will be provided with money that will come from television and betting companies at a tolerable level in order to live. Getting into the Premier League for FNL participants next season is a golden ticket. Everyone will strive to get there,” Herkus said.

Herkus also believes that the Premier League teams after the expansion will not experience any economic problems. “Another question is that all this will be divided not into 16, but into 18 teams, if this decision is supported by the executive committee, although there are questions, and this will be less funding, but still this is significant money. Eight billion from media contracts for 18 teams, 2.5 billion [rubles] from betting contracts, they will bring some prize money, and this is already 10 billion. Quite decent money. <...> In terms of the economy in the Premier League, there will be no problems, ”he added.

Representatives of the RPL clubs voted to expand the league to 18 participants, the HEAD of the RPL, Ashot Khachaturyants, said at a press conference. The general meeting of RPL clubs was held on March 22 in Moscow. The decision to expand the league starting with the new season must be approved at a meeting of the executive committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) on Wednesday, March 23.

The head of the RPL noted that new members must meet the serious requirements of the league in order to enter the top division. “The financial readiness of the clubs, the condition of the stadiums are important. There is a serious analysis ahead of which the RFU will make a decision. As the president of the RPL, I represent the teams. If the majority votes for the number to increase, I cannot but support this,” Khachaturyants said.

On February 28, FIFA and UEFA jointly issued a decision to remove the Russian national team and Russian clubs from international competitions under their auspices. This decision led to the fact that Spartak Moscow was excluded from the current Europa League draw, where they were supposed to meet in the 1/8 finals with the German Leipzig. In addition, the Russian men's team was suspended from the 2022 World Cup play-offs.