Lineup change

Lokomotiv unhooked the head coach and president

The day after the final round of the Russian Championship at Lokomotiv there was a change in management. After the most unsuccessful season in the Russian history of the club, head coach Anatoly Byshovets and president Yuri Semin were purged. In one fell swoop, the leadership of the team's owner, JSC Russian Railways, got rid of the leaders of the two factions that were warring in the club.

Scandals and rumors of an imminent resignation accompanied Anatoly Byshovets almost from the moment of his appointment as head coach and subsided a little only after Lokomotiv won the Russian Cup this year. According to sources in the club, the only thing that saved the coach from being fired was a large penalty, which was due to the specialist in case of early termination of the contract, as well as the intercession of the first vice-president of Russian Railways OJSC Vadim Morozov, with whom Byshovets became acquainted while still working in St. Petersburg.

After failure in the championship and a strange defeat in the last round from Kuban, which was relegated to the first division, the decision was finally made: Anatoly Byshovets left the team in a halo of scandals. But along with him, his opponent Yuri Semin also left Lokomotiv. He held the post of club president only in name. As they say in Lokomotiv, holding a high position and even being a minority shareholder, Semin was deprived of the opportunity to influence the club’s transfer policy and did not have the right to sign financially. But at the same time he was the opposing side to Byshovets. Neither one nor the other ever publicly allowed themselves to accuse each other of anything, but there were plenty of hints of intrigue. The last season was spent in the confrontation between them.

It was expected that after the resignation of Anatoly Byshovets, Yuri Semin, who had worked as the head coach of Loko for a long time, could become acting for the remaining matches of the UEFA Cup. But the board of directors also asked Semin to resign. The team has so far been accepted by reserve coach Rinat Bilyaletdinov, the father of Lokomotiv captain Diniyar Bilyaletdinov. Today, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lokomotiv Sergei Lipatov can announce the name of the new head coach.

Andrey VDOVIN