Kommersant: Vitaly Mutko will resign as president of the RFU

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko will step down as president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), Kommersant newspaper reports, citing sources.

According to the publication, Mutko's resignation will be announced on December 26 at a meeting of the organization's executive committee. The decision, according to sources, is due to the "doping crisis" and pressure from FIFA.

The most likely candidate for the role of the new president of the RFU Kommersant calls Alexei Sorokin, head of the organizing committee of the 2018 World Cup. In his press service, Interfax was told that he did not know anything about the nomination to the post of head of the RFU.

According to Fontanka, Vitaly Mutko, remaining Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government, may become the President's plenipotentiary in the Central Federal District. All powers related to sports will be removed from him, according to the telegram of the publication.

RFU vice-president Nikita Simonyan said he was unaware of Mutko's upcoming resignation. “There is not a word on the agenda [of the meeting of the executive committee] on this issue,” he told Interfax.

• Vitaly Mutko - Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy, former Minister of Sports. He was the president of the RFU in 2005-2009, and in 2015 he again headed the organization.
• In the 2016 elections, Mutko's rival was football coach Valery Gazzaev, who represented the association of domestic football coaches. He criticized Mutko's combination of posts and proposed a program to reform Russian football. Mutko received 266 votes of delegates, 142 people voted for Gazzaev.