Reinforced the club hit the club

What awaits the football CSKA after the introduction of Western sanctions against him? Experts respond

In addition to the various Rotenbergs and Timchenko, the CSKA football club also turned out to be in the sanctions list of the US Department of Finance on February 22. This is the second Russian club that has been to Western restrictions. Two years ago, the Grozny “Akhmat” suffered the same fate, which lost many opportunities: from access to these sports analytics systems to players transfers. As the story with the army team will develop in the future, it is still unknown, the leadership of the club of intelligible comments on this subject does not give, and experts disagree.

Alexey Safonov

President of the company "Ca-Futal Agency"

- I do not see any serious problems for the Russian club. We saw exactly the same situation on the example of Akhmat several years ago. Well, certain difficulties arose with the supplier of equipment-they found another, turned off from Swift, something else ... and what next? The team continues to exist, in principle, nothing has changed. I emphasize that all monetary operations accompanying the club’s work are carried out in Russia in rubles, and our country is already under sanctions for many years-we somehow cope. And from the growth of the course of foreign currencies, everyone will suffer, not only CSKA. In terms of transfers, I also do not see problems: Russian agents accredited by the Russian Football Union work with the club, that is, operations are again performed within the country. In the worst case, someone will not be sold, someone will not be bought. Purely football, sports side, these sanctions will not affect. Let's see, of course, what will happen next.

Nikolai Grammatikov

Head of the Trade Union of football players and coaches

- The situation is much more complicated than it might seem. When the United States applies sanctions, you need to keep in mind the so -called secondary sanctions - to those who are dealing with the club. In particular, we are talking about counterparties. Considering that CSKA is actively conducting international activities - he buys players and, apparently, will sell them - sanctions will be a rather serious restriction. Because counterparties will now think about risks that may fall to their share for cooperation with CSKA. And risks can be up to the same sanctions as imposed on the army club. A primitive approach will not work here - to refuse the dollar and move to the euro or transfer the control package of the club’s shares to another enterprise. So it will not work.

There are cases when Russian companies that fell under US sanctions could not even open an account with Russian banks in rubles. It is not worth underestimating these difficulties.

Most likely, for the normal existence, CSKA will soon change the owner. In any case, this is a difficult and labor -cost path: representatives of CSKA should urgently hire lawyers, fly to Washington and work with OFAC (management for foreign assets control). This organization works with each individual case, and it will need to provide a plan for changing the owner. This is a big professional and painstaking work. The company "GAZ" passed along this path, now gets a temporary license.

An example regarding the sanctions to Akhmat is identical, and you can see how this was affected by the Grozny Club. There are no transfers, most players are signed by free agents, there are no calculations in the currency. CSKA is even more difficult for CSKA, because the club is a potential participant in European competitions, more than eight foreign players have been bought, many are leased. What could happen? Now everyone who has any financial relations with CSKA will calculate risks. It must be understood that even if there is no direct ban, that is, risks. Both clubs and football organizations (the same UEFA), and, importantly, the banks with which they cooperate can calculate these risks too significant. As in this case, the issue with possible prizes for European cups will be resolved, for outstanding payments for players to other clubs (if they apply to the sports court or FIFA), it is not known, such precedents, as far as I know, except for Akhmat and CSKA.