When Russia rules football underground: how Putin's allies are polishing Russia by football?

The moment Roman Abramovich, a rising Russian billionaire, took over the English club Chelsea F.C. in 2003, the small club suddenly emerged to become a superpower in English football and later Europe. And the Russian owner remains loved by the fans of the London Blue.

But few people truly realise that Abramovich is a very close ally of the autocratic leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. When I'm saying "few people", I mean, they have no clear insight about how deep Abramovich and Putin connected. In fact, despite Putin may not always have great relations with various oligarchs, Abramovich, among a handful of henchmen, are never touched by Putin, if not saying the Russian dictator has tolerated Abramovich as a reward. Putin never questions Abramovich, and Abramovich transfers money back to Russia freely.

Abramovich's model is being copied by other Russian billionaires, and the number is increasing. Russian government has been successfully diversifying its assets from oil and gas, using money from football to fund Putin and to help the Kremlin on achieving its agenda. Even when it comes to war. But the rest of the free world is not prepared to face Putin's hidden tactics.

Football for the Tsar

Putin, the new Tsar of Russia, from 2000s underlined that Russia must reclaim its position as a major superpower, which lost following the demise of USSR. His hostility against the West was further enhanced by how he invaded Georgia, the South Caucasus country, to help the separatist nations Abkhazia and South Ossetia to gain independence, in 2008. And he also intervened in Syria to back the Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad, as well as instigating wars in Donetsk and Luhansk following the Euromaidan that toppled the pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Putin has also backed right-wing politicians that are EU sceptics to suit Russian government's interests.

We always talk about sanctions could cripple the economy of Russia. However, despite pressures from the free world, notably the United States, Russia has stood firm and even getting support from fellow despotic China, now ten times more prosperous than Russia. But China alone can't provide so much money, no matter how rich China is now, and with the way how China is behaving during COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese influence is plummeting abroad, meaning that China can be isolated just like Nazi Germany as long as Beijing continues to be aggressive.

So, Putin has weaponised another weapon, not so open but very effective: football. Or soccer if you are North Americans and Australians. Roman Abramovich marked the first step.

Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 and turned it into a European and world power.

Football is the most popular sport for many Russians, but the national team of Russia has been a bit under-achieved, though it has a respectable record dated from the Soviet era. On the other hand, sport is also very political in Russia. For most of the USSR's history, the Soviets decided who would compete and who wouldn't, based on their political stance. But when the collapse of Soviet Union, Russia has to cope with a new reality: it's diminishing in relevance. So Moscow needed to do something to revive its prestige.

No secret, it looks at capitalising football ownership.

Roman Abramovich marked the milestone when he seized Chelsea in 2003. By that time, Chelsea was on a renaissance, but it had stagnated. It could not win a single Premier League title since 1955, and winning only two FA Cup in this era. Nor even it managed to reach the final of the UEFA Champions League. It was also under financial trouble. So the club, while having earned some reputation, remained a low key underdog.

Just after Abramovich decided to pay off the debt, Chelsea dramatically enjoyed its rise. It claimed the first Premier League trophy since 1955 by winning the 2004-05 season. It managed to sign superstars like Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. Moreover, it had successfully reached out the first UEFA Champions League final in 2008, held at Abramovich's native Russia, where his Chelsea lost to Manchester United in penalty shootout. But not for long, Abramovich travelled to Munich in 2012, where he finally got the joy, Chelsea claimed the first Champions League title and officially established itself as a major European and world football giant. So Abramovich became a Godfather of the club.

By that moment, Putin was impressed. Seeing how Russian billionaires can secretly exert Russian influence without firing live ammunition, the takeover began.

Vitesse, a Dutch football club based in Arnhem, was taken over in 2010 by a former Georgian footballer, Merab Jordania, once an associate of Abramovich. But Jordania was unhappy that Abramovich had too much power in Vitesse, so he quitted the club in 2013, giving back to Alexander Chigirinsky, another Russian billionaire. As for 2021, it is now being governed by yet another Russian tycoon, Valery Oyf. Both have many connections to the Russian state.

In 2011, Russian billionaire, an art lover named Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought the majority stake of Monacan-French club AS Monaco, as the club was in crisis. The purchase was successful and it slowly transformed Monaco into a major French football competitor and a European underdog.

In 2012, news in Greece erupted when a Russian billionaire of Greek origin, Ivan Savvidis, took over PAOK, one of Greece's big clubs. Many Greek clubs faced financial crises, so it wasn't a surprise for someone to take over a Greek football club to save face. But Ivan Savvidis is different. He used to be a Soviet military officer, and his relationship with the Kremlin is also an issue. Savvidis has actively participated in a number of economic investments and buying of properties, especially in Greek ports that deemed strategic for Russia to infiltrate within NATO. Needless to say, Greece is a NATO member, but its population shares a common Orthodox Church with Russia and has the strongest pro-Russian sentiment inside the military alliance, thus easily serves Moscow's geopolitical calculation.

In 2014, FK Vardar, the most successful but failing football club in Macedonia (now North Macedonia), was purchased by a Russian tycoon, Sergey Samsonenko. Samsonenko has a harder relationship with Putin because of his independence, but he still maintained a low-level connection with the Kremlin. Samsonenko did help to transform Vardar into a more competent team in Europe, it was the first club from the country to qualify for European competition, the 2017-18 Europa League, where the team finished last. The financial trouble ruptured from 2017, however, forced Samsonenko to sell back to the city of Skopje in 2020, but the Russian would be also accredited for introducing a rising golden generation in his club that helped North Macedonia to reach Euro 2020, the first major football tournament for this nation.

To speak about Savvidis and Samsonenko, both were accused of stirring unrest in both Greece and North Macedonia following the Prespa Agreement that changed the name of Macedonia into today, involving PAOK and Vardar fans. The agreement was seen as a vital step to join NATO and open the negotiation to the EU for Skopje.

The most recent Russian owner to mark its headline in European football is the Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who founded Ararat-Armenia in 2017 and is now aiming to become the first Armenian club in a major European competition. The club has come agonisingly close to the Europa League, twice, and is growing in strength as well as popularity.

Russian tycoons don't end in Europe, that's certain. Even as far as Australia, they are gaining power. Sydney FC, a professional football club competing in A-League, is controlled by a Russian billionaire, David Traktovenko. Traktovenko was the former chairman of Zenit Saint-Petersburg before he gave up his position to take Sydney FC in 2009. Zenit is empowered by a Russian gas company, Gazprom, under Alexey Miller's hand, also a Putin's associate. Indirectly, Sydney FC increased its prestige and has become a frequent competitor in Asia's Champions League as well as being a giant in A-League, Australia's domestic football competition.

Why is it so difficult?

This is a good question.

The problem is not all Russian chairmen in football clubs are necessarily pro-Putin, but they always stand side-by-side with the Russian government when it comes to a common cause. It's the first reason to be mentioned. Think about Abramovich, think about Traktovenko, think about Savvidis - they are very close to Putin or Putin's affiliates. Their financial hubs are so great that Russian regime can always rely on them.

But the second reason is something worth paying attention: charm offensives.

Unlike the majority of football owners from China, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia that poured billions to buy foreign superstars and making them as tools for these governments, or American owners who care only about Americanising sports for profit, Russian football owners nurture players from the native background with lavish funding of building new projects under the mask of "social charity". Chelsea FC's academy was launched in 2007 was one of Abramovich's mega-projects since he took over.

Chelsea FC Academy, built from 2004-07, is one of England's most modern sporting facilities.

Since it was first inaugurated, Chelsea FC's youth academy has become the source of pride for the English fans. Its youth team won two European Youth League titles and finished second on two other occasions, still stand the only English team with such a feat. Abramovich was generous, still now, and so even when some political commentators found about Abramovich's dubious yet apparent connection with the Kremlin and Russian aggression in Georgia and Ukraine, it fails to dissuade the families from sending children to practise in these facilities, even when it is clear that their money would be converted to rubles. Nothing examined better when in early 2010s, when British police had tried, and failed, to investigate the real financial assets of Roman Abramovich or convicted the Russian billionaire of corruption.

I supposed Boris Johnson, now PM of the UK, blocking the inquiry about Russian meddling in Brexit has something to do with this Chelsea link. Mr. Johnson praised Chelsea FC for being the first English club to pay salaries for the London Living Wage back in 2014 and has been supporting any major Londoner clubs, Chelsea included. So even when he disliked Putin and for once urged boycotting 2018 FIFA World Cup, he eventually backtracked from the promise.

Think the same with Dmitry Rybolovlev, he created an entirely new Monaco side, though not perfect, but well-mannered enough to stay in Europe's big, leave alone France's big. One player nurtured from this Monaco academy was Kylian Mbappé, who would go on to win the World Cup in Russia, something the Russian owner of Monaco had to be proud of.

This is also the same way how David Traktovenko is empowering Sydney FC, an Australian football club. AFC Champions League doesn't have the quality of the UEFA counterpart, indeed, but Traktovenko managed to impress the local Sydney population about the self-resilience of the New South Wales port club, like how he did with Zenit when he was in charge. In 2020, the Sydney Morning Herald hailed Sydney FC as one of Australia's finest, noting how the club's form remains consistent with numerous national trophies. The club has also produced the finest players like Alex Gersbach and Trent Buhagiar, both played major roles in helping Australia to qualify for the first Olympic football competition since 2008 (2020 Olympics football in Japan) and posed to become Australia's potential international stars, recently. More, Traktovenko was quick to react when Sydney FC faced scandal, for one point back in 2014 when Sydney FC lost humiliatingly 0-3 to Adelaide Unitied, he fired entire of the staff and reshuffled the cabinet with veterans.

And let's not forget North Macedonia's Vardar, once owned by Russian billionaire Sergey Samsonenko before he left in 2020. Think Boban Nikolov, Daniel Avramovski, Marko Gjorgjievski, Darko Velkovski, Darko Micevski and Visar Musliu, some came or grew up in Vardar, and became an inseparable part of the national team. Some of these players did take part in the country's successful U-21 Euro 2017 qualification and appeared in the tournament in Poland, laying the ground for the future adequate Euro 2020 qualification. Like Abramovich and Traktovenko, Samsonenko developed a good reputation among the public for his outstanding passion for Vardar.

Ivan Savvidis also plays another big role in PAOK. Under his chair, PAOK finally ended its hunger in Greek Super League, winning the trophy in 2019, its third after the 1985 title, and the club regained prominence since. PAOK has also begun sending its players to various national football teams, notably Christos Tziolis, Lazaros Lamprou and Giannis Michailidis for Greece, Karol Swiderski for Poland, Amr Warda for Egypt and Ergys Kace for Albania.

Of course, they're just some examples. But their valuables provide a significant challenge. Sanctions against the Russian regime would not work if no one could cut off the financial assets given to the Russian government. Yet many ignored the involvement of Russian state in sports, especially football.

In Russia, football is politics. It's so apparent that made the Russian government paranoid about how to grab assets and represent Russia's soft power. It is even more amusing because unlike the sponsors like Gazprom, who only sponsor clubs by contract, owners could dictate and got the meetings with the highest level of football elites, ultimately pave ways to be endorsed by major leaders without naming themselves. Putin's allies are whitewashing Russia with it. It must be told that Roman Abramovich donated undisclosed money to the World Cup campaigning team of Russia that helped the country to win the 2018 World Cup bid - an absurd one to speak out. The whitewashing continues unabated - with the fans cheering thanked for good reputations. In fact, some football fans aligned to Russian owners have been even more fervently pro-Russian, for simple PAOK and Vardar fans. Chelsea fans are less likely to be on Putin's side, but their club's Russian connection neutralise the fans from siding with the West toward Russia.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was another major step forward in galvanizing Russian power. Russia hosted the tournament, and its successes, coinciding with the achievement in Russia-owned clubs, entitled Russia's position and making the view toward Russia more sympathetic.

What can be done to stop it?

Judging the political-sporting angle within Russia, the free world will need to deal with the fact that Russia does not view sports separately from politics. It must be realised, that, Russia wants to gain more influence, and football is not out of the list of Russia's manipulation.

In turn, the businesspeople in football from the West must re-align themselves with the local clubs, must consider themselves as an integral part of the world's football and must develop their passions matching with that of their Russian rivals. While at the same time, I would encourage further investigation of Russian tycoons taking power in football clubs since it is clear that Putin will use them for his goals due to their beneficial dictator-oligarchy alliance.

Yet, it'll be hard to imagine if the fans really want so. It's hard to even touch on Abramovich nowadays, leave alone Putin. So if the West does not develop a striking plan, Russia's soft power from football will be likely driving these people into falling to Russian misinformation, ultimately turning them into supporting Moscow's geopolitical plans.