"I hope we will find out the champion only in the last round"

The first round of the Russian Football Championship is about to end. So far, Zenit, Dynamo, CSKA, Spartak and Krasnodar are competing for gold. The first and fifth teams are separated by only four points. In an interview with Izvestia, Alexander Alaev, President of the RPL, commented on the struggle for leadership. He also spoke about possible alternatives to the UAE and Qatar as venues for the clubs' winter training camps, commented on FIFA's calendar innovations, assessed Russia's relationship with UEFA officials and commented on the accusations against Manchester City.

"So far, we see that the competition is at the highest level"

— Are you satisfied with the intrigue in the Russian championship?

— I am very glad that as many as five teams are now in the leading group and claiming the first place. That's what you always want to see. Even before the start of the season, I believed that the fight would be between more than two clubs. But it's one thing to believe in it, and another thing is when it really happens. This is the main result of the last part of the championship. I hope it will be like this until the end of the tournament, that, as in the previous three seasons, we will only find out the champion in the last round. But so far we see that the competition is at the highest level.

I am glad that there is a lot of intrigue at the bottom of the table. The same "Torch", although it is in last place, gives battle to any opponent in each round, and it cannot be written off at all.

— Some of our clubs have been holding winter training camps in the UAE and Qatar for many years, and this year some of them left just days before Iran began bombing and retaliating against targets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Are there any alternatives now in case large-scale fighting starts again in the Middle East?

— At the moment, clubs are planning training camps based on the standard schedules that were in previous years. Based on their plans, we decided to hold an international tournament in Abu Dhabi, our traditional Winter Cup. And we are working with six clubs regarding their participation in the competition.

Nevertheless, there should always be a plan B. We and, as far as I know, a number of clubs have traveled to a number of African countries and consider them as alternate venues for training camps. One of the options is Morocco. But for now, the Middle East remains the base scenario for those teams that are used to preparing there in the winter.

"The previous calendar format was more suitable for us"

— Are you very concerned that due to the peculiarities of the FIFA calendar this fall, the pause for the national team games forced the RPL to interrupt its championship for three weeks in September and early October, when the weather in most cities of the country was very warm?

— This is the first time we have all encountered this novelty. My initial feeling was that this was the right decision. That one long pause is better than two in September and October, as it was before. But now that we've gone through this three-week break, I have a mixed impression of this innovation. We in the league are conducting an analysis of the current situation.

I would not say definitively yet whether the decision to make such a calendar was right or not. But it has its drawbacks. There is too much pause — the club teams are slightly out of the loop. If you want to know my personal opinion, then at the moment it seems to me that the previous format, when there were three windows for national team matches in the fall (in September, October and November) was more suitable for us.

— As a member of the UEFA Stadium Safety committee, can you somehow convey this position to international structures?

— The decision on the calendar was made by FIFA, not UEFA. We've just been confronted with the fact. Can UEFA influence FIFA's decision in the future? Here we need to look at the question more broadly. First of all, we need to understand the position of our European colleagues from UEFA, European leagues and national federations. Understand how they took this long pause, what their reaction is.

I will soon go to UEFA for a meeting of the committee, which I am a member of. And I will have the opportunity to discuss with UEFA, as one of the regulators, their vision of this issue. Then there will be more information. Now it is not enough to talk about the possibility of changing something.

If UEFA has a consolidated position that it is necessary to return to the previous format, then FIFA may listen. But so far I can only speak for myself — my attitude towards these changes is ambiguous.

— Considering that you are flying to a meeting of the UEFA committee, I would like to know how you have been communicating with European officials lately, do you feel a change in their attitude towards the return of Russian teams to the international arena?

— I have a fairly constructive relationship with European football officials. And hopefully, we will soon see positive developments regarding Russian football. Now there is an obvious positive trend in other sports compared to the situation almost five years ago, when an unfair decision was made to suspend our athletes, now there has been a turn towards their return to the international arena, and the rhetoric of European officials is changing.

I hope it will affect our football soon. I don't know when this will lead to our return, but the doors are slowly opening, as evidenced by Russia's participation in the FIFA U-15 World Cup and festival, which is currently taking place in Azerbaijan. This is a step towards admission.

"We don't have any clubs with violations like Manchester City

— In recent weeks, there has been a lot of hype in Europe due to the decision of the English Premier League (Premier League) commission to find Manchester City guilty of 114 violations of financial rules, including rules on the reliability of financial statements and sponsorship income. Can you imagine a similar case in the RPL?

— We do not have any clubs that commit violations recorded by the Premier League in the case of Manchester City. I am monitoring this situation, as well as any other issue related to professional competitions involving top-level clubs.

It is clear that I do not have access to all the documents on this case to speak confidently on this topic. But what I have seen in the media with links to sources and in the comments of officials shows that very large financial violations have been recorded and the club is facing severe punishment. I hope the Premier League will sort everything out within itself and impose fair sanctions.

But we will certainly study this experience when there is a final decision after all the appeals against Manchester City.

— Does the RPL provide penalties for clubs for such offenses?

— I have to make a reservation again that I do not fully know what violations have been revealed at Manchester City football club, because, like you, I know everything from open sources, and not from the documents of the Premier League. But I can say that the RPL has a very detailed licensing system and a system of disciplinary sanctions for violations of these rules.