Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov has given the Russian Football Union (RFS) around A?3.5m to pay salary arrears owed to national coach Fabio Capello.
Former England and Juventus manager Capello took over as Russia boss in July 2012 before his contract was extended through until after the 2018 World Cup, which Russia will hosting.
.
Fabio Capello is thought to be one of the highest paid coaches in world football and the this is not the first time RFS has been struggling to pay salary to its staff.
Usmanov has bailed out the RFU earlier as he has done again. It came to light in January that he had donated 300m roubles (A?2.9m) to the organisation just before the World Cup. Fifa also gave $350,000 to Russia in January as an extra bonus for its appearance in Brazil.
“As a member of the Russia 2018 Local Organising Committee Supervisory Board, Usmanov decided to give financial help to the RFS to the tune of 300 million roubles,” Usmanov’s press service confirmed.
“Ahead of the 2018 World Cup, the question regarding the head coach is of great importance for the national football team.”
Capello has come under increased criticism for the performance of the national team with his side having won just two of their last 10 competitive matches.One of those came against Liechtenstein and the other was awarded by default when a match against Montenegro was abandoned due to crowd trouble.
Russia lost their most recent European Qualifier 1-0 at home to Austria, with the defeat leaving them third in Group G with eight points after six matches.
That led to a group of supporters attempting to raise the A?15.5m required to buy him out of his contract, although Usmanov has now stepped in to help fund the shortfall faced by the RFS to pay his salary.
