President of the RFU: all the leaders and the history of the organization

The Russian Football Union (RFU) is a sports organization engaged in promoting football in Russia. The president of the RFU for the current moment is Vitaly Leontyevich Mutko. The organization manages the conduct of sports competitions at the national level (the national championship, the cup and so on). Also, the president of the RFU manages the preparation of the Russian national team. The headquarters of the organization is in Moscow.

History

Before the advent of the RFU, there were several similar organizations. For the first time, similar management appeared in the Russian Empire, namely in 1912. The organization was named the "All-Russian Football Union" and was admitted to FIFA. In the days of the Soviet Union, the city leagues were in charge of the long period of administration. Only in 1934 appeared the Football Section of the USSR. Took it in FIFA after 12 years. Later, she got into the formed committee of UEFA, and then was renamed.

The Russian Football Union appeared in 1992. The RFU president was selected shortly, and in FIFA the organization managed to recover in the same year.

Presidents

The first president of the RFU is Vyacheslav Koloskov. On the post he rose immediately after the foundation of the organization. The president of the RFU before Mutko was in office until 2005. Repeatedly criticized by the public, which was dissatisfied with the work of the organization.

Vitaly Mutko led the RAF in April 2005. In the elections, 99 deputies took part, 96 votes were received by Mutko. At his post he stayed for 4.5 years. During this time, Russian football began to rise. The adult team surprised the fans by taking the 3rd place at the European Championships in 2008. In 2006, the youth team of up to 17 years was the strongest in the championship among European teams. Successful performances showed "Zenit" from St. Petersburg, which won the Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

After the successful 2008, the recession began, which led to the absence of the Russian team at the 2010 World Cup. In November 2009, immediately after losing in the qualifying group of Slovenia, the leadership sent Vitaly Mutko to resign. One of the reasons for Mutko's departure was Medvedev's decree, which at that time was the president of the country. According to him, officials holding public office can not fulfill the duties of presidents of sports organizations.

Simonyan, Fursenko and Tolstoy

Immediately after the resignation of Mutko, Nikita Simonyan rose to the post of RFU President . However, he did not hold office for long, in early February 2010 his place was taken by Sergei Fursenko. It was he who transferred the Russian Championship to the "autumn-spring" scheme, which is used in European leagues. A similar system is used today. At EURO 2012 the national team could not leave the group, Fursenko took the blame. Soon he resigned.

In the summer of 2012, the acting president of the RFU again becomes Simonyan Nikita. However, on post he stayed until September of the same year and was replaced by Nikolai Tolstykh. At the end of May 2015, he was forced to resign. The majority voted for his resignation.

Mutko

In early September 2015, Vitaly Mutko returned to the post. One of the reasons for choosing was non-alternative. The term of office was one year. During this period, there has been no serious growth in the popularity of football in the country. In the fall of 2016, Mutko was re-elected president of the Russian Football Federation. This choice caused dissatisfaction with the fans, which caused the unsatisfactory performance of the national team at the European Championships in France. In addition, the RFU was involved in cases of doping by Russian athletes. Repeatedly his name fell into the reports of the World Anti-Doping Agency. They said that Mutko knew about the "dirty" athletes and covered them in every possible way. Also in the opinion of "VADA" Vitaly was aware of the substitution of doping tests.