Sports protectionism in Russia
It would seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hostility to certain forms of foreign investment extends to…. soccer. RIA Novosti explains: The Russian president said Wednesday he was concerned over the large number of foreign nationals playing for Russia’s soccer clubs. Vladimir Putin, speaking at his annual televised question-and-answer session, said: “There are too many ...
It would seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin's hostility to certain forms of foreign investment extends to.... soccer. RIA Novosti explains: The Russian president said Wednesday he was concerned over the large number of foreign nationals playing for Russia's soccer clubs. Vladimir Putin, speaking at his annual televised question-and-answer session, said: "There are too many of them. We need to restrict their number, because when it comes to composing the national team, we do not have enough players." Russian national soccer has achieved little success in recent years, in spite of reforms. The national team performed poorly at Euro-2004 in Portugal, and failed to qualify for this summer's World Cup in Germany. Earlier the President of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, said that the clubs in the Russian Premier League would not be allowed more than five foreign players by 2010, compared to the current limit of eight per club. Mutko also said that as of next year, clubs will have to pay $30,000 to the union for each foreign player.... Soccer is not the only sport in Russia that has a large number of foreign players. Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, highlighted the problem in December last year, saying that foreign nationals playing for Russian teams take $250 million in salary and compensation out of the country annually. He said the excessive number of foreigners in Russian teams is hindering the development of sports in the country, and that the issue should be primarily addressed to regions and teams that pay large sums to foreign players, rather than financing their sports infrastructures.Now it should be noted that MajorLeague Soccer also has caps on the number of foreign players allowed per team -- though those rules were liberalized recently. As a general principle, however, this kind of policy strikes me as absurd. Imagine, for a second, imposing caps on the number of Dominican baseball players allowed into Major League Baseball, for example. The best way to have quality American ballplayers is to have them face the toughest competition imaginable. UPDATE: here's a report to back up this assertion. Question to readers: is there an infant industry logic to protectionism in sports?
It would seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hostility to certain forms of foreign investment extends to…. soccer. RIA Novosti explains:
The Russian president said Wednesday he was concerned over the large number of foreign nationals playing for Russia’s soccer clubs. Vladimir Putin, speaking at his annual televised question-and-answer session, said: “There are too many of them. We need to restrict their number, because when it comes to composing the national team, we do not have enough players.” Russian national soccer has achieved little success in recent years, in spite of reforms. The national team performed poorly at Euro-2004 in Portugal, and failed to qualify for this summer’s World Cup in Germany. Earlier the President of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, said that the clubs in the Russian Premier League would not be allowed more than five foreign players by 2010, compared to the current limit of eight per club. Mutko also said that as of next year, clubs will have to pay $30,000 to the union for each foreign player…. Soccer is not the only sport in Russia that has a large number of foreign players. Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, highlighted the problem in December last year, saying that foreign nationals playing for Russian teams take $250 million in salary and compensation out of the country annually. He said the excessive number of foreigners in Russian teams is hindering the development of sports in the country, and that the issue should be primarily addressed to regions and teams that pay large sums to foreign players, rather than financing their sports infrastructures.
Now it should be noted that MajorLeague Soccer also has caps on the number of foreign players allowed per team — though those rules were liberalized recently. As a general principle, however, this kind of policy strikes me as absurd. Imagine, for a second, imposing caps on the number of Dominican baseball players allowed into Major League Baseball, for example. The best way to have quality American ballplayers is to have them face the toughest competition imaginable. UPDATE: here’s a report to back up this assertion. Question to readers: is there an infant industry logic to protectionism in sports?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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