A small correction: "Zenith" wasn't the last remaining Russian club in the Europa League, Spartak Moscow was. They were scheduled to play in the Round of 16 but were eventually expelled due to UEFA sanctions.
He recently did a video answering viewers questions and requests about different stories anywhere in World. He takes those ideas, along with whatever he’s working on, and every time he drops new video, it’s always so well researched and interesting to watch. He is one of best channels on TH-cam
I became fascinated with Russian football a few years ago, when I heard about the furthest distance for a domestic league game (I think it was Vladivostok vs Baltika Kaliningrad, at that point - one of the teams is nearer Korea than Moscow)
If I were a Billionaire, I'd buy a Vladivostok club and turn them into a Leipzig style superclub just to get them into the Champions League so that Man City or whoever would have to fly halfway around the world
I don't often ask for videos, but I would like to see one on the dark side of the French Football Federation. While on the outside, French Football seems fine, as the country has reached back to back World Cup finals and won one of them, there is a lot of terrible things going on behind the curtains. Really, if the national team is succeeding, it's not because of them.
Aren't they also ridiculously corrupt? Like, wasn't it France who gave the decisive vote for Qatar as World Cup hosts after Sarkozy coerced Platini? And wtf was up with France saying they were going to wear the OneLove armband for weeks until Noël le Gaët suddenly, five days before the tournament, changed his mind? Shady stuff. I'm not French, and the fact that I even know who Noël le Gaët is, is not a good sign.
"In a bromance that was so extreme that it probably could have gotten both arrested in Russia" I will definitely borrow this line, I can't stop laughing, you made my day.
@@hydrolifetech7911 i have lived russia for 2 years and studied politics on my own time. putin is definitely not a dictator with current circumstances whether you like it or not. though he is currently quite rightfully hated both in and out of russia and has hopes of becoming one, it is not reality as of now. read the definition of dictator before using the word on any leader that you don't like.
Do a video on Polish club Widzew Lodz. They were in the Polish Premier League, got banned and dumped in division 5 where the fans took over and then 6 years later are back in the top division and are currently in 3rd place.
Our ekstraklasa is quite shit but I can’t lie it’s very competitive and there has been some nice stories like this one. I also like the rise of Raków as they were in III liga few years back but are now top ballers
Very good detail of the video. I am from Russia and have been following the downfall of Russian football for a while. You are right in saying the football is in decay - even before the war, the financing of the football clubs reduced drastically. This led to the domination of the clubs backed by the natural resource companies(Zenit, Spartak) with just a few exceptions(Krasnodar, or Rostov who managed to do well with almost zero financing) The football in the regions is in sad state. There are no schools outside the big cities, and even in those parents have to pay bribes to get their kid accepted. Hence a lot of diamonds just rot in the regional leagues or quit football all together(I am from Far East, and it is especially sad in there) War just amplified the decay. Losing the majority of good players and fan ID(basically, now to enter the stadium you need to go through bureaucratic hell - there are huge protests among the fans and a lot of stadiums are empty) - and the clubs, already not profiting, were affected even more as the economic situation deteriorates. I expect the downfall to the level of belarussian league and possible death of the professional football clubs - however, in the context of the war, it's not as important. Many things need to be fixed, but until the war is over, I don[t care about the football. Hopefully as the regime falls the whole structure of sport is rethought and redesigned to be less result-focused and more helping people reach their potential. Every Olympics, world cup regarded almost as a war. Thns needs to stop. In sports like figure skating people are scarred for life at the age of 15 because of over-training for medals. We need to be more humane.
Amazing hearing from someone that's actually living the reality of the video For whatever reason, I once used to be heavily into FIFA career in my youth and (for whatever reason) I always used to start all my early career sessions in the Russian league I still have some posters of Rostov from those days (I tore up the League with Adebayor and Etoo on separate occasions) It is sad that at the moment, this is yet another facet of Russia outside of her borders that has been tarnished beyond any hope of repair
@@kenbee1957 it's interesting to hear that. Hard to imagine RPL being interesting for anyone outside Russia :D I am not living there right now but I grew up watching Russian football. So naturally I keep following it. Big money hurt football, especially if they come suddenly. There's also a limit of foreign players which makes it harder to be a "farm" league to then re-sell the players to Europe. Only a few made it out (Now Golovin and Miranchuk), and those are exceptions who were lucky to be able to be spotted by big clubs early enough.
As a non Russian I have always wondered what the viewpoint was/is in the east of Russia on general issues ( the "special operation" being a good example). I know the makeup of the people who weren't shipped over in the soviet era is very different and I can only assume that creates differences of opinion no matter how quiet they are. Stay safe.
@@phightinphil25 I know it's kinda off topic but I answer anyway. The further to the east you go, the less people care about the politics and what's going on in the world. My mom says life goes on as usual, as if nothing happened. Being so remote sure helps to distance themselves from all the bad happening further west
Wouldn't be the most recent example be Yugoslavia being banned because of their civil war in 1992? But let's make no mistake: Invading another country or being at war was not the reason, why Russia was banned. The problem was, that they invaded a European Country, which would have been such a big debate, that it could not have been ignored and instead dominated the discussion during the World Cup. I would even bet, that Infantio rejoiced, when Wales beat Ukraine, and he wouldn't have to worry about the narrative arriving at the World Cup.
I was proud of Wales beating Ukraine for a similar reason. I was getting sick of football commentators saying Ukraine were entitled to a spot at the world cup whether they qualified or not.
Let's be real, all the nations that condemned RuZZia at UN resolution would have not participated in FIFA's World Cup 2022 if RuZZia was allowed to participate and that was like 99% of the qualified teams.
@@maciejbala477 Don't worry, we have no shortage of these kind of people here in Switzerland. The reason they end up in sports organisations is because there is not a lot of power to grab in pur politics.
You should make a video about Indonesian football. Our country has plagued by numerous problems. It started when FIFA decided to ban the Indonesian football back in 2015 after a series of internal conflicts between the football federation (PSSI) and the government. That event overshadows the country's preparations for the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang, although FIFA decided to lift the ban a year later. Then, after 2018 Asian Games was successfully held, Indonesia was controversially awarded as 2021 U-20 World Cup, which was postponed later because of pandemic. After the football resumed with the presence of spectators in 2022, things got worse as the football hooliganism happened in Kanjuruhan, where hundreds were killed during the league match. The whole Indonesian football was suspended and there were numerous threats to ban the country from playing in international stages just like Russia did, which means no U-20 World Cup and Asian Cup this year. I hope football hooliganism in Indonesia was a main topic for that video.
Indonesia is not Russia. Indonesia has a hooligan problem, not warring problem. If Indonesia can rout out hooliganism, then Indonesia will be fine. Russia, on the other hand, has a war problem.
@@luishernandezblonde The Kanjuruhan disaster reminds us of Heysel and Hillsborough. The problem is that while most countries decided to highly renovated football stadiums after Heysel and Hillsborough by turning them into all seater, the football stadiums of Indonesia didn't have all seater or at least didn't meet the security requirements to hold such a game with high risk of hooliganism (the most notorious one was Persija vs Persib, an Indonesian equivalent of El Clasico). Stadiums such as Kanjuruhan are mediocre in terms of capacity and the facilities. As a result, people didn't know about the dangerous thing that cost their lives, to which police officers were blamed for the disaster that killed 135 peoples (all were Arema fans) by firing a tear gas on the stand, causing a mass panic. On the other hand, Russia should arrest Putin and those who are pro Russia if the country didn't want a war, but this proved insufficient because they know that doing it will led to further crisis that surely affected the entire world. Because of this, Russia are excluded from international stages.
As a journalism student, I absolutely love your content, full of depth, analysis and research. You are such an example, thank you for everything, Alphie! Greetings from A Coruña, Spain! By the way, maybe its time to speak again about my beloved Deportivo, as things have changed since your amazing video about them. We have recently got our former star Lucas Pérez back!
Good luck for the rest of this season, by the way! Considering Perez's caliber, and how much he's investing in the team from an emotional point of view, I hope he will help drive the team back where they deserve to be. 😄
@@Sistema566 hey bro not everyone of us are genocidal. I'm a pacifist and I'm not supporting the war. Still let's look at the reality. NATO really push us till this catastrophe tho. Again I'm not trying to defend, and I did not think Putin has enough sanity to give decision for now. But you should see the situation in both POVs, ight mate?
@@tkachevtimur9777 NATO haven’t pushed anyone into a corner. NATO is a purely defence organisation Russia had every chance to normalise relationship with West, in fact EU was preparing to create visa free regime with Russia. They were doing very well until 2013, but after what happened at crimea, Russia has gone into an ever increasing isolation and self paranoia of the world
@@Sistema566 I saw y'all latest cmt. I don't think it's a good idea to say stuffs in a controversial way. As I said, pls see the situation in all POVs. NATO was again trying to invite the frontier country between 'em and Russia, and it's unfair. It's like a trigger ya know. So I don't like the act of Putin but I do not advocate what NATO had done. I'm trying to be friendly mate, but if y'all still not agree with me, then pls remember that all bread is not baked in the same oven. There are still Russian against the war, and I'm one of 'em.
They resumed the league, or began new season in August. The stadiums not damaged from Russia invasion are where games are played. Obviously without any fans, and strong military presence and air raid sirens. Having thousands of fans in one stadium would become huge target, even though Russia says they don’t target civilians🙄🤥🤥! The European home matches were played in Warsaw, Poland. I think 1 team is still in Europa or Europa conference league(need to double check that). Most if not all foreign players left clubs before or as soon as Russia began invasion almost a year ago last February. But the fact league is actually being played is a symbol of strength of Ukraine 🇺🇦 Just as they have shown the world by resistance & fighting against Russia military. National Team lost in final playoff game to Wales for spot in World Cup. Would have been an amazing site to see them in Qatar World Cup!! Not to mention they were pretty good team, and would have made Group B much tougher then Wales did.
great video alfie. i didn’t know about the lukoil chairman situation. definitely something to look into. thanks for the consistent football and geopolitics as usual
It must be a huge strain for many players and their families, I am particulalrly thinking of the likes of Miranchuk and Malinovskiy who were best mates at Atalanta, though both have since left.
@@Sistema566 Weird that, considering all the statements they have given together and all the footage out there. I also like Atalanta so have seen a lot on them.
@@rechnin6680 Look if someone comes to your home rapes your wife when your children is watching, then kills wife and kids then burns house and states that now it's his territory and your best friend saids that he thinks that criminal is right in this situation not victim who's is your brother do ever wanna do any stuff with this person?
@@Sistema566 Just one simple question, if I may? What doed that have to do with what we are talking about here? I simply pointed out that two players on opposite side of a sensless war happen to be mates, surely that has to be a good thing? And I pointed out how difficult that must be for both of them. What you just said had nothing to do with this.
@@rechnin6680 I just simply don't think that Ukrainian guy cries about not being friends with russian guy anymore and probably after it will be counted as genocide in some years Ukrainians never ever even gonna have in mind about calling russian (who was not protesting against war) a friend. 🇺🇦
@@Sistema566 But that just proves you have missed the point as they are both still friends, but, you seemed to know better. What you have said has nothing to do with what the point was.
Shows how time flies so quickly, I absolutely loved the 2018 world cup, for me it was one of the best world cups ever, and as an England fan I have many fond memories of that tournament, and Russia was praised for its excellent hosting of the event, contrast that to now
The 2018 World Cup had some of the best football in the competition's history, but it was dominated by European teams which made it feel less like a World Cup, and it lacked a bit of ultimate drama. In my opinion.
By 2018 r*ssia has already invaded: Chechnya (twice), Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine (last two through proxies), involved itself in wars in Syria and Central African Republic, mostly causing destruction and civilian casualties and pretty much orchestrated Azerbaijan-Armenia war. That's not even talking about inner repressions and so on. That wc 2018 was comparable to if not worse than qatar 2022.
I'm a CSKA fan and although we are still in some turbulence, we are still continuing to pump out talented youngsters. Russia is a country that loves football and has always produced young talents. Hopefully when the war and everything is over, it can get back to playing good.
Wow,this video had so many jewels that were dropped,Alfie goes all in when it comes to his research on his topics.Great job and we will continue to learn.
As an an American I always can remember have some weird fascination with the Russian premier league. I remember in old FIFA games picking a Russian club to try to build up as the super club of the East (usually it would be zenit or Spartak). For me this seems from an American point of view this seems like a unique period that could make or break the league. If the invasion drags out for a long time it could mean the complete downfall of the league as being completely shut out of Europe will kill off the talent pool available to them. If they were to say move to Asia & the AFC although might be able to resume normal operations like nothing is happening it could hamper them long term to not have face European competition & settle for clubs in Saudi Arabia as continental rivals (though from an Asia perspective adding Russia would be a huge financial & competitive addition to the confederation).
I think bonuses received from UEFA competitions are also higher than that of AFC, too. Here in Vietnam, there are always claims that several clubs just blatantly tank (lose on purpose) to avoid finishing the season playing at the AFC Cup (travel expenses probably being higher than the bonuses).
Used to be a yearly career mode for me building a Russian club to become a giant of football sometimes I even put shaktar in the Russian league and played career mode with them
Great content by Alfie and great discussion culture by the community.I really enjoy this channel for its rich information and openness to learn and exchange knowledge about football!
For the record, since this video was made, Russia has dropped even further down the UEFA coefficients to 23rd, behind Cyprus, an already tiny country that lost half its territory in the 70s.
And they will continue to drop in the rankings as friendlies against their former colonies will not carry many points, and as Alfie pointed out, they're not even winning all of those!
Russia are now 29th in UEFA coefficients, below the likes of Bulgaria, Romania, and Azerbaijan, only two spots above Moldova, and only one spot above Slovenia. I can even see them dropping below the likes of Kosovo, the Republic of Ireland, and even Iceland in the future.
The football associations of Poland, Czech Republic etc vowing to boycott matches against Russia and forcing FIFA and UEFA’s hand just shows how weak they really are, and that if countries clubbed together and stood firm over the LGBT armband, or even boycotted Qatar 2022 en masse, FIFA would have had no choice but to back down
The problem is that, not to be queerphobic, LGBT issues are not as universally supported as Russia's invasion. If the players of those respective nations that you mentioned stood up, they would received a divisive reaction in their countries. The political momentum isn't there, just like this boycotting Russia action, which should really started at 2014 in the 1st invasion of Ukraine, only gaining momentum after the 2nd invasion.
@@MrGilang100 maybe in Poland, yes, it is very divided on the topic. But I believe in England, France or Germany there's much less division on LGBT and the world cups in arabic dictatorships.
People are the ones who make the leaders act that way. If r*ssians deserved any better, p*tin would have already been in jail or in grave. Yet the majority of them either denies any wrongs of him and blames it on Ukraine/NATO/USA/n*zis/aliens/reptiloids/pandemic/zionist world government etc. or just denies their own responsibility, because it's not them who supported all the previous invasions (sometiems including this one), celebrated the annexation of Crimea and just ate and translated their chauvinistic propaganda even hiter and goebbels could've used as a reference, if history was the other way around. So the blame is firstly on the society itself.
I would guess some of the teams might have problems playing Russia. Japan, Australia and South Korea, whose governments align more with US hegemony, might be averse to playing matches against Russia, and I'm not sure how teams like Saudi and UAE might react given their governments condemned the Russian "special military operation" in the UN resolution. If I was in AFC I'd be minded to tell Russia to sort themselves out first before applying.
@@exsandgrounder The general trend in Asia is very unlikely for Russia to become an AFC member. Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have openly opposed Russia. Saudi Arabia and UAE care nothing about it, but they will get rage if Russia joins, they fear Russia will steal a place in World Cup. Moreover, FIFA banned Russia, mean Russia cannot switch without FIFA approval.
Maybe a video on how football has been affected in Ukraine (other than the obvious destruction) due to the invasion. Like the economic impacts to the UAF and clubs throughout Ukraine and maybe a summary on how the Ukrainian Premier League has resumed. Also the breakaway Crimean League
@@todplatinum5789 you can't simply take the responsibility off of the russian people who overwhelmingly support their country's actions and are extremely hostile towards not just Ukraine but also any other nation that refuses to call themselves "russian"
Although the ban is mostly fair I do feel bad for the russian playersnot allowed to play for the national team or really leave the country - Like Zakharyan to Chelsea forcing Zakharyan to get armenian citizenship or Golovin and Monaco not allowing him to participate in the russian national teams like Miranchuk
Me too wish Putin didn’t do that he’s causing his people to suffer and Ukraine and people all over the world who feel bad for both countries if you got a solid soul
Abroad players are still allowed to participate in national teams but tha federation do not recall them because of transporting problems and prohibition of the most Europe-Russia flights
Well Zakharyan is of Armenian descent so it's not like he was forced to take a random country's nationality, he always had the option to play for them.
Have you ever considered doing a general journalism channel as a side project? Your research is always fantastic, and much better than the majority of typical coverage
A small correction: There's currently 118 foreign registered players in the Russian Premier League. I am sure some will leave by the end of February. The number doesn't seem to dwindle but to remain around 110, which is 20% of all players.
They can get promoted back to RPL. Only depends if their star player dont leave since they too good for second division (Edit) - Forgot to mention they have the best full backs pairing rn. They might need to improved some areas.
@@looocooo1470 thanks for the info! I’ve seen Lisakovich and Fameyeh playing well but it’s harder to follow the team now they’re out of the rpl. Fingers crossed for the promotion!
@@joelvenson yes, the striker are strong theirs nothing to worry rn. Also true watching FNL 1 is hard to watch in other countries. Rubin has four priorities but they only done two. 1. Sign a young midfielder (done). They sign Rakhmonaliev for free and was one of the few standouts at his club. Definetly has potential to be a good player 2. Sign a centerback. Player Griatsaenko and Teslenko are not RPL quality. They kinda mediocre at times. This is their weakest area rn. 3. Keep Ilya Samoshnikov. Losing this player will affect the team alot. Dzagoev is not the same player we saw at CSKA. Samoshnikov is crucial for the promotion. 4. Get a versatile player (done). Lomovitskiy had returned at Rubin having poor performance at Khimki. Main position is winger and also be fullback. (Edit) - Rn there competition Rubin will get promoted if they manage to get players that will help the team to become stronger. Rn is them in the right track, Slutsky is gone and it was a main issue.
@@looocooo1470 I’ll have to look out for Rakhmonaliev! Hopefully they’ll be able to fix the weaker positions ready for a return to the rpl. Based upon his performances I’m sure they’ll do anything to hold onto Lisakovich too
Hey Alfie, I would love to see you do a video on Otelul Galati, the club from Romania which qualified for the champions league in 2012/13 and that after 4 years went bankrupt due to mismanagement. It's a crazy story and I'd like to see your take on it!
Otelul were one of numerous teams that went bust in Romania at that time. I think Unirea Urziceni and Timişaora who were the top 2 teams in 2009 also went bust not long after
Could you do a video on why South African football hasn’t grown since the 2010 World Cup? Considering it is considered as one, if not the best, World Cup in history.
as a russian football fan who support 1 russian team and 1 english team, I though this video was very good, also I just wanted to say, that maybe in the english language its different, but Usually Russians dont call it "zenith" at least me and people around me dont, we call it zenit usually. But yeah, its been pretty boring seeing us winning the league over and over again, id love to see lokomotiv beat us or cska, and it feels wierd saying that, but id rather have us finish 2nd or 3rd in one of the best seasons ever, than just winning the league title a thousand times
I guess it's hard for Alfie to not say "zenith" because it's the same word, English people usually also say "Athletico" Madrid, guess it's stronger than them ahaha
There's a topic on Elche that I reckon if they keep playing this poorly will likely be relevant. As in we are witnessing a team that is possibly a rival to Derby County 07-08 in terribleness and chaos with being fined by the government in Madrid millions for receiving illegal tax benefits from the provincial government over other clubs, allowing more than 2 goals a game, and hasn't won a game since May of last year in La Liga despite finishing 13th last season. Oh yeah, Elche also doesn't score goals either which ranks them dead last with teams like Espanyol in 19th being 10 points ahead of them.
@@LechuKawaii Given the amount of talent in Argentina and how rapidly they can naturalize to a dual national in Spain, it's not the worst recruitment philosophy. The problem is probably their salary constraints put them competing directly with Boca Juniors and River Plate with the only edge being "we play in La Liga" as a lower table team.
A video about the rise of the Romanian top division in the mid 2000s and then its fall would be nice. From 20 something in the UEFA rankings to 5th or 6th in Europe in about 3 years.
Would love to see some more videos on football in the USA, the Club World Cup would be a great topic considering that 2023 sees the first MLS team in the competition
I always thought Russia had the potential to become a major European football power similar to Portugal or the Netherlands given its large population, the popularity of football, and the fact that it has the privilege of competing in UEFA.
I don't think actually because of the rather poor state of junior football, small TV contract with low given interest as international broadcast product and overly extended footballers' salaries
DAY 81: Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the life, career, controversies and tragedy of Justin Fashanu. It'd be your best video yet and it's a criminally underheard story ❤️
Thanks for your unrivalled coverage of stories that matter. You're right that Russia's actions in February 2022 was an escalation of hostilities, since they invaded in 2014 and have never left. Slava Ukraini 💛💙
@@tshwarelomalatsi5374 sanctions are designed to make people's lives harder but they are nothing compared to having your homes, schools and hospitals bombed.
Russian football had reached the lowest point in last 20 years, so this ban will severely impact it, probably to the point that Russia gets eliminated as a valuable football nation, like you see, now Russian league is on 23rd place in UEFA rating, this is just impossible to recover to anywgere near previoys level
In the fifa rankings before the war Russia were ranked 35th in the world Which proves that Russia were heading In a good direction football vise But now it's not the case anymore I think after the war Russia will dramatically fall as a footballing nation because of all the sanctions and now they are banned and until the war ends Russia will stay banned for a loooong time Both the Russians and the Ukranians are victims of putin's regime Putin's actions have ruined Russia And by the time he leaves Russia will be in a complete mess in everything
@@aureuse7174 Thanks Man ! Just looked and they are 37th in FIFA rankings. I suppose this shouldnt be a surprise. Just thought banning them meant from everything, not just the matches and tournaments. And really a shame that some of those players are good enough to play around Europe/world, but can't leave to do so. At least Ukraine is ranked higher at 26th! Hopefully a small sense of pride for the people in Ukraine ! Obviously much more important things on their mind !!
I wonder if one day we will see a “What’s going on at Santos FC” video here in the future, given the passing of Pele recently and the history (contemporary or otherwise) of the club. Given how Alfie has clearly set himself apart from other football “video essayists” let’s say.
Football can play a major part in bringing Putin down. Russians love their football, so when World Cups come and go, and they're not involved, they'll begin to get restless and want out of Ukraine.
I feel for people of BOTH countries caught in this mess outside of their own doing. Some just wanted to play Football, some just wanted to support their Football teams. Perhaps the only games these football fans can go to are the games against teams in likeminded countries such as Russian Teams playing against Teams from DPRK and PRC.
Alfie, great content as usual. Great really is an underwhelming word to describe the research and quality of your content. Might I suggest rebranding your channel name, since list based 7 videos are not your only content anymore, and we all enjoy your short audio documentary pieces like this one a lot too. I don’t think restricting your brand to “top7” is fair. Keep up the great work
1:59 football is not russia's favourite sport basically any martial art is more popular and any kid who had a russian father knows that you need to do some sport at a young age and wrestling and boxing are far more popular in terms of athletes than football.
Alfie, just heard a sound clip of your channel on the Today, Explained Podcast by Vox Media. Roger Bennet was interviewed about the World Cup and you were sampled chatting about England. Just wanted to let you know if you didn’t already mate.
Probably just like what Alfie already said in the video, they rather just use some impoverished twenty-somethings from the Kaukasus or another poor (non white orthodox Christian Russian) region for that purpose instead. Racism packed into patriottism themed gift paper, you got to love it.
@@jdjphotographynl Or they use people who are/were actively trying to leave. Not the dissidents (for now) but those who were trying to leave before the borders closed and would do so again if given the chance, but are not actively anti Putin.
Spartak Moscow still has big players for Russian league. Moses, Keita Balde, Tavares from benfica coming any day. Spartak was superb in EL last season beating Napoli twice
I feel bad for the Russian footballers not being to able to compete in international and UEFA competitions just because the government went mad and are being punished for a war they probably don't even support
70% of the Russian population supports the Ruzi Putler regime. Don’t be so ignorant and do some research. You probably make these kind of remarks alot tho…
Can you do a video on the fall of Charlton athletic I remember them being in the premier league at one point Now find themselves mid table in league 1 and there is nothing I can find on TH-cam that gives any indication on what happened
If Russia wants to join AFC then they will be welcomed Only 6 out of 47 members would oppose those being Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and out of those 6 only Australia is on the AFC Executive Commitee Privately UEFA don't want Russia to leave as they want Russian Sponsorship Money once the War/Special Military Operation is over
I doubt they will enter the AFC. Many members like you said would be opposed and FIFA wouldn’t be 100% OK with it either. Plus way more members might be opposed than the ones you said. Why would they let a stronger than average Asian team in there and sarifice their own spot at Fifa world cup or other tournaments. Looking at Iran, Saudi or even China or Uzbekistan.
I’m highly against sanctions to the Russian football/soccer teams it is pointless what did the players have to do with the war. They were just bystanders living in the country
Donetsk plays its games in Poland because of Russia. The Ban will stand. When they end the barbaric war and Ukrainian sides can host games in peaceful conditions then they can come back and be accepted into the footballing community.
It's a shame USA never got the Russia treatment with what they did in Vietnam, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Yeman, Syria and the list could go on. Russia seems a saint compared to USA
Russia are amazing at Ice Hockey. So many Russians absolutely dominate the NHL. They never got banned from playing because the sport would be kneecapped if they weren't allowed to play. They have some of the highest paid contracts in the league too.
And then you have Dominik Hasek, who still wants Russian players to be banned, even though two of them (Sergey Bobrovsky and Ivan Barbashev (Florida and Vegas)) made the Stanley Cup Final. Ukrainian users even went so far as to offer to give the Stanley Cup to the team without Russian Players. ALMOST EVERY NHL TEAM HAS AT LEAST ONE RUSSIAN PLAYER. The only ones who do not are Chicago and Seattle.
There's more to add as well. Russia is also very good at Tennis, on both Men's and Women's fronts - exclusion from any international competitions was fine, it's not like tennis is much of a team sport. They still compete (alongside Belarus), but they don'r have the flag (for obvious reasons). However, Ukraine has issues with even that, and, because of the whole conflict, don't shake hands with Russian and Belarussian players. And, just recently, when #2 Arina Sabalenka beat Marta Kostyuk in the 1st round of the French Open, the whole "no handshaking after a Ukraine v (Belo-)Russia match" happened... and the French were siding with Arina, even though she didn't realise it.
Morons in the West need to Understand that there is more to the Planet then the West and that most people outside of the West don't support Ukraine because they rightfully see Ukraine as a Proxy war between Russia and US/NATO with Ukraine being used as NATOS Canon Fodder
I read somewhere that the Russian FA is looking at possibly joining the Asian football Federation. It obviously depends on whether they allow them in as it could cause them issues.
I agree because after Crimea was annexed by Russia, Putin insisted to launch a full scale invasion against all Ukrainian cities. If they succeeded in liberating Kyiv, the Russians might start a World War III by reforming the new Soviet Union. This new Soviet might be unstoppable like Nazi Germany. Nonetheless, Ukraine decided to resist Putin's propaganda until the Russians finally invaded Ukraine 8 years later. Additionally, Russia should not have hosted the 2018 World Cup because there were big problems that crippled the whole nation. Most importantly, they were banned by WADA after a big doping scandals for non-football athletes. The strange thing is that the national flag was shown normally during the 2018 World Cup, despite IOC urges to show a neutral flag (usually, the IOC symbols) for major sporting events.
This is very interesting to notice as well. Why was the Russian League improving so much? There was a lot of investment, and most of these teams are owned by the local Oligarchs. If anything, this almost mirrors when Italy hosted the World Cup and Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics. Behind closed doors, the Russian economy had improved to the point where they were actually starting to invest in Secondary Assets like Football Clubs. This kind of explains why the Sanctions on Russia have mostly been just an annoyance than actually crippling them. Russia was preparing to withstand Economic Sanctions probably since even before they took Crimea. They wanted to force Foreign Investment, specially of Europe. Russia knows very well that Greed is a great tool. They have used it themselves, just look at all those Oligarchs. The Russian's know that just like their Oligarchs the Political and Financial Elite of Europe and the USA is just as corrupt. So while on paper Russia is sanctioned, behind close doors there are deals and trades going on, everyone knows.
I feel extremely so sorry for the Russian football and the war must stop once and for all to save the innocents who live in both Russia and Ukraine and live their respective lives happily and peacefully daily and ever in this world and other and other planets,good friends!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
"the only recent instance... was apartheid South Africa" yes, the only successful suspension. What many don't remember was that FIFA was slated to vote on banning Israel in May of 2015. These proceedings were disrupted by a sudden wave of arrests relating to corruption within FIFA. excepts from a 2015 Guardian article titled "Palestinians withdraw call to suspend Israel from Fifa" "The threat to suspend Israel had been overshadowed in any case by the explosive allegations of corruption within the world football body as the Zurich congress opened." Commenting on the outcome, Netanyahu said: “Our international effort has proven itself and led to the failure of the Palestinian Authority attempt to oust us from Fifa.”
Day 1736382836383837: Stop asking him to make videos just for you, this ain't a restaurant. You're taking out the mysterious aspect of what video he drops next
an interesting video as almost always but why do you not give the reason why Shaktar Donetsk haven't been able to play their home matches in their own city for eight years? the answer to that question is indeed the clue to it all, but that would perhaps have required more than three days research, I gather
The reason Russian teams travelling by train isn't military use, it's safety. Russian airline companies can't get parts, cannibalizing some planes to keep others running while many planes haven't been serviced or flown in months. Crashes are inevitable. If a Russian train crashes, they'll probably survive.
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A small correction: "Zenith" wasn't the last remaining Russian club in the Europa League, Spartak Moscow was. They were scheduled to play in the Round of 16 but were eventually expelled due to UEFA sanctions.
It's actually "Zenit" mate, wrong spelling but tks for the attention
@@tkachevtimur9777 think he’s trolling how alfie pronounce
@@mou6854 lol true 🤣🤣🤣
I think he meant the last russian club to play in a uefa competition.
What‘s kinda sad is that Spartak had a very impressive Europa League run.They got 1st place in a group with Napoli,Leicester & Legia.
How you come up with these topics is nothing short of brilliant. Didn't know I needed this documentary until now. Keep up the good work.
Where do you get your ideas?
He sadly works for a channel check out his own TH-cam!
He recently did a video answering viewers questions and requests about different stories anywhere in World. He takes those ideas, along with whatever he’s working on, and every time he drops new video, it’s always so well researched and interesting to watch. He is one of best channels on TH-cam
Lies again? Singapore American Know Malay
I became fascinated with Russian football a few years ago, when I heard about the furthest distance for a domestic league game (I think it was Vladivostok vs Baltika Kaliningrad, at that point - one of the teams is nearer Korea than Moscow)
If I were a Billionaire, I'd buy a Vladivostok club and turn them into a Leipzig style superclub just to get them into the Champions League so that Man City or whoever would have to fly halfway around the world
@@iancypes5911 "we do a little trolling"
@@iancypes5911 I've done exactly that with the editor on Football Manager 😅
@@iancypes5911 that’s class
I guess me asking for a video that involves FK Luch Vladivostok months ago finally paid off in some way.
I don't often ask for videos, but I would like to see one on the dark side of the French Football Federation. While on the outside, French Football seems fine, as the country has reached back to back World Cup finals and won one of them, there is a lot of terrible things going on behind the curtains. Really, if the national team is succeeding, it's not because of them.
What are the terrible things going on? Could you name a few for us?
@@dogampadu8806 Pedophilia and rape are the biggest things that I have in mind
@@lucaslonchampt613 oh yeah, 2 players come to mind.
@@dogampadu8806 I'm not just taking about players. I'm taking about the executives that run the fed
Aren't they also ridiculously corrupt? Like, wasn't it France who gave the decisive vote for Qatar as World Cup hosts after Sarkozy coerced Platini? And wtf was up with France saying they were going to wear the OneLove armband for weeks until Noël le Gaët suddenly, five days before the tournament, changed his mind? Shady stuff. I'm not French, and the fact that I even know who Noël le Gaët is, is not a good sign.
"In a bromance that was so extreme that it probably could have gotten both arrested in Russia" I will definitely borrow this line, I can't stop laughing, you made my day.
Infantino's hard on for despotic dictators is ridiculous. He needs to resign!
@@wolfheadedconjuror dictator??? lol bro what
Nice lie from Alfie, but who cares... Russia
@@iRoosterr he said what he said and is correct! You may not like the statement but that doesn't make it untrue
@@hydrolifetech7911 i have lived russia for 2 years and studied politics on my own time. putin is definitely not a dictator with current circumstances whether you like it or not. though he is currently quite rightfully hated both in and out of russia and has hopes of becoming one, it is not reality as of now. read the definition of dictator before using the word on any leader that you don't like.
Do a video on Polish club Widzew Lodz. They were in the Polish Premier League, got banned and dumped in division 5 where the fans took over and then 6 years later are back in the top division and are currently in 3rd place.
That’d be amazing to watch!
Get the Łódź (Wooj) pronunciation lesson in early! I also suggested the rise of Raków Częstochowa to the top of the Ekstraklasa for a video too
@@thomasjohnson2862 Give Archie a few months so that he'll be able to make a video about Raków as the new champions of Poland.
Our ekstraklasa is quite shit but I can’t lie it’s very competitive and there has been some nice stories like this one.
I also like the rise of Raków as they were in III liga few years back but are now top ballers
O KURWA, I need to investigate that
There was also the Yugoslavia ban in 1992 that let Denmark in to win the Euros.
🤣🤣🤣
Very good detail of the video. I am from Russia and have been following the downfall of Russian football for a while.
You are right in saying the football is in decay - even before the war, the financing of the football clubs reduced drastically. This led to the domination of the clubs backed by the natural resource companies(Zenit, Spartak) with just a few exceptions(Krasnodar, or Rostov who managed to do well with almost zero financing)
The football in the regions is in sad state. There are no schools outside the big cities, and even in those parents have to pay bribes to get their kid accepted. Hence a lot of diamonds just rot in the regional leagues or quit football all together(I am from Far East, and it is especially sad in there)
War just amplified the decay. Losing the majority of good players and fan ID(basically, now to enter the stadium you need to go through bureaucratic hell - there are huge protests among the fans and a lot of stadiums are empty) - and the clubs, already not profiting, were affected even more as the economic situation deteriorates. I expect the downfall to the level of belarussian league and possible death of the professional football clubs - however, in the context of the war, it's not as important. Many things need to be fixed, but until the war is over, I don[t care about the football. Hopefully as the regime falls the whole structure of sport is rethought and redesigned to be less result-focused and more helping people reach their potential. Every Olympics, world cup regarded almost as a war. Thns needs to stop. In sports like figure skating people are scarred for life at the age of 15 because of over-training for medals. We need to be more humane.
I’m also from the far east. Nice to see another normal Russian around here
Amazing hearing from someone that's actually living the reality of the video
For whatever reason, I once used to be heavily into FIFA career in my youth and (for whatever reason) I always used to start all my early career sessions in the Russian league
I still have some posters of Rostov from those days (I tore up the League with Adebayor and Etoo on separate occasions)
It is sad that at the moment, this is yet another facet of Russia outside of her borders that has been tarnished beyond any hope of repair
@@kenbee1957 it's interesting to hear that. Hard to imagine RPL being interesting for anyone outside Russia :D I am not living there right now but I grew up watching Russian football. So naturally I keep following it. Big money hurt football, especially if they come suddenly. There's also a limit of foreign players which makes it harder to be a "farm" league to then re-sell the players to Europe. Only a few made it out (Now Golovin and Miranchuk), and those are exceptions who were lucky to be able to be spotted by big clubs early enough.
As a non Russian I have always wondered what the viewpoint was/is in the east of Russia on general issues ( the "special operation" being a good example). I know the makeup of the people who weren't shipped over in the soviet era is very different and I can only assume that creates differences of opinion no matter how quiet they are. Stay safe.
@@phightinphil25 I know it's kinda off topic but I answer anyway. The further to the east you go, the less people care about the politics and what's going on in the world. My mom says life goes on as usual, as if nothing happened. Being so remote sure helps to distance themselves from all the bad happening further west
Wouldn't be the most recent example be Yugoslavia being banned because of their civil war in 1992?
But let's make no mistake: Invading another country or being at war was not the reason, why Russia was banned. The problem was, that they invaded a European Country, which would have been such a big debate, that it could not have been ignored and instead dominated the discussion during the World Cup.
I would even bet, that Infantio rejoiced, when Wales beat Ukraine, and he wouldn't have to worry about the narrative arriving at the World Cup.
I was proud of Wales beating Ukraine for a similar reason. I was getting sick of football commentators saying Ukraine were entitled to a spot at the world cup whether they qualified or not.
Let's be real, all the nations that condemned RuZZia at UN resolution would have not participated in FIFA's World Cup 2022 if RuZZia was allowed to participate and that was like 99% of the qualified teams.
Now Israel is causally hopping around confederations, and openly playing France and competing in the nations league. This aged like fine wine.
infantino constantly getting things wrong must be some sort of world record
and we thought nobody could beat Sepp Blatter
It's a requirement for the job
"today i feel incompetent"
@@maciejbala477 Blatter was actually surprisingly good at running a corrupt empire. Hard act to follow.
@@maciejbala477 Don't worry, we have no shortage of these kind of people here in Switzerland. The reason they end up in sports organisations is because there is not a lot of power to grab in pur politics.
You should make a video about Indonesian football. Our country has plagued by numerous problems. It started when FIFA decided to ban the Indonesian football back in 2015 after a series of internal conflicts between the football federation (PSSI) and the government. That event overshadows the country's preparations for the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang, although FIFA decided to lift the ban a year later. Then, after 2018 Asian Games was successfully held, Indonesia was controversially awarded as 2021 U-20 World Cup, which was postponed later because of pandemic. After the football resumed with the presence of spectators in 2022, things got worse as the football hooliganism happened in Kanjuruhan, where hundreds were killed during the league match. The whole Indonesian football was suspended and there were numerous threats to ban the country from playing in international stages just like Russia did, which means no U-20 World Cup and Asian Cup this year. I hope football hooliganism in Indonesia was a main topic for that video.
Indonesia is not Russia. Indonesia has a hooligan problem, not warring problem. If Indonesia can rout out hooliganism, then Indonesia will be fine. Russia, on the other hand, has a war problem.
@@luishernandezblonde The Kanjuruhan disaster reminds us of Heysel and Hillsborough. The problem is that while most countries decided to highly renovated football stadiums after Heysel and Hillsborough by turning them into all seater, the football stadiums of Indonesia didn't have all seater or at least didn't meet the security requirements to hold such a game with high risk of hooliganism (the most notorious one was Persija vs Persib, an Indonesian equivalent of El Clasico). Stadiums such as Kanjuruhan are mediocre in terms of capacity and the facilities. As a result, people didn't know about the dangerous thing that cost their lives, to which police officers were blamed for the disaster that killed 135 peoples (all were Arema fans) by firing a tear gas on the stand, causing a mass panic.
On the other hand, Russia should arrest Putin and those who are pro Russia if the country didn't want a war, but this proved insufficient because they know that doing it will led to further crisis that surely affected the entire world. Because of this, Russia are excluded from international stages.
As a journalism student, I absolutely love your content, full of depth, analysis and research. You are such an example, thank you for everything, Alphie! Greetings from A Coruña, Spain!
By the way, maybe its time to speak again about my beloved Deportivo, as things have changed since your amazing video about them. We have recently got our former star Lucas Pérez back!
Good luck for the rest of this season, by the way! Considering Perez's caliber, and how much he's investing in the team from an emotional point of view, I hope he will help drive the team back where they deserve to be. 😄
Hopefully you get in to the Segunda 😊
As a Russian, I appreciate you acknowledging the downfall of Russian football. This is a great video
I would be thankful if you don't invade someone in a while
@@Sistema566 hey bro not everyone of us are genocidal. I'm a pacifist and I'm not supporting the war. Still let's look at the reality. NATO really push us till this catastrophe tho. Again I'm not trying to defend, and I did not think Putin has enough sanity to give decision for now. But you should see the situation in both POVs, ight mate?
@@tkachevtimur9777 NATO haven’t pushed anyone into a corner. NATO is a purely defence organisation
Russia had every chance to normalise relationship with West, in fact EU was preparing to create visa free regime with Russia. They were doing very well until 2013, but after what happened at crimea, Russia has gone into an ever increasing isolation and self paranoia of the world
@@Sistema566 I saw y'all latest cmt. I don't think it's a good idea to say stuffs in a controversial way. As I said, pls see the situation in all POVs. NATO was again trying to invite the frontier country between 'em and Russia, and it's unfair. It's like a trigger ya know. So I don't like the act of Putin but I do not advocate what NATO had done. I'm trying to be friendly mate, but if y'all still not agree with me, then pls remember that all bread is not baked in the same oven. There are still Russian against the war, and I'm one of 'em.
@@sondrejohansen48 Yeah Crimea is not a smart way to deal with problems
Great research Alfie. Would love to see a video on what's happening in Ukrainian football now. Where do the teams play now etc.?
Yes, good idea. I know that Dynamo Kyiv played a game against Legia Warsaw to raise money for charity in the summer.
They resumed the league, or began new season in August. The stadiums not damaged from Russia invasion are where games are played. Obviously without any fans, and strong military presence and air raid sirens. Having thousands of fans in one stadium would become huge target, even though Russia says they don’t target civilians🙄🤥🤥!
The European home matches were played in Warsaw, Poland. I think 1 team is still in Europa or Europa conference league(need to double check that).
Most if not all foreign players left clubs before or as soon as Russia began invasion almost a year ago last February.
But the fact league is actually being played is a symbol of strength of Ukraine 🇺🇦
Just as they have shown the world by resistance & fighting against Russia military.
National Team lost in final playoff game to Wales for spot in World Cup. Would have been an amazing site to see them in Qatar World Cup!! Not to mention they were pretty good team, and would have made Group B much tougher then Wales did.
@@BOABModels they also played at Everton in preseason, and all proceeds went to Ukrainian charities for the citizens of Ukraine.
@@chrisfrank2664 lets hope Nato doesnt target more civilians and blame it on russia again
great video alfie. i didn’t know about the lukoil chairman situation. definitely something to look into. thanks for the consistent football and geopolitics as usual
It must be a huge strain for many players and their families, I am particulalrly thinking of the likes of Miranchuk and Malinovskiy who were best mates at Atalanta, though both have since left.
@@Sistema566 Weird that, considering all the statements they have given together and all the footage out there. I also like Atalanta so have seen a lot on them.
@@rechnin6680 Look if someone comes to your home rapes your wife when your children is watching, then kills wife and kids then burns house and states that now it's his territory and your best friend saids that he thinks that criminal is right in this situation not victim who's is your brother do ever wanna do any stuff with this person?
@@Sistema566 Just one simple question, if I may? What doed that have to do with what we are talking about here? I simply pointed out that two players on opposite side of a sensless war happen to be mates, surely that has to be a good thing? And I pointed out how difficult that must be for both of them. What you just said had nothing to do with this.
@@rechnin6680 I just simply don't think that Ukrainian guy cries about not being friends with russian guy anymore and probably after it will be counted as genocide in some years Ukrainians never ever even gonna have in mind about calling russian (who was not protesting against war) a friend. 🇺🇦
@@Sistema566 But that just proves you have missed the point as they are both still friends, but, you seemed to know better. What you have said has nothing to do with what the point was.
How does one go about starting a football club in Moscow? These sanctions can't keep on forever. Football isn't football without world competition.
While that is true, Russia is not significant enough due to various reasons to have a massive impact on UEFA and Fifa competitions.
@@senorpython2262 Russia is dominating in every sport at the moment. From Hockey, Boxing, UFC, to Football, you'd be surprised
As always, educational and entertaining. Great job Alfie mate.
Can we get a follow up on the current state of the Ukrainian football league?
We need another Dnipro video!
@@mendozerms Yeah bevause SC Dnipro are top of their leauge
Not sure how you add so much information in such little time and uploading the video. Top work!
Shows how time flies so quickly, I absolutely loved the 2018 world cup, for me it was one of the best world cups ever, and as an England fan I have many fond memories of that tournament, and Russia was praised for its excellent hosting of the event, contrast that to now
Goyim sanctions spreads misery
The 2018 World Cup had some of the best football in the competition's history, but it was dominated by European teams which made it feel less like a World Cup, and it lacked a bit of ultimate drama. In my opinion.
By 2018 r*ssia has already invaded: Chechnya (twice), Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine (last two through proxies), involved itself in wars in Syria and Central African Republic, mostly causing destruction and civilian casualties and pretty much orchestrated Azerbaijan-Armenia war. That's not even talking about inner repressions and so on. That wc 2018 was comparable to if not worse than qatar 2022.
@@ijusthatenormiesihavenooth1164 Took 5 seconds for you far-right parasites to turn up
@@romanscerbak5167 you forgot Mali, which they're ostensibly trying to turn into a puppet state.
I'm a CSKA fan and although we are still in some turbulence, we are still continuing to pump out talented youngsters. Russia is a country that loves football and has always produced young talents. Hopefully when the war and everything is over, it can get back to playing good.
Wow,this video had so many jewels that were dropped,Alfie goes all in when it comes to his research on his topics.Great job and we will continue to learn.
As an an American I always can remember have some weird fascination with the Russian premier league. I remember in old FIFA games picking a Russian club to try to build up as the super club of the East (usually it would be zenit or Spartak). For me this seems from an American point of view this seems like a unique period that could make or break the league. If the invasion drags out for a long time it could mean the complete downfall of the league as being completely shut out of Europe will kill off the talent pool available to them. If they were to say move to Asia & the AFC although might be able to resume normal operations like nothing is happening it could hamper them long term to not have face European competition & settle for clubs in Saudi Arabia as continental rivals (though from an Asia perspective adding Russia would be a huge financial & competitive addition to the confederation).
I think bonuses received from UEFA competitions are also higher than that of AFC, too. Here in Vietnam, there are always claims that several clubs just blatantly tank (lose on purpose) to avoid finishing the season playing at the AFC Cup (travel expenses probably being higher than the bonuses).
I remember Zenit was one of the best teams on fifa 12 lol
Used to be a yearly career mode for me building a Russian club to become a giant of football sometimes I even put shaktar in the Russian league and played career mode with them
Great content by Alfie and great discussion culture by the community.I really enjoy this channel for its rich information and openness to learn and exchange knowledge about football!
For the record, since this video was made, Russia has dropped even further down the UEFA coefficients to 23rd, behind Cyprus, an already tiny country that lost half its territory in the 70s.
And they will continue to drop in the rankings as friendlies against their former colonies will not carry many points, and as Alfie pointed out, they're not even winning all of those!
Of course they have. They will drop to the bottom since they cant get any points. So the whole topic is pointless.
Russia are now 29th in UEFA coefficients, below the likes of Bulgaria, Romania, and Azerbaijan, only two spots above Moldova, and only one spot above Slovenia. I can even see them dropping below the likes of Kosovo, the Republic of Ireland, and even Iceland in the future.
As always, exceedingly well done.
Thank you, Alfie.
The football associations of Poland, Czech Republic etc vowing to boycott matches against Russia and forcing FIFA and UEFA’s hand just shows how weak they really are, and that if countries clubbed together and stood firm over the LGBT armband, or even boycotted Qatar 2022 en masse, FIFA would have had no choice but to back down
The problem is that, not to be queerphobic, LGBT issues are not as universally supported as Russia's invasion. If the players of those respective nations that you mentioned stood up, they would received a divisive reaction in their countries. The political momentum isn't there, just like this boycotting Russia action, which should really started at 2014 in the 1st invasion of Ukraine, only gaining momentum after the 2nd invasion.
@@MrGilang100 first invasion was 2014
@@MrGilang100 maybe in Poland, yes, it is very divided on the topic. But I believe in England, France or Germany there's much less division on LGBT and the world cups in arabic dictatorships.
@@romanscerbak5167 thanks
They would ask then to leave or stfu. We can have a World Cup without France, Germany and England.
As usual the people are the ones that suffer for the actions of their leaders
Russian people mostly support the invasion and even joined the russian army on droves.
People are the ones who make the leaders act that way. If r*ssians deserved any better, p*tin would have already been in jail or in grave. Yet the majority of them either denies any wrongs of him and blames it on Ukraine/NATO/USA/n*zis/aliens/reptiloids/pandemic/zionist world government etc. or just denies their own responsibility, because it's not them who supported all the previous invasions (sometiems including this one), celebrated the annexation of Crimea and just ate and translated their chauvinistic propaganda even hiter and goebbels could've used as a reference, if history was the other way around. So the blame is firstly on the society itself.
The country stands behind the war, most ruzzians want this war.
AFC would be a great fit for Russia, considering some of the other nations involved and FIFA not caring about banning those.
I would guess some of the teams might have problems playing Russia. Japan, Australia and South Korea, whose governments align more with US hegemony, might be averse to playing matches against Russia, and I'm not sure how teams like Saudi and UAE might react given their governments condemned the Russian "special military operation" in the UN resolution. If I was in AFC I'd be minded to tell Russia to sort themselves out first before applying.
@@exsandgrounder Yes, of course... They also refuse to play North Korea, Iran, and Syria... Oh wait.
@@exsandgrounder If I’m not mistaken, the UAE did host some current Russia team’s friendly matches recently.
@@huykim4663 OK! Thanks for pointing this out.
@@exsandgrounder The general trend in Asia is very unlikely for Russia to become an AFC member. Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have openly opposed Russia. Saudi Arabia and UAE care nothing about it, but they will get rage if Russia joins, they fear Russia will steal a place in World Cup. Moreover, FIFA banned Russia, mean Russia cannot switch without FIFA approval.
Maybe a video on how football has been affected in Ukraine (other than the obvious destruction) due to the invasion. Like the economic impacts to the UAF and clubs throughout Ukraine and maybe a summary on how the Ukrainian Premier League has resumed. Also the breakaway Crimean League
As a Russian, all this is just pain. Pain, agony and hopelessness.
You all reap what you sow.
What a braindead take, acting as if he was the one who ordered the troops into Ukraine
@@romanscerbak5167 Thanks, pal. Come protest with us. Enjoy the police beating you and maybe they'll send you to the frontline right away.
@@todplatinum5789 you can't simply take the responsibility off of the russian people who overwhelmingly support their country's actions and are extremely hostile towards not just Ukraine but also any other nation that refuses to call themselves "russian"
@@todplatinum5789 he’s not putin, you know?
Me: Time to sleep
Alfie: *drops some heat on his channel*
Video idea:
7 unsuccesful regulation escapes in association football history.
Off topic to this video but I liked how the closed captions read "FIFA" as "thiefer"
Although the ban is mostly fair I do feel bad for the russian playersnot allowed to play for the national team or really leave the country - Like Zakharyan to Chelsea forcing Zakharyan to get armenian citizenship or Golovin and Monaco not allowing him to participate in the russian national teams like Miranchuk
Me too wish Putin didn’t do that he’s causing his people to suffer and Ukraine and people all over the world who feel bad for both countries if you got a solid soul
Abroad players are still allowed to participate in national teams but tha federation do not recall them because of transporting problems and prohibition of the most Europe-Russia flights
I feel sad for Ukranian citizens being killed as a result of Putin's war. Russian footballers don't concern me.
@@dwblurb We all do, but you can't just say that the players deserve what they got, they don't accept the war and want it to end as much as anybody.
Well Zakharyan is of Armenian descent so it's not like he was forced to take a random country's nationality, he always had the option to play for them.
Have you ever considered doing a general journalism channel as a side project? Your research is always fantastic, and much better than the majority of typical coverage
A small correction: There's currently 118 foreign registered players in the Russian Premier League.
I am sure some will leave by the end of February. The number doesn't seem to dwindle but to remain around 110, which is 20% of all players.
amazing video as always
Used to work in Russia pre-pandemic and followed Rubin Kazan, really sad to see their decline. Great video Alfie!
They can get promoted back to RPL. Only depends if their star player dont leave since they too good for second division
(Edit) - Forgot to mention they have the best full backs pairing rn. They might need to improved some areas.
@@looocooo1470 thanks for the info! I’ve seen Lisakovich and Fameyeh playing well but it’s harder to follow the team now they’re out of the rpl. Fingers crossed for the promotion!
@@joelvenson yes, the striker are strong theirs nothing to worry rn. Also true watching FNL 1 is hard to watch in other countries. Rubin has four priorities but they only done two.
1. Sign a young midfielder (done). They sign Rakhmonaliev for free and was one of the few standouts at his club. Definetly has potential to be a good player
2. Sign a centerback. Player Griatsaenko and Teslenko are not RPL quality. They kinda mediocre at times. This is their weakest area rn.
3. Keep Ilya Samoshnikov. Losing this player will affect the team alot. Dzagoev is not the same player we saw at CSKA. Samoshnikov is crucial for the promotion.
4. Get a versatile player (done). Lomovitskiy had returned at Rubin having poor performance at Khimki. Main position is winger and also be fullback.
(Edit) - Rn there competition Rubin will get promoted if they manage to get players that will help the team to become stronger. Rn is them in the right track, Slutsky is gone and it was a main issue.
@@looocooo1470 I’ll have to look out for Rakhmonaliev! Hopefully they’ll be able to fix the weaker positions ready for a return to the rpl. Based upon his performances I’m sure they’ll do anything to hold onto Lisakovich too
Pretty sure Samoshnikov is on a pre-contract with Loko already
So he might just end up staying in the first league anyway 😅
Amazing video as always Alfie. Best channel on YT.
Excellent analysis! Thank you!
As a side note, FIFA is a disgraceful organization... *It should be dissolved and recreated from scratch!*
Can you do a video on what’s happening in Australia. I know you did one a couple of months ago but it’s taken off again in the middle past month
As russian I must say that this is a very accurate point of view on how things are going on. Well done!
Hey Alfie, I would love to see you do a video on Otelul Galati, the club from Romania which qualified for the champions league in 2012/13 and that after 4 years went bankrupt due to mismanagement. It's a crazy story and I'd like to see your take on it!
Otelul were one of numerous teams that went bust in Romania at that time. I think Unirea Urziceni and Timişaora who were the top 2 teams in 2009 also went bust not long after
@@Oakeedokee7 well, i had no idea, i just remember playing with otelul on PES 13 and never hearing from the team ever again 😅
@@franciscogalante3913 They are in the second division now, fighting for promotion. The club went bankrupt and was refounded by fans.
Unirea Urziceni:
Romanian Champions 2008/09
Plays Champions League in 2009/10
Relegated and went bust in 2010/11
Romania? Has alfie written all over it
Thank you for all the superb work.
Could you also make a video on how Ukrainian football has been impacted?
haven’t even watched it yet but know it’s gonna be another classic
Could you do a video on why South African football hasn’t grown since the 2010 World Cup? Considering it is considered as one, if not the best, World Cup in history.
Lol no, 2010 was one of the worst wc
The vuvuezela ruined it
@@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716 nope 2010 was one of the best
Very much oversimplified, but it seems like a lack of investment to me.
Almost nobody liked the 2010 World Cup.
CSKA Moscow use to be one of my favorite fifa clubs
as a russian football fan who support 1 russian team and 1 english team, I though this video was very good, also I just wanted to say, that maybe in the english language its different, but Usually Russians dont call it "zenith" at least me and people around me dont, we call it zenit usually. But yeah, its been pretty boring seeing us winning the league over and over again, id love to see lokomotiv beat us or cska, and it feels wierd saying that, but id rather have us finish 2nd or 3rd in one of the best seasons ever, than just winning the league title a thousand times
I guess it's hard for Alfie to not say "zenith" because it's the same word, English people usually also say "Athletico" Madrid, guess it's stronger than them ahaha
Zenit is just the PSG of Russia at this point
@@mikhailkataev5420 yeah XD
I'm confused, I'm absolutely certain I only heard him say "Zenit". What are you people hearing?
@@rorybessell8280 apoligies, i misheard him, but to be fair if you go through comments a lot of people call it zenith, which is incorrect
Excellent work as always.
There's a topic on Elche that I reckon if they keep playing this poorly will likely be relevant. As in we are witnessing a team that is possibly a rival to Derby County 07-08 in terribleness and chaos with being fined by the government in Madrid millions for receiving illegal tax benefits from the provincial government over other clubs, allowing more than 2 goals a game, and hasn't won a game since May of last year in La Liga despite finishing 13th last season. Oh yeah, Elche also doesn't score goals either which ranks them dead last with teams like Espanyol in 19th being 10 points ahead of them.
They are also owned by an Argentine businessman called Bragarnik, who bought a fuck ton of argentine players and hired Almirón as their manager
@@LechuKawaii Given the amount of talent in Argentina and how rapidly they can naturalize to a dual national in Spain, it's not the worst recruitment philosophy. The problem is probably their salary constraints put them competing directly with Boca Juniors and River Plate with the only edge being "we play in La Liga" as a lower table team.
A video about the rise of the Romanian top division in the mid 2000s and then its fall would be nice. From 20 something in the UEFA rankings to 5th or 6th in Europe in about 3 years.
Hey Alfie, between Cristiano Ronaldo moving to the Saudi Pro League and the upcoming AFC Asian Cup, will you do a documentary on the Saudi league?
No one cares for camel league.
@@nishant54 what's yours local native division called ?
@@mkodyglobalsouthsoldier Shahid smarak league
Great video!
Would love to see some more videos on football in the USA, the Club World Cup would be a great topic considering that 2023 sees the first MLS team in the competition
Seattle Sounders are better than Gareth Bale's LAFC that won the MLS the last year.
I always thought Russia had the potential to become a major European football power similar to Portugal or the Netherlands given its large population, the popularity of football, and the fact that it has the privilege of competing in UEFA.
I don't think actually because of the rather poor state of junior football, small TV contract with low given interest as international broadcast product and overly extended footballers' salaries
They could if they only did better with their youth set up
DAY 81: Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the life, career, controversies and tragedy of Justin Fashanu. It'd be your best video yet and it's a criminally underheard story ❤️
Thanks for your unrivalled coverage of stories that matter. You're right that Russia's actions in February 2022 was an escalation of hostilities, since they invaded in 2014 and have never left.
Slava Ukraini 💛💙
Do you think it's fair on the players[the sanctions]
@@tshwarelomalatsi5374 sanctions are designed to make people's lives harder but they are nothing compared to having your homes, schools and hospitals bombed.
@@BOABModels yeah but about homes, schools and hospitals being bombed in Palestine and other middle eastern countries
really really good video, youre the best football youtuber, youve overtaken tifo in my opinion
That coefficient list at the start is years old Scotland are 8th now and don't appear onit atall and holland are far higher than 14th lol
He says it's from the 2018 season
One of the best videos ever made by HITC Sport
You have to be a lover of Bandera.
@@ImperialMJG Lol what? I'm not a Nazi.
@@aureuse7174 If you think it's one of the best videos it would seem like it ;P Nevermind, I wasnt serious.
Russian football had reached the lowest point in last 20 years, so this ban will severely impact it, probably to the point that Russia gets eliminated as a valuable football nation, like you see, now Russian league is on 23rd place in UEFA rating, this is just impossible to recover to anywgere near previoys level
In the fifa rankings before the war
Russia were ranked 35th in the world
Which proves that Russia were heading In a good direction football vise
But now it's not the case anymore
I think after the war Russia will dramatically fall as a footballing nation because of all the sanctions and now they are banned and until the war ends Russia will stay banned for a loooong time
Both the Russians and the Ukranians are victims of putin's regime
Putin's actions have ruined Russia
And by the time he leaves Russia will be in a complete mess in everything
They still are including them in rankings? Should be excluded completely to be consistent with banning from UEFA and World Cup competitions.
@@chrisfrank2664 Yeah they are still somehow in the FIFA national team rankings and UEFA club rankings
@@aureuse7174 Thanks Man ! Just looked and they are 37th in FIFA rankings. I suppose this shouldnt be a surprise. Just thought banning them meant from everything, not just the matches and tournaments.
And really a shame that some of those players are good enough to play around Europe/world, but can't leave to do so. At least Ukraine is ranked higher at 26th! Hopefully a small sense of pride for the people in Ukraine ! Obviously much more important things on their mind !!
I love the joke about the guy avoiding any higher than second floor windows.
I wonder if one day we will see a “What’s going on at Santos FC” video here in the future, given the passing of Pele recently and the history (contemporary or otherwise) of the club. Given how Alfie has clearly set himself apart from other football “video essayists” let’s say.
Football can play a major part in bringing Putin down. Russians love their football, so when World Cups come and go, and they're not involved, they'll begin to get restless and want out of Ukraine.
I feel for people of BOTH countries caught in this mess outside of their own doing.
Some just wanted to play Football, some just wanted to support their Football teams.
Perhaps the only games these football fans can go to are the games against teams in likeminded countries such as Russian Teams playing against Teams from DPRK and PRC.
Alfie, great content as usual. Great really is an underwhelming word to describe the research and quality of your content. Might I suggest rebranding your channel name, since list based 7 videos are not your only content anymore, and we all enjoy your short audio documentary pieces like this one a lot too. I don’t think restricting your brand to “top7” is fair. Keep up the great work
can you do a video on indian super league its growth and future of indian football
There is no growth. No player has come up with calibre.
Yeaa alfieeeeee
"in a bromance that was so extreme that it probably could have got them both arrested in Russia"
i just can't, this is too perfect
1:59 football is not russia's favourite sport
basically any martial art is more popular and any kid who had a russian father knows that you need to do some sport at a young age and wrestling and boxing are far more popular in terms of athletes than football.
WTF you on about ?
@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 maye your dad was a bitch but my father and all my friends fathers forced them to do martial arts
Alfie, just heard a sound clip of your channel on the Today, Explained Podcast by Vox Media. Roger Bennet was interviewed about the World Cup and you were sampled chatting about England. Just wanted to let you know if you didn’t already mate.
I'm surprised they haven't sent players to the trenches yet
Probably just like what Alfie already said in the video, they rather just use some impoverished twenty-somethings from the Kaukasus or another poor (non white orthodox Christian Russian) region for that purpose instead.
Racism packed into patriottism themed gift paper, you got to love it.
@@jdjphotographynl same tactics they used in almost every war, from (unironically) Caucasus, to Japanese, to both World Wars. Nothing new
@@jdjphotographynl Or they use people who are/were actively trying to leave. Not the dissidents (for now) but those who were trying to leave before the borders closed and would do so again if given the chance, but are not actively anti Putin.
Video on Casa Pia AC soon? 5th in Primeira Liga , first time in it for over 80 years. Or lorient /lens piece ?
FIFA and EUFA are the worst at sportswashing
Spartak Moscow still has big players for Russian league. Moses, Keita Balde, Tavares from benfica coming any day. Spartak was superb in EL last season beating Napoli twice
I feel bad for the Russian footballers not being to able to compete in international and UEFA competitions just because the government went mad and are being punished for a war they probably don't even support
I don't
Some of the footballers supported the war, some condemned, prevailing most called for peace in most neutral and non-siding narrative possible.
@@alinm4844 yours s*umbag.
They can find a new team to play anywhere else without any difficult though
70% of the Russian population supports the Ruzi Putler regime. Don’t be so ignorant and do some research. You probably make these kind of remarks alot tho…
Can you do a video on the fall of Charlton athletic
I remember them being in the premier league at one point
Now find themselves mid table in league 1 and there is nothing I can find on TH-cam that gives any indication on what happened
So will Russia be able to join AFC or not? That’s what I was also hoping that this video would answer.
They can join but it's not a good long-term solution
If Russia wants to join AFC then they will be welcomed
Only 6 out of 47 members would oppose those being Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and out of those 6 only Australia is on the AFC Executive Commitee
Privately UEFA don't want Russia to leave as they want Russian Sponsorship Money once the War/Special Military Operation is over
I doubt they will enter the AFC. Many members like you said would be opposed and FIFA wouldn’t be 100% OK with it either. Plus way more members might be opposed than the ones you said. Why would they let a stronger than average Asian team in there and sarifice their own spot at Fifa world cup or other tournaments. Looking at Iran, Saudi or even China or Uzbekistan.
@@TOTN17 You forget the biggest problem is the ban not limited to UEFA. FIFA also banned Russia. Without FIFA blessing, Russia cannot switch.
@@davidzolcer4848
Last time I check Russia can't even beat Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan lol
Alfie please could we get a video on sportswashing the World Cup through content creators, would love to see your viewpoint on that
Hypocrisy of FIFA....anyone want to disagree
I swear "mysterious circumstances" must be like the third leading cause of death in Russia
Check out the employees of the Clinton family. Look into that.
Sports n Politics shouldn't mix
EUFA and FIFA had no choice but to kick them out. Most countries in Europe would have refused to play them and they would be right not to play them.
I’m highly against sanctions to the Russian football/soccer teams it is pointless what did the players have to do with the war. They were just bystanders living in the country
Donetsk plays its games in Poland because of Russia. The Ban will stand. When they end the barbaric war and Ukrainian sides can host games in peaceful conditions then they can come back and be accepted into the footballing community.
Banger video idea
It's a shame USA never got the Russia treatment with what they did in Vietnam, North Korea, Iraq, Libya, Yeman, Syria and the list could go on.
Russia seems a saint compared to USA
Russia never provides compensations to countries they invaded and you think Russia is better 😂😂😂😂😂 at least USA agreed to pay for repatriation fees.
What do you mean? both seem like the devil
Russia are amazing at Ice Hockey. So many Russians absolutely dominate the NHL. They never got banned from playing because the sport would be kneecapped if they weren't allowed to play. They have some of the highest paid contracts in the league too.
And then you have Dominik Hasek, who still wants Russian players to be banned, even though two of them (Sergey Bobrovsky and Ivan Barbashev (Florida and Vegas)) made the Stanley Cup Final.
Ukrainian users even went so far as to offer to give the Stanley Cup to the team without Russian Players. ALMOST EVERY NHL TEAM HAS AT LEAST ONE RUSSIAN PLAYER. The only ones who do not are Chicago and Seattle.
@@captaincortez4917 Imagine the amount of cap space each team would get if every Russian left the NHL. Imagine how would affect future drafts haha
There's more to add as well.
Russia is also very good at Tennis, on both Men's and Women's fronts - exclusion from any international competitions was fine, it's not like tennis is much of a team sport. They still compete (alongside Belarus), but they don'r have the flag (for obvious reasons). However, Ukraine has issues with even that, and, because of the whole conflict, don't shake hands with Russian and Belarussian players.
And, just recently, when #2 Arina Sabalenka beat Marta Kostyuk in the 1st round of the French Open, the whole "no handshaking after a Ukraine v (Belo-)Russia match" happened... and the French were siding with Arina, even though she didn't realise it.
@@JiggyMiggytv Well, if you're wondering, there are a lot of really good Russian prospects both in the AHL and other leagues
I think Russia has a slim chance (20-30%) of appearing as guest at AFCON. Russia isn't as vilified in Africa.
Morons in the West need to Understand that there is more to the Planet then the West and that most people outside of the West don't support Ukraine because they rightfully see Ukraine as a Proxy war between Russia and US/NATO with Ukraine being used as NATOS Canon Fodder
Now chelsea are struggling to find a way to pay for arsen zak from moscow... have been since the summer
Nice to see russia facing results of their actions
I read somewhere that the Russian FA is looking at possibly joining the Asian football Federation. It obviously depends on whether they allow them in as it could cause them issues.
Russia can't join because FIFA also banned Russia, not only UEFA.
When FIFA bans you, you can't move or switch.
I heard they decided to stay with UEFA
2018 should never have happend in Russia ,which was 4 years after the annexation of Crimea ,I think that supported Russia's invasion in 2022
I agree because after Crimea was annexed by Russia, Putin insisted to launch a full scale invasion against all Ukrainian cities. If they succeeded in liberating Kyiv, the Russians might start a World War III by reforming the new Soviet Union. This new Soviet might be unstoppable like Nazi Germany. Nonetheless, Ukraine decided to resist Putin's propaganda until the Russians finally invaded Ukraine 8 years later.
Additionally, Russia should not have hosted the 2018 World Cup because there were big problems that crippled the whole nation. Most importantly, they were banned by WADA after a big doping scandals for non-football athletes. The strange thing is that the national flag was shown normally during the 2018 World Cup, despite IOC urges to show a neutral flag (usually, the IOC symbols) for major sporting events.
This is very interesting to notice as well. Why was the Russian League improving so much? There was a lot of investment, and most of these teams are owned by the local Oligarchs.
If anything, this almost mirrors when Italy hosted the World Cup and Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics.
Behind closed doors, the Russian economy had improved to the point where they were actually starting to invest in Secondary Assets like Football Clubs.
This kind of explains why the Sanctions on Russia have mostly been just an annoyance than actually crippling them. Russia was preparing to withstand Economic Sanctions probably since even before they took Crimea.
They wanted to force Foreign Investment, specially of Europe. Russia knows very well that Greed is a great tool. They have used it themselves, just look at all those Oligarchs.
The Russian's know that just like their Oligarchs the Political and Financial Elite of Europe and the USA is just as corrupt. So while on paper Russia is sanctioned, behind close doors there are deals and trades going on, everyone knows.
I feel extremely so sorry for the Russian football and the war must stop once and for all to save the innocents who live in both Russia and Ukraine and live their respective lives happily and peacefully daily and ever in this world and other and other planets,good friends!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
"the only recent instance... was apartheid South Africa" yes, the only successful suspension. What many don't remember was that FIFA was slated to vote on banning Israel in May of 2015. These proceedings were disrupted by a sudden wave of arrests relating to corruption within FIFA.
excepts from a 2015 Guardian article titled "Palestinians withdraw call to suspend Israel from Fifa"
"The threat to suspend Israel had been overshadowed in any case by the explosive allegations of corruption within the world football body as the Zurich congress opened."
Commenting on the outcome, Netanyahu said: “Our international effort has proven itself and led to the failure of the Palestinian Authority attempt to oust us from Fifa.”
Day 1736382836383837:
Stop asking him to make videos just for you, this ain't a restaurant. You're taking out the mysterious aspect of what video he drops next
Promes is also suspected to have run a drug ring with his family, good video mate!
an interesting video as almost always
but why do you not give the reason why Shaktar Donetsk haven't been able to play their home matches in their own city for eight years?
the answer to that question is indeed the clue to it all, but that would perhaps have required more than three days research, I gather
Shush, we can't cover both sides of the story, ya know 🙃
The reason Russian teams travelling by train isn't military use, it's safety. Russian airline companies can't get parts, cannibalizing some planes to keep others running while many planes haven't been serviced or flown in months. Crashes are inevitable. If a Russian train crashes, they'll probably survive.