How Sanctions Have Impacted Russian Football 

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.

"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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

There was also the Yugoslavia ban in 1992 that let Denmark in to win the Euros.

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.

infantino constantly getting things wrong must be some sort of world record

Not sure how you add so much information in such little time and uploading the video. Top work!

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

As a Russian, I appreciate you acknowledging the downfall of Russian football. This is a great video

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 always, educational and entertaining. Great job Alfie mate.

As always, exceedingly well done. Thank you, Alfie.

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!

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.

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

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

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!

Great research Alfie. Would love to see a video on what's happening in Ukrainian football now. Where do the teams play now etc.?

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.

Can we get a follow up on the current state of the Ukrainian football league?

Amazing video as always Alfie. Best channel on YT.

Thank you for all the superb work.

Excellent work as always.

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

As usual the people are the ones that suffer for the actions of their leaders

amazing video as always

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

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

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.

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.

AFC would be a great fit for Russia, considering some of the other nations involved and FIFA not caring about banning those.

Me: Time to sleep Alfie: *drops some heat on his channel*

Great video!

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).

really really good video, youre the best football youtuber, youve overtaken tifo in my opinion

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!

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.

As a Russian, all this is just pain. Pain, agony and hopelessness.

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

One of the best videos ever made by HITC Sport

Off topic to this video but I liked how the closed captions read "FIFA" as "thiefer"

haven’t even watched it yet but know it’s gonna be another classic

Alfie please could we get a video on sportswashing the World Cup through content creators, would love to see your viewpoint on that

Used to work in Russia pre-pandemic and followed Rubin Kazan, really sad to see their decline. Great video Alfie!

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 ❤️

Banger video idea

Video on Casa Pia AC soon? 5th in Primeira Liga , first time in it for over 80 years. Or lorient /lens piece ?

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

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 RU-vid that gives any indication on what happened

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.

Excellent analysis! Thank you! As a side note, FIFA is a disgraceful organization... *It should be dissolved and recreated from scratch!*

Video idea: 7 unsuccesful regulation escapes in association football history.

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.

There's a lot I wanted to say but seeing "Malcolm from Barcelona" mentioned stunned me, I genuinely forgot he existed. I wonder how he is.. last I saw he had injury issues but yeah.. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Could you also make a video on how Ukrainian football has been impacted?

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.

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 russian I must say that this is a very accurate point of view on how things are going on. Well done!

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

Another great video from you per usual. Since Gareth Bale announced his retirement recently, I’d like to see a “greatest British players ever” list cause in my opinion Bale is the at the top

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

a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now. The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore. How they were very close to moving to ireland How they went up the English football leagues. It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel

Who's stadium is that on the water?? 1:38

Was hoping to see something about Russian player Golovin at Monaco.

CAN YOU DO A VIDEOS ON CHIVAS FORM MEXICO 🇲🇽.

How about a video about Albert johansen

Promes is also suspected to have run a drug ring with his family, good video mate!

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.

We need an update vid

Now chelsea are struggling to find a way to pay for arsen zak from moscow... have been since the summer

Could you do a video on the J League in Japan, Its Origin, How it's funded, etc?

You need to replace the guy who used to report the football results. Your tone of voice establishing what you are saying before the scores are announced.

16:00 did very little research for him. Mario left to move closer with his family and has said he may return in the future as he was burnt out in Russia

What a video

can you do a video on indian super league its growth and future of indian football

Please do a video on indian super league and the possibility of india hosting world cup

I always wondered what happened to Victor Moses then I found out he’s playing in the Russian league for Spartak

I love the joke about the guy avoiding any higher than second floor windows.

4:59 Spartak Moscow were still meant to be in the Europa League as they won their group

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.

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.

I swear "mysterious circumstances" must be like the third leading cause of death in Russia

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.

CSKA Moscow use to be one of my favorite fifa clubs

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.

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

Rank all the European Champions (1956-2022) from worst to best

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.

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.

Hypocrisy of FIFA....anyone want to disagree

So will Russia be able to join AFC or not? That’s what I was also hoping that this video would answer.