It may seem like a strange appointment, Michael Laudrup being named as the new manager for Spartak Moscow, but when you look a little bit deeper it actually makes perfect sense. First of all, the Russian League has grown immensely where teams are now not only holding onto the top Russian players, but are also in competition to buy top players from other leagues. Click to continue reading...

The future of Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin still remains uncertain despite Zenit St Petersburg's signing of Portuguese midfielder Danny from rivals Dynamo Moscow. Zenit have paid a national record fee for a player in the Russian Premier League and Danny was expected to see the departure of Arshavin to Tottenham Hotspur. Click to continue reading...

There is no doubt that we need strengthening in the goal scoring department, but the question remains exactly who are Ramos and Levy planning to bring in?

Two names in the frame this morning (and let's face it our links with strikers change like the wind at the moment) are Klaas-Jan Huntelaar of Ajax and Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz. Click to continue reading...

Andrei Arshavin is world-class material. He deserves a better club and greater recognition than to spend his entire career languishing in the Russian League.To many soccer fans, this name may not ring a bell, that is, until the European Championships which concluded last month. Arshavin caught the eyes of soccer pundits and bigwigs with his [. Click to continue reading...

Alex Hleb's dream was to play for Barca.
Ronaldinho dreamed of playing for AC Milan.
Deco dreamed of playing for Chelski.
Dani Alves dreamed of playing in the blue and red Barca shirt.
Arshavin's dream is to swap Zenit for Barca.
Ronnie dreams of playing for Real Madrid.
Drogba dreams of playing for a different team every week. Click to continue reading...

Hopes around Russia's probabilities at the European Championships weren't that high. True, they had Guus Hiddink, a master in getting teams to outperform expectations, but their limitations were deemed to be too much even for him to overcome. After all, they'd qualified for the championships largely because of England's incompetence and their defeat to Croatia in the final group game. Click to continue reading...

Rafa appears to be planning for every eventuality this summer and just in case he fails in his bid to land Stewart Downing he is apparently, at least according to this source, keen on this Russian star. Yuri Zhirkov's performances in the Russian league and the summer's European Championship have shown . Click to continue reading...

All roads lead to Rome for Liverpool in next season's Champions League competition. The 2009 final will be staged at the Stadio Olimpico in Italy's capital and on two of the three previous occasions that the Eternal City has hosted European football's biggest game of the season Liverpool have emerged as winners. Click to continue reading...

After a certain, indefinable point, failure becomes a default option. Like the South Korean team who, for so long seemed capable of doing everything but winning a match in the World Cup finals, so it was with Russia. Would they ever get past the group stages of a major tournament again? The answer to that, finally, is yes, and they managed it some style this evening with a win against Sweden that was the best performance that I can remember having seen from either a Russian or Soviet team. Click to continue reading...

Here is the deal of a lifetime: One son for one ticket to the UEFA Cup final between Rangers and Zenit. Now that is a deal that you can not turn down. I wonder how the boys mother feels about the deal or does she even know about it.

Thanks to The Guardian for the photo. Click to continue reading...

With the English and the Italian seasons coming to close, FSC is going to be light on program over the next couple of months, but that does not really have to happen. In order to keep program fresh FSC should look to one of the ever growing leagues in the world, no not MLS, but the Russian Premier League. Click to continue reading...