The Russian Football Union (russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, ''Rossiyskiy Futbolnyy Soyuz'' or RFS) is the official governing body of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. With headquarters in Moscow, it organizes Russian amateur and

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

, including the men's,

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, youth, beach soccer,

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

and Paralympic national teams. The RFS sanctions referees and football tournaments for the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

and other football leagues in Russia. RFS is headed by Aleksandr Dyukov, the CEO of

Gazprom Neft Gazprom Neft (russian: Газпром Нефть; formerly Sibneft, russian: Сибнефть, link=no), is the third largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about ...

Structure

The RFS is governed by a board of directors led by a chairman,

Nikita Simonyan Nikita Pavlovich Simonyan ( hy, Նիկիտա Մկրտիչ Սիմոնյան, born ''Mkrtych Pogosovich Simonyan'', 12 October 1926) is a former Soviet football striker and coach of Armenian descent. He was born in Armavir. As of 2021 he was ...

, and a director general, Aleksandr Alayev. The RFU is a member of international football bodies

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, and also has a relationship with the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC).

History

Russian Empire

The All-Russian Football Union (VFS) was created on 19 January 1912 and in the same year was admitted to FIFA. The Unions initially consisted of 52 organizations across the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. All-Russian Football Union was the organizer of

Russian Empire national football team The Russian Empire national football team was the association football team representing the Russian Empire from 1910 to 1914. History The Russian Empire played its first unofficial international in October 1910 against Bohemia national team, a 5 ...

Soviet Union

In 1934, the ''Football Federation of USSR'' was formed initially under the name the Football Section of

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Its organization was in accordance with the Declaration of the All-Union Council of Fitness Culture of USSR on 27 December 1934. The Section was admitted to FIFA as the Soviet organization in 1946, and admitted to UEFA in 1954. Later the Section was reorganized as the

Football Federation of USSR The Football Federation of the USSR (russian: Федерация футбола СССР) was a governing body of association football, football in the Soviet Union and since 1972 the main governing body of football in the country. The Federat ...

. Concurrently with the Section and later Federation until 1972 there operated the ''Football Directorate of the Soviet Sport Committee'' which was subordinated directly to the Soviet Ministry of Sport. The Directorate was never recognized on the international level.

Russian Federation

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the modern Russian Football Union was formed (a constituent conference took place on 8 February 1992), inheriting everything from the previous associations such as VRS and Football Federation of USSR and reinstated in FIFA on 3 July 1992. In July 1992, the

Russian national football team The Russia national football team (russian: Сборная России по футболу, Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russian Federation in men's international association football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Uni ...

was formed.

Aftermath of Russian invasion of Ukraine

Because of the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

and

suspended all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or clubs, until further notice. After the invasion of Ukraine,

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

suspended its long-term kit partnership with the Russian Football Union, which first began in 2008. Adidas had provided all Russian teams with kits and had expanded the federation’s replica kit sales in the retail market. During the ban, talk circulated that the RFU were considering seeking to change conferdations to the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

, according to Match-TV broacaster

Dmitry Pirog Dmitry Yurievich Pirog (russian: Дмитрий Юрьевич Пирог; born 27 June 1980) is a Russian politician and former professional boxer. In boxing he competed from 2005 to 2012, and held the WBO middleweight title from 2010 to 2012. ...

, stating, "I think the time has come to think seriously about a switch to the Asian football confederation." However,

Vyacheslav Koloskov Vyacheslav Ivanovich Koloskov (russian: Вячеслав Иванович Колосков, June 15, 1941, Moscow, USSR) is a Russian and Soviet sport functionary, vice-president of FIFA (1980–1996). Career He was a football player but without ...

opposed the idea, noting that it would "bring the death of Russian football and also we would never return to the European family." In any event, the switch would have to be ratified by other Asian federations, including Japan. RFU president Alexander Dyukov ruled out the idea of switching to Asian football and stated that the RFU is part of UEFA and will always be so. In late November 2022, Dyukov said, at an executive board meeting on behalf of TASS, that the possibility of a switch of the association to the AFC might be considered.

Presidents

Chairmen of All-Russian Football Union

* Arthur McPherson (January 1912 – 1914) **

Robert Fulda Robert Ferdinandovich Fulda (russian: Ро́берт Фердина́ндович Фу́льда; 18 April 1873 – 16 February 1944), was a Russian sports and flight enthusiast who is considered as the "pioneer of Russian sport". Life Fulda w ...

(deputy chairman) **

Georges Duperron Georges Aleksandrovich Duperron (russian: Георгий Александрович Дюперрон), born 24 September 1877, died 23 July 1934, was a Russian sports journalist, football organizer and one of the founders of the Olympic movement i ...

(deputy chairman) *

(1914–1915)

Russian Football Union

(8 February 1992 – 2 April 2005) *

Vitaly Mutko Vitaly Leontiyevich Mutko (russian: Виталий Леонтьевич Мутко; born Viktor Leontiyevich Mutko; 8 December 1958) is a Russian politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 2016–2020. From 2008 to 2016, ...

(2 April 2005 – 24 November 2009) *

(24 November 2009 – 3 February 2010) *

Sergei Fursenko Sergey Aleksandrovich Fursenko (russian: Серге́й Александрович Фурсенко) (born 1954 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian businessman. He is a brother of Andrei Fursenko. Career Since the early 1990s, Fursenko ha ...

(3 February 2010 – 25 June 2012) *

(25 June 2012 – 3 September 2012) *

Nikolai Tolstykh Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tolstykh (russian: Николай Александрович Толстых; born 30 January 1956) is a Russian football administrator and a former player. Playing career As a player, he made his professional debut in the ...

(3 September 2012 – 31 May 2015) *

(31 May 2015 – 2 September 2015) *

(2 September 2015 – 25 December 2017) * Aleksandr Alayev (25 December 2017 – 19 December 2018) *

Sergey Pryadkin Sergey Gennadyevich Pryadkin (russian: Серге́й Генна́дьевич Пря́дкин; August 17, 1961, Astrakhan, RSFSR, USSR) is a Russian football functionary, vice president and member of the bureau of the executive committee of th ...

(19 December 2018 – 21 February 2019) * Alexander Dyukov (22 February 2019 – present)

References

External links

Football Union of Russia Website

at FIFA site

at UEFA site {{Authority control

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Football in Russia

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Articles containing video clips Sports organizations established in 1912 Sports organizations established in 1992 1912 establishments in the Russian Empire 1992 establishments in Russia