Meeting of the Russian Union General Assembly.

On 1st September 2009, the Russian Union of Football Players and Coaches held its annual board meeting at the Marriott hotel in Moscow, where the Russian National Team was based before its home match against Liechtenstein.

Players' representatives from all 16 Russian Premier-League Clubs and the Union leader, Andrey Arshavin, who is currently playing abroad, took part in the discussion on the most important issues in Russian football and how to solve these problems.

As a result of the meeting the Union issued a list of actions which need to be taken to improve the present situation in Russian football, namely:

1. The country's climatic conditions have to be taken into account when drawing up next years’ match calendar. During the summer season, matches should not start before 5 p.m.

2. Players should be provided with wage guarantees from the Clubs and the Russian Football Premier-League. The League should be stricter when granting licenses to Clubs. The Clubs should have significant financial and material assets that can be used in the event that the Clubs do not fulfill their contractual obligations or when they are declared bankrupt.

3. Clubs should be allowed to register players, Club school students and players who are unemployed due to the Club’s bankruptcy, injuries etc.

4. The labor code’s rules and regulations should be complied with, in terms of employers providing professional sportsmen with compulsory insurance. In particular, labor contracts that do not state an insurance covering either serious injuries or total loss of work ability should not be registered.

5. Setting up the National Dispute Resolution Chamber according to FIFA rules and regulations.

6. Restructuring the Russian referee system should continue (the study process should be accelerated, it should be possible to move up within the organization) in order to increase competition among referees.

7. The training compensation system for players under 23 should be changed.

Andrey Arshavin, Sergey Semak, Alexander Ryazantsev, Vladimir Leonchenko and Nikolai Grammatikov were elected to the Union Board.

Representatives from the Russian Football Association and the Russian Football Premier-League also attended the meeting.

In the short term, Union representatives will take part in the Russian Football Association working groups and committees, which also cover developing new regulations on player status and transfer.