Russian Football Union Terminates Capello’s Contract

News

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has terminated its contract with Fabio Capello as the Russian national football team’s head coach.

 The RFU said today that the football coach’s contract was terminated by mutual agreement.

“The RFU sincerely thanks Fabio Capello for his work in the post of head coach, and wishes him success in his future career,” the organization said in a statement.

The decision comes weeks after Nikolai Tolstykh, the RFU's acting president, said that the football body would discuss ending its contract with Capello.

The coach’s departure is the latest development in an ongoing scandal, dubbed “Capellogate,” that has embroiled the 69-year-old Italian and the RFU.

In May this year OCCRP and Novaya Gazeta revealed controversial details about the football coach’s lucrative extension contract with the RFU, which was signed in January 2014.

According to copies of the contract obtained by OCCRP and Novaya Gazeta, Capello received an annual salary of € 7 million (about US$ 8 million), as well as performance incentives worth several millions more.

On the same day that Capello signed his extension, his signature appeared on another multi-million dollar contract between two offshore companies, one of which is linked to a huge money-laundering scandal.

Both the RFU and Capello said they know nothing about the additional contract.

The RFU and Capello have also recently come under fire over poor performance, after Russia suffered a home defeat for a Euro 2016 qualifier in June this year.

The controversy has made waves in the Russian media, and the RFU voted to sack its president, Nikolai Tolstykh, in the wake of the revelations.

It is not yet known who will succeed Capello.