MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti football expert Marc...
north Moscow base."I agree with Wegner wholeheartedly. Perhaps even sooner. Russian football is on the rise, a huge amount of money is currently being invested in it, and the infrastructure of the sport is being rapidly developed," he told me, puffing on a cigar.
However, the expected oligarch-backed march to the summit of European club football never materialized. Soon after we spoke, despite beating and drawing with Arsenal, CSKA were unfortunate to be knocked out of the 2006/07 Champions League, finishing third in Group G. The following season saw the former Red Army club fail to win a game in their group campaign.
Much was expected of an Andrei Arshavin-inspired and Gazprom-financed Zenit St. Petersburg in this year"s tournament, but despite running Real Madrid and Juventus close in their first two matches, Zenit never seriously looked like making the play-offs.
And then the economic crisis hit. With the onset of the global downturn, both CSKA
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