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Russia: Chechen appeal to Putin went too far, sports chief says [Fri Sep 16th, 2005]
Moscow (Reuters) - Russian Sports Minister Vyacheslav Fetisov said that a Chechen football club has overstepped its boundaries by appealing to President Vladimir Putin to save them from relegation.
Earlier this week, Terek Grozny, who are bottom of the premier league, wrote an open letter to Putin asking for help.
Terek accused Russian referees of staging a biased campaign against the team to ensure they are relegated.
"It is annoying that the fate of a whole nation is decided by referees," the letter said. "Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin), we ask for your intervention in the situation."
But Fetisov, a former ice hockey defenceman whom Putin invited to head the country's sports movement in 2002, thinks the Chechens have gone a bit too far.
Asked to comment on the situation, Fetisov, who captained the Soviet Union to two Olympic and seven world titles in the 1970s and 80s, said: "This case is out of my jurisdiction.
"In the past, we've been accused by the media of interfering in the affairs of our sports federations, such as the Russian Football Union (RFU)," added Fetisov, who earlier this year forced long-serving RFU chief Vyacheslav Koloskov out of office.
"I don't think we're doing the President a favour by asking him to get involved in football matters. I think it's a job for the football authorities to sort everything out."
While the Kremlin has yet to respond to the letter, the RFU and the Russian Referees Association (KFA) dismissed Terek's protest as unfounded.
"The attempt by Terek to put the blame for their poor showing this season on referees does not have any basis in fact," said the RFU and KFA in a joint statement.
VIOLATED PRINCIPLES
The RFU also said that by appealing to Putin, Terek had violated FIFA's principles. The world governing body prohibits government officials from interfering in football matters.
The club, run by pro-Kremlin officials, has asked for protection because their survival in the top flight would boost peace efforts in the volatile Caucasus region.
"Today, Terek are more than a team for the Chechen Republic. In reviving the team in 2000, the president of the Chechen Republic, Akhmad Kadyrov set a goal -- through sport, through culture to bring peace to the Chechen land," the letter said.
After being disbanded in the 1990s because of war, the club was resurrected five years ago by pro-Moscow Kadyrov. After Kadyrov was assassinated in May 2004, his son Ramzan took over as club president.
Terek have been seen as a political tool to improve Moscow's image in the region.
Putin met the team last year after they won the Russian Cup, an honour normally reserved for the country's national teams.
Terek play their home games in Pyatigorsk -- five hours' drive from Grozny -- because there is no suitable ground in their home city following a decade of war.
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