Kanchelskis called “letter 14” the biggest disappointment in his career

Former Russian national team midfielder Andrei Kanchelskis said his biggest regret was signing the “letter of fourteen” before the 1994 World Cup.

On November 17, 1993, the Russian team suffered an away defeat from the Greek team (0:1) in the 1994 World Cup qualification. Despite the fact that the defeat did not affect the team’s progress to the final round of the tournament, after the game some players of the national team wrote a letter with complaints to the RFU. In the “letter of fourteen,” the players demanded that Pavel Sadyrin be removed from the team and that Anatoly Byshovets be appointed head coach, increased material remuneration and improved technical support for the team.

— I suffered once because of my integrity, yes. I regret that I didn’t go to the 1994 World Cup. “Letter of Fourteen” is the biggest disappointment of my career, 100%. After all, the World Championship is the World Championship. But what can you do, now it’s in the past,” Kanchelskis told the Championship.

The “Letter of Fourteen” was signed by Yuri Nikiforov, Valery Karpin, Andrey Ivanov, Sergey Yuran, Igor Shalimov, Igor Dobrovolsky, Igor Kolyvanov, Victor Onopko, Dmitry Khlestov, Sergey Kiryakov, Alexander Mostovoy, Oleg Salenko, Vasily Kulkov, and Kanchelskis also gave consent. Some players later withdrew their signature and played for the Russian national team at the 1994 World Cup.