President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Dyukov answered a question about the possible introduction of a tax on foreign specialists.

The final meeting of the RFU 2025 executive committee was held on Friday in Moscow.

— In October, with the support of the RFU, a conference of coaches was held in Moscow. It was attended by veterans and active specialists. Among other things, it was said that coaches, fan relations specialists, and press service employees are now certified and licensed in our teams. Maybe it makes sense to expand this certification to some club leaders, including sports directors?

— I would avoid excessive paternalism; I would not want to come to a situation in which the RFU will determine the composition of teams and appoint coaches. Clubs, shareholders, investors are self-sufficient, accomplished people who are able to independently determine whether a particular specialist is qualified to solve the assigned tasks.

The RFU must implement specialized training programs, which is what we are doing. The RFU Academy works effectively, we are constantly expanding our online educational platform. Now the Academy has more than 50 programs, 14 of them are for coaches. This year alone, more than 10 thousand coaches, specialists and judges completed training. Currently, about 9 thousand UEFA licenses have been issued.

Our task is to offer clubs educational programs that increase the level of competence and expertise, the level of professional training of their specialists. But making decisions for clubs – which players, coaches and sporting directors to hire – would be wrong.

— Some time ago, the issue of a tax on foreign coaches was discussed. Was it discussed today, is it on the agenda?

— This issue was discussed some time ago, but no decision was reached then. If we talk about approaches to the work of coaches, including foreign ones, we see advantages in attracting strong foreign specialists to work in clubs and academies. At the same time, we are interested in having domestic specialists work alongside them, adopt their experience, and develop professionally.

If at some point we see that such a model does not work, that only foreign coaches work with Russian players, and Russian ones do not, then, of course, we will need to make decisions on regulation,” a Match TV correspondent reports Dyukov’s words.