Despite the numerous interesting events during the 2004 soccer seasons, the most important question for Russia was left unanswered: Has the Rubicon been crossed and Russian soccer adopted modern methods of management and administration? The conflict between the president of the Russian Soccer Union, Vyacheslav Koloskov, and Federal Physical Culture and Sports Agency head Vyacheslav Fetisov, at the end of the year is the result of conflicting views about this issue and not the disgraceful 1-7 defeat in Lisbon. Russian sports are divided. Sports officials in the regions unconditionally support Koloskov because they are used to him after his nearly 25-year tenure as the leader of Russian soccer. In contrast, in Moscow and St. Petersburg even top officials disapprove of Koloskov, however they do not have a replacement for him.

Fetisov's blitzkrieg for "Koloskov's voluntary resignation," failed, and the issue was not even put on the agenda of the soccer union's executive committee's regular meeting. Koloskov said he would remain in his position until after the 2006 World Cup if Russia qualified for the finals, but that he would voluntarily resign at the end of 2005 if Russia failed to advance beyond the qualifying stage.

The future of the national team's coach, Georgy Yartsev, is also uncertain. He received an unsatisfactory mark for Russia's performance during Euro 2004 but remained in his job. The soccer union's executive committee recently criticized him for Russia's performance in the qualifying stages of the 2006 World Cup. It seemed that it had been decided to fire him, Koloskov decided to give Yartsev another chance. On December 24, Yartsev must submit a training program for the spring qualifying games to the executive committee. If he does not or Koloskov does not think the program is adequate, the winner of last year's playoff game against Wales will certainly have to leave his post. Other national coaches and officials are optimistic about the team's future. For instance, the general manager of the national team, Alexander Chernov, told RIA Novosti, "in the spring there will be difficult but winnable games against Liechtenstein and Estonia and by the summer the national team must be second or first on the table. It will be clear who qualified for the finals in Germany after the games against Portugal and Slovakia in the fall."

There will changes in the Russian league to limit the number of foreign players on a team. In 2004 Lokomotiv defeated CSKA, which spent tens of millions of dollars to purchase new players, in the championship.

According to the new rules, no more than eight foreign players can be on a roster during a game and no more than five can be on the field at once.

There will likely be debates about the condition that the rule does not apply to players who have played on their national teams for more than ten FIFA category A games. The games will be counted from January 1, 2003. This will serious alter teams' plans to form their line-ups in the off-season.

These restrictions are most likely to limit the flow of second tier players to Russia but will unlikely solve the foreign player issue. England has an effective method to solve this problem. There is no legal restriction on the number of foreign players on an English Premier League team, but players must have a work permit in Britain. The permits are only given to players who have played a certain, substantial number of games for their national teams. Will Russia adopt this system?

Now most Russian teams are quickly getting rid of the surplus foreigners, and looking for Russian players to replace them. The price for Russian players have skyrocketed in the past few years.

MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti sports commentator Mikhail Smirnov)