Soccer-Big-spending Dynamo set bad example - Russian official

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Dynamo Moscow's exclusion from European competition for one season should be a lesson to other overspending Russian clubs, Vyacheslav Koloskov, honorary president of the Russian Football Union, told Reuters. Dynamo, who won the Soviet championship on 11 occasions but not since 1976, have been banned from next season's Europa League after failing to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules. Bankrolled by the VTB Bank, the Blue and Whites are one of the richest clubs in Russia and are 60.9 percent owned by the Russian state government. "The rules regarding Financial Fair Play were not introduced yesterday. The leading Russian clubs have already been fined for breaking them," Vyacheslav Koloskov, honorary president of the RFS, told Reuters. "However, Dynamo did not want to learn from the mistakes of others. The result is a blow for the reputation of the club and is an embarrassment for Russian football. The players can only think now if it is worth staying at a club, which will be without European football," the former FIFA vice-president added. Over the last two seasons Dynamo have splashed out nearly 100 million euros on new players. Last season the capital club signed Valbuena from Olympique Marseille, although he is believed to be considering his future with Dynamo, William Vainqueur from Standard Liege, Alexander Buttner from Manchester United and Tomas Hubocan from Zenit St Petersburg. Dynamo are now undergoing a restructuring process with the club`s sporting director Guram Adzhoev having left. "All the clubs in the world spend more than they earn. However, the situation with Dynamo was something special. This is a clear example of how not to work," Koloskov said. "I hope this negative experience will be a wake-up call for our other teams so that we will not have any more problems with Financial Fair Play." A number of leading Russian clubs are still financed by companies with close ties to the state or by state monopolies. Champions Zenit St Petersburg are backed by the biggest gas company in the world -- Gazprom -- while Lokomotiv Moscow are bankrolled by Russian Railways. According to the Alisher Aminov, president of the Fund for Football Development -- an organisation founded by the union of Russian coaches and the Moscow Region government in 2008 -- continuing to live on state money cannot be sustained. "Clubs in the Russian Premier League spent 1.2 billion of state money, but managed to earn just 36.7 million. They are basically bankrupt," Aminov told Reuters. Over the last five years three clubs playing in the Russian Premier League, FC Moscow, Saturn Ramenskoye and Alania Vladikavkaz, have been declared bankrupt and forced to reform. Russian Minister for Sport, Vitaly Mutko, has been at the forefront of an initiative to make clubs more self-sufficient. Last week the Russian government passed a law that forbid clubs from spending state money on buying players. "The clubs should make sure they act within the framework of state policy, which needs to put a renewed emphasis on the Russian national team and change its fortunes for the better," Mutko told the TASS news agency. "We already have problems with a number of sports. The state allows to spend money, and it must implement rules concerning how this should be done." (editing by Justin Palmer)