From the stands · 16 min read
Where are Russia's RPL footballers forged?
Part two of a study of where the league's Russian players come from.
Topic
Not only Baltika
Texts where the Kaliningrad club is not the centre: other RPL sides, national teams, VAR and the geography of Russian football.
From the stands · 6 min read
How Turkey crashed out beautifully — again. The story of a man looking for a temporary national team
The story of a man looking for a temporary national team to support.
From the stands · 13 min read
Where are the RPL's Russian players born? Moscow and Krasnodar give a quarter, the Urals have almost vanished
A map of where the league's Russian players come from.
From the stands · 4 min read
Gusev revived Dynamo, but you cannot cure a system with a plaster
Losing to Krasnodar on penalties is not a tragedy or even news — just another page written in the same ink of disappointment.
People · 3 min read
Tamerlan Musaev — one of ours, combative, useful. Just not the dream number nine
We remember him differently, but in Moscow every action of his is examined under a very different lens.
From the stands · 2 min read
VAR in the RPL: the scariest rectangle after a utility bill
VAR was meant to make Russian football fairer; sometimes it seems to have only added a dramatic pause before the next scandal.
From the stands · 3 min read
Italy is hanging over the abyss again. The fear is not of the opponent but of its own history
On Italy, fear and its own history.