“When Suleiman Kerimov purchased Anzhi Makhachkala and thrust the club onto the back pages of newspapers across Europe, thanks to their extravagant transfer budget, the world was led to believe that this was the birth of a team that could propel itself to domestic and European success. The signings of Samuel Eto’o, Roberto Carlos and Yuri Zhirkov proved to be a minor flurry, before the likes of Willian, Igor Denisov and Aleksandr Kokorin followed suit for equally impressive sums. But like any fairytale, there are always a few bumps along the way and over the past 24 hours the club has been thrown into turmoil.” Slavic Football Union

Anzhi Makhachkala: Why are big-spending Russians cutting back?
“When news broke that Anzhi Makhachkala, the billionaire-backed Russian Premier League club, were cutting their budget and selling their top players, many journalists – myself included – thought it was a late April fool. But this was no joke. In the hours that followed a series of announcements, each more puzzling than the other, confirmed “The Anzhi Project”, at least as we previously knew it, was coming to an end. Suleyman Kerimov, Anzhi’s billionaire backer since January 2011, was no longer happy to finance a gravy train. The club’s budget, officially quoted at an extravagant £116m per season (second only to Zenit St Petersburg in Russia), was to be reduced to between £32m and £45m.” BBC

“The south of Serbia, with its rich and complicated past, is something of a historical and political melting pot. Niš, the region’s most populous city, is no different. Over the years, the city bore witness to the coming and going of a multitude of would-be conquerors, each of whom recognised the city’s importance as a gateway between East and West, a metaphorical confluence of cultures, ideologies, and nations. Consequently, Niš has long been possessed of a certain flexibility of nature, an ability to seamlessly adjust to the incursion of a previously unfamiliar authority. This year, the city’s illustrious football club, Radnički, has been obliged to exhibit a similarly acquiescent character.” World Soccer

“The south of Serbia, with its rich and complicated past, is something of a historical and political melting pot. Niš, the region’s most populous city, is no different. Over the years, the city bore witness to the coming and going of a multitude of would-be conquerors, each of whom recognised the city’s importance as a gateway between East and West, a metaphorical confluence of cultures, ideologies, and nations. Consequently, Niš has long been possessed of a certain flexibility of nature, an ability to seamlessly adjust to the incursion of a previously unfamiliar authority. This year, the city’s illustrious football club, Radnički, has been obliged to exhibit a similarly acquiescent character.” In Bed With Maradina