MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Premier League debutants FC Volga can help to condemn two established names to relegation if they win against Krasnodar on Friday in a full day of games for the league’s relegation group.
If 15th-placed FC Tomsk’s relegation is confirmed this weekend, this would leave the Premier League without a Siberian team for the first time since 2004.
A win for 14th-placed Volga would leave them at least nine points ahead of FC Tomsk, and 11 ahead of Spartak Nalchik with three games remaining. Volga holds the advantage in the event of a tiebreak with FC Tomsk.
If Volga win, the Siberians still have a hope of survival if they win against 10th-placed Amkar Perm and 13th-placed Krylya Sovetov fail to beat Nalchik, for whom anything but a win condemns them to return to the First Division for the first time since 2005.
FC Tomsk’s survival hopes were further dented Wednesday when the Russian Football Union suspended two of their players, defender Andrei Ivanov and midfielder Valery Klimov for four games for violent conduct in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Volga, ruling both men out until the end of the season.
Teams who manage to stay out of the two automatic relegation places could still fall into the trap of a relegation playoff against a First Division team if they finish 13th or 14th. Krylya Sovetov and Volga are currently in those positions.
In the day’s other game 12th-placed FC Rostov take on 11th-placed Terek Grozny.
