MOSCOW, December 20 (R-Sport) - Two-time Russian football champions Rubin Kazan fired Kurban Berdyev on Friday after 12 years as coach, following a run of poor results, according to officials.
Berdyev, 61, was the longest-serving coach in the Russian Premier League and took Rubin to domestic and continental glory undreamt of when he arrived at the then second-division side in 2001.
As well as the 2008 and 2009 league championships, Rubin won the Russian Cup under Berdyev and stunned Barcelona by winning 2-1 at Camp Nou in a memorable 2009 Champions League game.
But Rubin have struggled this season and are 11th in the RPL standings at the winter break, a fact that put Berdyev under pressure from the head of the regional government in the republic of Tatarstan, which owns the club and appears to be its sole financial sponsor.
“Today there was a meeting of the supervisory board of the club, as a result of which a decision was taken to terminate the contracts with Kurban Berdyev, [general director] Andrei Gromov and [vice-president] Kamil Iskhakov,” regional president Rustam Minnikhanov’s office said in a statement.
Minnikhanov had fiercely criticised Berdyev and the team’s players Tuesday, saying that they should be “ashamed” of their poor form and that he would “chase them all out.”
One player tipped to leave Rubin is Israeli midfielder Bibras Natkho, whose contract expires this month. He has been linked with a number of clubs across Europe, most notably English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur and Turkish Super Lig outfit Besiktas.
There have also been reports that French midfielder Yann M'Vila could depart after being linked with Liverpool and Napoli.
No replacement candidates as coach were considered at the meeting, the statement added. All three of the dismissed men were regarded as leading figures in Rubin’s transfer-market dealings, raising questions about how the club will act when the winter transfer window opens.
The new coach will have plenty of time to prepare before his first competitive match, away to Spain’s Real Betis in the Europa League last 32 on February 20. The return leg will take place a week later and Russian league action will resume on March 8.
During his time at Rubin, Turkmenistan-born Berdyev became known throughout Russia for his habit of holding Islamic prayer beads during games. His side were notably consistent in Europe, reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League in each of the last five seasons.
This season, they qualified from a Europa League group containing England's Wigan Athletic, Slovenia's Maribor and Belgium's Zulte Waregem.
Berdyev leaves Rubin with the best defensive record of any club in the Russian league this season, with just 14 goals conceded in 19 games. However, an injury to top scorer Jose Salomon Rondon took its toll as Rubin have scored only 21 goals, far fewer than the title-chasing teams with which they had been expected to compete.
In July, Berdyev was embroiled in controversy in Kazan when his car was searched by police in connection with a rape investigation in which the coach's nephew was a suspect. There is no suggestion that Berdyev acted unlawfully.
