Foreign Kicks — Russian Women’s Championship 2012-13

Ekaterina Grishenkova reports from Moscow on the first Russian women’s championship played on an autumn-to-spring calendar, which kicked off on 23 August 2012 as the twenty-first and most unusual edition. She traces the competition from FC Interros Moscow’s 1992 win through Energiya Voronezh’s five titles and Rossiyanka’s three doubles, and marks the death in July 2012, aged 42, of Tatiana Egorova, the former national captain, Turbine Potsdam player and Rossiyanka coach. Eight teams contest the Premier Division, with Donchanka debuting and Energiya Voronezh disbanded through financial problems. Zorkiy lead on 23 points, Olesya Kurochkina is top scorer with ten, and a limit of five foreign players on the field at once has been introduced.