Russian football clubs banned from signing Turkish players

By Stephen Topping, Reporter | 29 November 2015

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko confirms that the country's professional football clubs will not be allowed to sign Turkish players in the upcoming winter break.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has confirmed that the country's professional football clubs will not be allowed to sign Turkish players in the upcoming winter break.

The move follows Turkey's shooting of a Russian warplane on its Syrian border on Tuesday, November 24, which has since strained relations between the two countries.

Mutko confirmed that clubs will not be able to sign players from Turkey, although they will be able to retain Turkish players who are still under contract, such as Rubin Kazan's Gokdeniz Karadeniz.

Speaking to Russian news agency R-Sport, Mutko said: "If anyone wants [to sign a Turkish player] during the break, there will not be such a possibility.

"Everyone who has an existing contract will carry on working. They won't be here in the future but at the moment they have contracts and these will not be looked into."

Mutko also confirmed that Russian athletes will be able to compete in Turkish-held events, but the former Zenit St Petersburg president advised against football clubs holding winter training camps in Turkey.