Russian clubs will be banned from signing Turkish players during the winter break, the Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has confirmed.
“I think that, if anyone wants [to sign a Turkish player] during the upcoming transfer window in the winter break, there will not be such a possibility,” Mutko, who is also president of the Russian Football Union (RFU) and sits on the Fifa exco, said.
“We don’t need to jump too far ahead but [the clubs] have already got the message.”
Asked to confirm that he was instructing clubs not to sign Turkish players, Mutko replied: “Of course, absolutely.”
Russia introduced a raft of sanctions against Turkey on Saturday after a Russian war plane was shot down by Turkish forces last week.
Mutko said the sports sanctions would not affect Turkish players currently playing for Russian clubs,.
“Everyone who has an existing contract will carry on working,” Mutko said.
Turkish companies already involved in constructing stadiums for the 2018 World Cup in Russia would be allowed to continue, he said. “They won’t be here in the future but at the moment they have contracts and these will not be looked into,” the minister said.
Earlier the sports ministry recommended that Russian soccer clubs cancelled winter training camps in.
Relations between the two countries have been strained since Tuesday’s incident near the Syrian-Turkish border in which a Russian pilot was killed. A Russian marine wwas also killed in an aborted rescue mission.
