MOSCOW, Oct 5, Alexander Sergeev. President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Dyukov told reporters that it is premature to congratulate St. Petersburg Zenit on winning the national championship. After 11 rounds of the Russian Premier League (RPL), Zenit, who scored 29 points, is leading the standings. Second-placed CSKA Moscow are six points behind. The Petersburg club has become the champion of Russia for the last four years. «I would not crown Zenit prematurely. 11 rounds have passed, a difference of six points. You remember that in 2012 Manchester United had an eight-point lead over City, but in the end, Manchester City became the champions. We know many examples when clubs with great opportunities could not convert this into a result, «Dyukov said. «We have a lot of interesting matches in the RPL. Someone thinks that the RPL level has decreased, It's hard to judge. You need international official matches to understand this. If you look at the statistics in terms of intensity, there is an improvement. Plus, the league has become younger. I don't like the fact that there is a big difference between the first and second eight. There are various reasons for that. It shows that we made the right decision that we did not expand the RPL,» the head of the RFU said.
