DPA/Moscow

Fabio Capello, who coaches Russia’s struggling national football team under one of the sport’s most lucrative contracts, said Friday that he was “immensely outraged” by criticism from the head of the Russian Football Union.
Capello told state media that the union’s head, Nikolai Tolstykh, was out of line for saying that Capello shouldn’t complain about unpaid wages because his salary significantly dwarfs that of average Russians.
Capello, an Italian national, was reportedly the highest-paid coach at last summer’s World Cup with an annual salary of 11mn dollars. But he was barraged with criticism when the Russian team crashed out of the tournament without a single win.
The coach then reportedly went unpaid for half a year before Russia’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov, agreed to lend the football union 6mn dollars to pay him in February.
But now Capello’s son and spokesman, Pierfilippo Capello, is threatening to sue the football union because he says the coach’s salary for last month went unpaid.
He told state news agency TASS on Thursday that there is also a discrepancy over the amount of back wages, which were paid according to the ruble’s current exchange rate, considerably weaker than when those wages were due.
Tolstykh fired back at Pierfilippo Capello on Friday, telling popular sports news agency Sovsport that the Italian coach should be thankful for his high income.
Tostykh added that it was untimely to smear the football union with such an issue as the country gets ready to celebrate Victory Day on Saturday. He said the salary could be discussed after the holiday.
Fabio Capello told TASS later on Friday that his complaint wasn’t connected with the holiday and that he was not demanding any more than was written in the contract.