Malcom saw it as a “bridge”, an experience at one of the world’s biggest clubs which automatically inflated his status when he arrived at Russia’s richest club Zenit for a fee of €40m.

Ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the majority of western countries have been working to marginalize Russia by imposing sanctions and moving away from dependence on ...

If a drone flew over Russia at the World Cup in 2018, or Qatar (in 2022), it immediately gets shot down. No questions about it. It’s gone. There were mechanisms in place to do that.