The Fakel Courier
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Kirill Danilin runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Merabi Uridia in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ilnur Alshin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Aziz Gaziev will join Fakel for nothing
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Aziz Gaziev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Fakel have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market10 Aug 2026
Talks stall between Fakel and Merabi Uridia
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to Ilnur Alshin
7.42, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Fakel had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market10 Aug 2026
A long bet from Fakel on Makar Yakovlev
He is 16, and nobody at Fakel signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
A long bet from Fakel on Aleksei Belousov
He is 14, and nobody at Fakel signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Fakel sign Viktor Baranovsky, one for the future
Viktor Baranovsky is 14, and Fakel have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
- Squad Alexandr Scherbakov signs a new deal
- Squad Daniil Frolkin dropped after a run of poor form
- Match Point won or two lost for Fakel?