Foreign coaches Luciano Spalletti of Zenit and Guus Hiddink of Anzhi. (Getty)

The Russian FA has decided that starting in June, Russian Premier League clubs that hire a foreign coach will have to pay a tax of $158,200. And yes, this decision comes from the same Russian FA that appointed Italian Fabio Capello to replace Dutchman Dick Advocaat as the national team manager last July.

From Reuters:

"Starting from June 1, any Premier League club whose head coach is not a Russian citizen must pay a one-time fee of five million roubles ($158,200). First division clubs will pay 2.5 million roubles," the RFU said in a statement on its website (www.rfs.ru).

The rule also applies to coaches who have dual citizenship and the money will go to support youth soccer in Russia, the RFU said.

RFU chief Nikolai Tolstykh said Mikhail Gershkovich, who heads the Russian coaches' union, was behind the idea.

"He feels we must support our own people," Tolstykh said.

Nine of the league's 16 managers are foreign born, which shows why Russian coaches are so upset. This isn't the first

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Two months after selling Mario Balotelli to Milan, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has come to the realization that losing the 22-year-old striker has hurt his club. The combination of Balotelli and Mancini's frequent clashes and Milan's willingness to pay the €20+ million necessary to bring him to the club he supported as a child ended Mario's productive two and half years in England (both as a footballer and a headline generator) before he could completely fulfill the potential Mancini always knew he had. And now the manager seems to lament cashing out too soon.

From Reuters:

"Mario scored 15 goals last season. This is the difference, the goals we did not score," Mancini told a news conference on Friday. [...]

City scored a total of 93 league goals last season. In 30 games so far this campaign they have found the back of the net 55 times compared to 72 at the same stage last season.

"The difference is that we score 20 goals less than last year. Only this difference," said

From left to right: Demba Ba, Juan Mata, Fernando Torres and John Terry prepare to haunt your dreams.

Boiling down the annual process of selling a slew of new kits to its "you idiots will buy anything that has your favorite club's badge on it" essence, adidas is launching Chelsea's 2013/14 home kit by proposing fans pre-order it "without seeing it." And to entice this brand of blind consumerism, they've dumped blue paint on half naked Chelsea players to give you the nightmare fuel necessary to drive you to the shops in a cold terror sweat.

Here's the new ad in which John Terry, David Luiz and others get drenched in blue, which the adidas YouTube channel has condescendingly titled "It's blue, what else matters? -- Pre-order: 2013/14 adidas Chelsea FC kit WITHOUT seeing it"...

Former Wigan and Fulham midfielder and all-around fun guy Jimmy Bullard was forced to retire at the age of 34 due to knee injuries back in October. An abrupt departure from the game can be a difficult thing for a person who has devoted their life to football, but Bullard has quickly filled his time with other interesting endeavors like starring in music videos and making a run at becoming a pro golfer.

Above is Bullard's two-role performance in the enjoyable video for Gorgeous George's "John Wayne Enterprises." In it, Bullard plays the titular nefarious builder as well as the man in a cowboy hat and stick-on mustache bent on making him pay for his misdeeds.

Being a music video actor isn't a full-time gig, though. And athlete like Bullard needs an outlet for his competitive spirit. So he's trying to turn his hobby of playing golf into something more and so far he's done well to reach the final stage of PGA EuroPro Tour (the third tier of professional golf) Qualifying School after shooting 75-76 in the two rounds of local qualifying.

Bullard told Golf Monthly:

"It was a little bit into the unknown for me. It was a different pressure, but I really enjoyed it. I couldn't sleep last night, I just wanted to get out there again.

"I have enjoyed it so much and it has given me a bit of direction in my life. I finished playing football in late October and coming out of a sport you have played for 15 years, it goes stone dead and it is quite a surreal feeling.

"I had quite a weird feeling going on in myself, and golf has got me out of trouble a little bit."

Good luck to Jimmy on getting that tour card. But if that doesn't work out, he can always resume his career as the greatest shampoo pitchman ever...

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Melbourne Victory completed an impressive comeback against Perth Glory that culminated in an extra-time winner to advance to the second round of the A-League finals series. Melbourne were down 1-0 to Perth (it would've been 2-0 had they converted an 87th-minute penalty) until a penalty of their own during injury-time forced the match to extra time, where Archie Thompson scored the winning goal in the 95th minute.

Thompson decided to cap his celebration by pulling out the corner flag and swinging it like a golf club. But teammate Marco Rojas, who set him up for the goal, happened to be running by and disrupted the follow through.

Here are the match highlights (Thompson's swing is at the 3:00 mark)...

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Following Chelsea's 3-1 Europa League win against Rubin Kazan, the man believed to be Fernando Torres playing in a protective mask was revealed to be Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez. The ruse was discovered when several Chelsea fans spotted the real Torres watching the match in a pub near Stamford Bridge. When asked who he was, he first claimed to be "Ternando Borres" before admitting that wasn't true.

The 35-year-old Raul, who currently plays for Al-Sadd in the Qatar Stars League, scored twice against Rubin Kazan while wearing the mask and posing as Torres, who only had two goals in his previous 13 appearances. Under questioning from the press after the match, Chelsea interim manager Rafa Benitez told how to masked Torres switch came about.

"It was a very good plan," Benitez told reporters. "When Fernando broke his nose and was told he would have to play in a mask, we knew we had the opportunity to make a switch. I knew Raul was feeling bored in Qatar and wanted one last taste of

Circus performer Davide Zimmari has been putting on shows with dogs for many years, but recently he took the concept to another level by staging a new twist on the tired format of Barcelona-Real Madrid matches. With dogs wearing the shirts of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, Andres Iniesta and Xavi, Zimmari staged his own Clasico and the result was remarkably similar to the human version.

Just like the real thing, there were violent, chaotic scrums, an abundance of controversial moments and a questionable level of reference influence. The match began with Zimmari, serving as the referee, tying the goalkeeper dogs to their respective nets as the Champions League anthem rang out. Then the music turned to "Yakety Sax" and the match began.

A balloon served as the ball and Zimmari tapped it in either direction while constantly blowing his whistle as the dogs attempted to head it into the net. There was barking, slobbering, goals and even a few heavily edited saves. The

Ali Sabbagh: A dirty ref in more ways than one? (Reuters)

Amidst the global crackdown on match fixing, investigators have had to follow the money trail that is corrupting football. But now, they turn their focus to a different kind of booty as three Lebanese refs have been charged with receiving sexual favors to fix an Asian Football Confederation Cup match in Singapore.

From Reuters:

Referee Ali Sabbagh and assistant referees Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb were hastily replaced by officials from Thailand and Malaysia for Tampines Rovers' 4-2 defeat by East Bengal of India on Wednesday.

The Lebanese trio were taken to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) instead and appeared in a Singapore court on Thursday.

"Ali Sabbagh, Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb were produced in court, each with a charge of one count of corruptly receiving gratification, in the form of free sexual service," the CPIB said in a statement.

With this alternate threat has been identified, it's time FIFA shows its commitment to fighting for the honor of the game. The