After several months in the prison camp, Russian footballers Pawel Mamayev and Alexander Kokorin, convicted of a fight, are to be released prematurely. The two former internationals would be released on probation in September, judged a court near Belgorod on Friday. Against the decision but could still be appealed.
Mamayev and Kokorin had been sentenced in May for about one and a half years each in a prison camp; they were already in custody since October last year. In a Moscow café they had attacked and injured several people, including senior officials of the Russian Ministry of Commerce. The brother of Kokorin and another companion were also convicted.
The striker Kokorin and midfielder Mamajew played for years in the Russian national team. They had been temporarily excluded from the Sbornaja in 2016 because they had ordered after the European Championship at a party in Monaco for about 250 000 € champagne. Both wanted to resume their football career after their release, the lawyers said according to Russian agencies.
