Top European Soccer Club Is to Be Led by Former Potash King

(Bloomberg) -- The AS Monaco football club is set to hand over the reins to a Russian industrialist with plenty of experience in digging up minerals but none in extracting victories in top-flight European soccer.

Oleg Petrov will be appointed as Monaco's chief executive officer as its Russian billionaire owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev, shakes up the team's management following poor results, people with knowledge of the matter said. While Petrov hasn't worked in soccer management before, he used to be sales chief at Uralkali PJSC, the potash market leader once owned by Rybolovlev.

Petrov may be appointed at the club's board meeting on Feb. 22, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public. He'll take up the post following the ouster of Vadim Vasilyev, who took the club to a French championship title win, but whose recent tenure has been marked by losses and a drop down the league rankings. Rybolovlev's spokeswoman declined to comment.

Petrov had been regarded as a key figure in the global potash market when a price-fixing scandal engulfed Uralkali and the industry's other main player. Uralkali's CEO was arrested in Belarus, and Petrov was also pursued by the country's authorities. He left the company in 2015, and briefly worked for Alrosa PJSC, the world's biggest diamond miner.

Rybolovlev discussed Vasilyev's departure from Monaco in a statement that said that “it is time for change,” relating not only to the team's players, “but also to the top management of the club.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong, Amanda Jordan

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