METHODOLOGY OF THE PAPER
It is considered necessary to describe the methodology of the work to be undertaken in terms of structure. During the analysis of the external environment in Chapter 1 such a tool as PEST-analysis was used. PEST-analysis is a measurement technique that evaluates markets for a certain good or service at a specific moment. Political, Economic, Social, and Technological aspects are referred to as PEST. Organizations can make wiser business judgments when these aspects have been thoroughly examined. Despite its triviality, it is best suited for identifying the main trends and tendencies of the external environment in the industry. PEST - analysis was applied in this paper as follows: after reading the literature on factors affecting the football industry in Russia, a conclusion in the form of a choice of factors that have the greatest positive or negative impact on the Russian football industry was drawn. After that they were placed in a PEST table, which contains each of the factors divided into 4 areas (political, economic, social and technological). Given the fact that football industry is quite specific in terms of market, some of the factors may not be sufficiently clear to the reader. In this case, each of the factors was described and explained after the table, and those factors that are quite specific were described in more detail. The extended version of PESTLE-analysis was not chosen, because the legislative and environmental factors do not play a major role for further analysis.  In the second chapter, the Funnel Technique was applied. Usually, this technique is used during an interview, where there are 4 basic elements: Awareness - Interest - Desire - Action (in that order). The main purpose of using this tool is to narrow down the range of candidates, however, in this paper it was adapted in such a way as: first, the selection criteria were established, which were then described in detail in terms of both relevance and importance. The first criteria are the most important, so usually after the first two rounds of selection a large number of candidates were immediately eliminated (in this work the candidates are the RPL clubs; countries considered for internationalization; clubs for acquisition). Then the analysis was done in relation to these criteria and a selection was made among the candidates. Once there were only a few options left, they were examined in more detail in terms of each of the criteria, and indirect reasons in favor of one or another candidate taken into account. The same method was applied to the selection of the country that will be optimal to enter its football market. This technique is most useful for selection because it involves sifting out candidates that do not fit the predetermined criteria.  The data that appears in this paper was taken from secondary sources and was marked throughout with a reference to the primary source. This paper does not include a primary dataset, because this work does not offer a product or service, so such data would be useful if interviewed by club managers or the management of the Russian Football Union, but I didn’t have such opportunity to contact them, so otherwise the primary data taken from interviewers or through the survey is not needed. 
The main idea of this paper is to provide a review of the methods and techniques used in the Russian Football Industry. The main purpose of this review is to help the reader understand the structure and functionality of the work, and also provide a guide to the appropriate approaches to the analysis of the external environment in the Russian Football Industry.