In Russia, sport historically belonged to the social sphere and only in recent years proved to have a commercial potential. Comparing with European countries, the sports industry of Russia should be recognized as emerging. The burden of financing professional sports clubs has not shifted to private investors and remains with regional budgets or state-owned companies. These funds are spent mainly on salaries of players (often legionnaires) and agents’ fees. Not earningon core business: media rights & match day, clubs lose their main part of earnings when the sponsor leaves, and are liquidated. The most popular sport in Russia (based on the number of people involved), and, consequently, the most promising from a commercial perspective, is football. Based on this, the aim of this research is to develop recommendations for improving the financial stability of football clubs as part of the licensing procedure. The current edition of the licensing rules for football clubs in England, Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and the scientific publications of domestic and foreign scientists dedicated to this issue acted as an analytical base. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the current level of football development in the Russian Federation, provides the main indicators characterizing its effectiveness, identifies problems and difficulties that impede positive dynamics. Based on this analysis and best European practices, the author proposed measures that will help to solve existing problems, attract private investors and increase the efficiency of spending budget funds. The proposed methods can be implemented in other team sports and accelerate development in terms of commercial potential, sports and social results.