Kerimov is unlikely to be the only client to have given Barclays cause for reflection.

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Oleg Deripaska, Alisher Usmanov and Suleiman Kerimov all recently faced margin calls--and sharp hits to their wealth.

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Between 10 and 15 people were detained by early afternoon, Kerimov said.

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But it is tough to see the Dagestani club as anything other than a rich man's plaything bankrolled by the billionaire Suleyman Kerimov.

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Mr. Kerimov was among Russian investors snapping up the shares.

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That individual says Kerimov did not make the purchase, though Barclays' pitch exemplifies the close links its top personnel enjoy with some of the world's wealthiest and least-known people.

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Off the pitch, Kerimov also plays a high-stakes game.

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These people say the investment was made through Nafta Moskva, a company owned by Suleiman Kerimov, a Shuvalov friend and rising star among the business elite with interests in trading, real estate and finance.

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At one point Barclays even tried to tap Kerimov for money by encouraging the oligarch to buy into a placement of its shares offered to fifty select parties, according to another banker with knowledge of the issue.

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Kerimov is building a 45, 000-seat stadium to replace Anzhi's 15, 200-seat roofless bowl, but it is hard to see the new facility as an instant money-spinner: Makhachkala's population is less than 600, 000, and Dagestan is one of the poorest regions of Russia.

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