Russia won’t let hooligans ruin image
MASSIVE CRACKDOWN Hosts take elaborate measures to ward off trouble in the stands and streets during the monthlong extravaganza
ignoring local efforts to curb hooliganism.
‘WALL TO WALL’
“There is a long-standing tradition among hooligans dating back to pre-soviet times called ‘wall to wall’. It involves groups of welltrained young men arranging to meet in a forest or the countryside for hand-to-hand combat. They have no interest in engaging with outsiders. This is essentially what the BBC documentary focused on when trying to depict how violent football fans over here will be during the World Cup,” said Andrew Flint, a football journalist based in Tyumen, Russia. He added that British media organisations, in particular, ‘picked up on comments made by individuals who want to be heard’.
When this reporter reached out to Andrei Malosolov, former spokesperson of the Russian Football Union (RFU) and a founding member of the country’s national supporters’ club, he said he has had ‘endless questions about scary Russian fans’ since the Marseille incident.
Malosolov accused sections of the English and American media of frightening fans visiting Russia this summer. “A lot of the reports you read in the media from these two countries contain huge exaggerations. They are not just biased but also include complete untruths,” he said.
Malosolov’s accusations about fears being overblown may not be completely unfounded given the fact that Russian authorities have come down hard on football hooligans in the aftermath of Marseille.
Last year, the national supporters’ club that Malosolov helped found was forced to close. Its leader Aleksandr Shprygin has been under supervision of local authorities since members of the group publicly offered support to hooligans involved in the 2016 Euros.
According to Flint, law enforcement authorities have blacklisted some of the country’s most notorious hooligans from World Cup venues. Together with the Fan ID system for the tournament, t he arrangement is expected to be effective in keeping the most violent elements away from stadia.
“Leaders of prominent fan groups have been hauled in by the Federal Security Service and threatened with imprisonment --whether or not they actually transgress --- while they are also in regular and direct contact with all prominent fan groups and hooligans,” said Flint.
In an interview to news agency EFE, Alexey Sorokin, chief of local organising committee, had said that data of blacklisted individuals had been shared with various stakeholders of the World Cup. During the build-up to the tournament, the biggest domestic games in Russia have also seen police take tight security measures to prevent flare-ups. “When I attended the CSKA vs Spartak Moscow derby last season, armed policemen had lined up outside the nearest metro stations hours before the game and were diverting opposing fans to different routes,” Flint said.
The World Cup will be a different beast but Russia’s recent crackdown on football violence won’t be good news to those wanting to cause trouble this summer.
Moreover, the importance of the World Cup for Russia’s image will not be lost on local fans, according to Malosolov. It should be a big enough motivation to prevent them from getting into trouble with the law. “After all, it’s not just about the football itself. We understand how much we stand to gain from tourism because of the World Cup,” he said.