From Russia with love ...to, er, England fans
Hand of friendship for crunch f irst game
IT might reasonably be assumed that English footballers and fans will get a frosty reception when their World Cup campaign in Russia kicks off tomorrow night.
After all, diplomatic relations between the UK and Vladimir Putin’s regime are at their coolest for decades following the Salisbury poisoning.
So perhaps surprisingly, many citizens of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, in southern Russia, will be cheering on England during the team’s opening game against Tunisia.
That is just as well since only a paltry 2,000 England fans are expected at the 45,000-capacity Volgograd Arena for the crunch game, with many clearly put off by fears that they will receive a hostile welcome because of political tensions.
Yesterday, Russian medical student Natasha Grebyenkina, 21, was dressed in an England football shirt. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be shouting for England,’ she said as she walked near the stadium with her similarly attired friend, Anna Akmuradova.
Miss Akmuradova said: ‘We like the English. The people here are very friendly and welcoming – there’s nothing to be afraid of.’
It will not only be the welcome that is warm for those who make the journey. Manager Gareth Southgate’s team were arriving today in Volgograd, from their tournament base 1,000 miles north on the Gulf of Finland, to around 90F (32C) heat.
The poorest of the 12 World Cup host cities, Volgograd is closer to Tehran and Istanbul than Moscow and St Petersburg.
For this World Cup, the weight of expectation that has crushed England’s footballers at previous tournaments is said – by England supporters and players at least – not to hang quite so heavily over Southgate’s young squad. Although they are not yet what the manager calls the ‘finished article’, they will have acquitted themselves well, most pundits agree, if they make the quarter finals.
Inevitably, and some would say foolishly, when the referee blows his whistle to start the game at 7pm tomorrow, some England fans will still allow themselves to dream of winning the World Cup.
‘You can’t help it, can you?’ said James Kasriel, 38, from Bristol, one of the first fans to arrive here. ‘It’s stupid really because I’ve been disappointed so many times. Your head tells you one thing and your heart another.’
Others attested to the friendliness of their Russian hosts.
Luke Summerhayes, from Hull, said: ‘They’ve been great, not at all as I expected.’
Roman Zaitsev, head of Volgograd’s branch of the Open Russia foundation, said the city was ready to ‘embrace’ the English, adding: ‘Moscow portrays Western countries in a negative way. But many see through it. And others simply don’t care and have little interest in Moscow politics.’
Anatoly Sologubov, who runs an online news agency, said: ‘People here are very familiar with the Premier League and there is an affinity with the English. I believe a lot of people in the stadium will be supporting England.
‘The great thing about the World Cup for us in Volgograd is that we get the rare opportunity to meet people from all over the world.
‘Football brings people together in a way that politics can’t.’
Nevertheless, many fans will have been horrified by the scenes at Euro 2016 in France when Russian hooligans went on the rampage, targeting England supporters in what was seen as State-sponsored violence.
But with the eyes of the world on Russia, President Putin has put Yevgeny Zinichev, 51, a former deputy director of the FSB intelligence service, in charge of ensuring fans’ safety.
Meanwhile, a nightclub in the city is selling a £3 ‘Novichok’ cocktail, named after the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
‘English boys should try it if they dare,’ said 26-year-old Nastya as she sipped on the drink’s secret ingredients. ‘It’s deadly.’
‘Football brings people together’