Paul Goble
Staunton,
August 5 – Football matches in Russia increasingly are attracting attention not
because of the level of skills of the competitors but because of the behavior
of the fans who use such matches, especially when they are between teams from
different republics or nationalities to vent their nationalistic and xenophobic
views.
A
game between the Central Army club and the Anzhi team from the North Caucasus
last Saturday provides a clear indication of this because in contrast to many
such games the entire country got to hear the exchanges because one of the organizers
left a microphone on too close to the fans (kavpolit.com/articles/90_minut_mezhnatsa-18869/).
Commenting
on this situation for Kavkazskaya politika, Vasily Polonsky points out that “the
fans of the army club in recent years have acquired the unofficial title of the
most intolerant and aggressive regarding Caucasians, Muslims, and African
Americans on the territory of Russia.”
Indeed,
he continues, “in the majority of attacks on Caucasians and immigrants in
Moscow, the fans of the Army club are participating,” although he adds that “no
one is saying that only they are doing this, but the regularity of such cases
[of their participation] forces one to reflect.”
Things
have only gotten worse since the army club’s decision in 2011 not to take part
in matches in the North Caucasus, a decision “one can understand,” Polonsky
says, “because after what [its fans] have done in Moscow regarding people from
the Caucasus republics, they are hardly going to be met there with bread and
salt.”
What
makes this and similar decisions to boycott matches in the North Caucasus is
that “the Russian Football Union loves to conduct marches” precisely there because
of the existence of good stadiums there in which they can take place. But even
with the boycotts, there are problems because North Caucasian teams still come
to Moscow.
Last
weekend, even before the match began, fans on both sides began to shoot
imprecations at each other as attempts at intimidation. Normally, people beyond
the stadium don’t hear what is said, but this time, someone left a microphone
too close to the fans and everyone watching the game on Moscow television heard
what was being said.
For
a sampling of what the Russian fans said about the North Caucasians, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FapctMD-tI&feature=youtu.be.
Sadly, the Russian fans did not limit themselves to shouting; they physically
attacked some of the fans of the North Caucasus team and put up banners
suggesting that the latter were from “the planet of the apes.”
Such
things, Polonsky argues, “could not pass unnoticed because the issue of
relations among nationalities is a most interesting one for domestic media and
of course, the very most nerve-wracking for the Russian authorities who cannot
close it off and even kill it with their own forces.”
Immediately
after Saturday’s match, each team, trying to claim the high ground, blamed the
other, with the Russian side blaming the Daghestanis for attacks on Russians
and the Daghestani side declaring that “if this entire situation had taken
place outside the stadium, then [the Russian fans] would have received
sentences for inciting inter-ethnic hostility.”
Russian television commentator
Aleksey Andronov told his viewers that he had been at many football matches in
Russia and in Ukraine, “but such a quantity of crude language over 90 minutes”
as happened last weekend, he had “never heard anywhere.” Why did this happen, is “difficult to say.”
But in words that will only raise the
temperature of such conflicts, he suggested that “most likely this was a
planned action,” even one that was “financed,” adding that “unfortunately, this
is what is taking place in our country” now.”
As a result, there is likely to be more of this.
What happened at this match and what
has happened at others like it, Polonsky continues, “forces one to think about
who precisely benefits from this especially given that all the enumerated
violations of the law are documented and fixed by video cameras but there are
no arrests or even the opening of criminal cases.”
Andronov agrees and asks
rhetorically whether team managers should use “baseball bats” to keep their
fans in line given that Russian laws are anything but perfect and in any case, “no
one is rushing to observe them.”
Polonsky concludes with regret: “It
turns out,” he says, “that our football is a reflection of what is taking place
in our government.” The only thing that such conflicts among football fans seem
to have achieved, he continues, is that “our supreme power” for a long time has
preferred ice hockey – in which, although Polonsky doesn’t mention it, there
are few non-Russian players.
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