45.
Opek
(13.04.2002 19:48)
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THE RUSSIAN HOOLIGAN SCENE
Russia...
At the moment the level of violence at and around football
stadiums in Russia is quite high and is getting higher every league game, but still many people haven´t heard anything about russian football supporters. One of the probable causes of such a thing is that russian hools haven´t got much money to travel a lot and put on shows in Europe.
That´s why usually at the international aways there´re
mostly people who have money but have nothing to do with real football fans/hooligans. Anyway, now the situation is getting much better and this article is written for you to learn the amazing and sometimes shocking truth about the Russian Hooligan Scene.
A bit of history – #1 – USSR.
First football fans in our country appeared quite a long time ago – in 1972, in the times of the former USSR. These first lads were Spartak Moscow supporters, which are still the strongest in Russia. In the end of ´70s almost all Moscow clubs had fans and in 1-2 years the movement of football fans appeared in other huge cities like St.Petersburg, Kiev, Minsk. In the beginning of the ´80s a great crisis happened in the movement of football fans, it happened because of the strickt communist government, which tried to prohibit perfomance at the stadiums and going to the away games several times. Anyway, it got much better during so called “perestroika” by Gorbatchev and ´88 - ´89
seasons are considered to be the best ones in the history of soviet fanatism. During this period all the premier league clubs (and several from the lower leagues) had great followings, and the most important event for a football fan was an away game. Here it´s necessary to mention how big USSR was (but Russia is still very big, anyway), so that the longest trip Moscow-Dushanbe made 3000 km – 3 days in the
train. Moscow clubs usually brought about 200-400
supporters. The USSR record was set in St.Petersburg ´89 by Spartak Moscow fans, when they brought 2500 lads. In 1990 there was the first important international away. Spartak Moscow brought 144 fans to Prague for the game with Sparta Praha. Moscovites were met in a very agressive way, so that riots occured all the matchday. Since then Spartak hools had been waiting for another away to Prague, and at last it
happened it ´99 Champions League. Inside USSR main riots usually happened, when supporters from Moscow came to cities of Ukraine and Lithuania. These countries always wanted to be separate from Russia and it always caused troubles. Even now, russian hools (particularly, Moscow) consider ukranians
to be the biggest enemy abroad – the oldest rivalry is set between Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kiev fans. The major conflict took place in Kiev on 20.09.87, when about 300 Spartak Moscow supporters fought with their rivals from Kiev in the city and the same happened at the train station after the game. Then Spartak hools took over in most clashes and this event became the hugest riot in the history of the soviet hooliganism.
A bit of history – #2 – Russia.
After the break of the USSR our own russian championship started (in ´92), it became less interesting and lost many good teams, many extreme aways for fans (like Kiev and Vilnus for moscovites). The low level of football probably caused a serious crisis in the supporters´ movement. Until
´94 -´95 there were almost no football fans at all, neither at home nor at away games (especially, comparing to what we´ve got now). But in ´95 things changes and began getting much better. In ´94 the most famous russian firm Flint´s Crew (Spartak Moscow) was born and it began the rivival of
the russian fanatism from the deep crisis. On 01.03.95 first serious clash between young russian rival firms occured. About 200 of rival hooligans fought each other in the very
center of Moscow – Arbat street. Then two rival sides were
presented by two firms which had set the oldest and probably
the most cruel rivalry in Russia, these sides were Flint´s
Crew and Red-blue Warriors, supporters of Spartak Moscow and
CSKA Moscow.
Main russian firms: allies and rivals.
Here we´ll try to name all clubs, whose supporters more or
less form the entire russian fan-scene. So... As you know,
in almost all countries there is a strongest club, which is
being seriously “disliked” by supporters of other teams. In
Russia this club is Spartak Moscow, and at the moment it has
got the hugest following, most violent and strong firms
(Flint´s Crew, Gladiators, Mad Butchers, Clockwork Oranges,
Young Crew, West End, Strong Active Group, Devils and some
others), which form probably the biggest hooligan element –
500-600 hard core. Spartak Moscow has got the best
attendance at home (20000 at normal games, 50000 at the
derbies and great games, 80000 at eurocups) and away games
(up to 8000-10000). Not long ago there was an alliance
against Spartak hools, formed of CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Moscow
and Zenit St.Perersburg fans, but at the moment the whole
alliance doesn´t exist any more because of the was between
Zenit and Dynamo hools, which was started in 1999 (right
after the Cup final, where Zenit beat Dynamo 3-1). Well,
CSKA and Dynamo fans are still friends, but the relations of
CSKA and Zenit lads aren´t clear yet (war or not..). Anyway,
the strongest enemy of Spartak hools and the only one which
is able to fight them at the moment are CSKA firms (Red-blue
Warriors, Kids, Red-blue Supporters). The fighting
efficiency is very high for sure. As for the other members
of the former alliance (Dynamo firms – Blue-white Dynamite,
Patriots and few others; Zenit firms – Jolly Nevsky,
Coalition, Crazy Fans, Nevsky Front and others) – they
haven´t got such strong and staunch hard core as Spartak or
CSKA. They´ve got a very good perfomance (especially, Zenit
lads which go really mad at their home stadium while the
local police in Petersburg stays very very calm) but not the
fighting efficiency, which is much more important for sure.
There´re also two other clubs in Moscow, which have got more
or less organized supporters – Torpedo (firms – West 5
Action Group, Supporters Group, Troublemakers) and Lokomotiv
(firms – Ultra Loko, Vikings and others). A strong rivalry
is set between these two sides, because being both small
they´re excellent opponents for each other. But. Spartak
fans are allied with Torpedo Supporters (and also with FC
Orel hools – Orel Butchers, it´s from the lower league), so
that Torpedo´s games with Spartak´s rivals quite often cause
clashes, especially when Spartak hools come to these games
(particularly, Torpedo – Zenit).
Main clashes between hooligans - ´97, ´98, ´99.
23.08.97, on the day of the game CSKA-Spartak a serious
clash kicked off in a park, which is quite close to Dynamo
stadium. About 300 rival hools took part in the battle. CSKA
fans outnumbered their rivals and won the fight. In a week,
on 30.08.97 (Spartak-Zenit) an enormous fight between Moscow
and Petersburg supporters happened. Not far from Lokomotiv
stadium about 200 Spartak fans attacked 500 away fans of
Zenit and just smashed all of them. Police had to shoot guns
to stop the riots. Lots of seriously injured fans from
Petersburg and about 170 nicked moscovites. On 29.07.98
(Spartak-Dynamo) about 100 Spartak hools with the help of
scouts spotted a place where Dynamo fans were gathering
before the game, attacked them and after a short-time fight
made them run. On 26.09.98 (CSKA-Spartak) about 200 CSKA
lads spotted Spartak hools who were gathering at a
hockey-game before football and suddenly attacked them.
There was almost no police around, so that the fight lasted
about 15 minutes. CSKA hools were well-armed and as a result
there were many injured Spartak fans. Result of the fight –
draw. In autumn 99 serious clashes happened on the day of
Zenit-Dynamo game. After several clashes in Moscow the war
had already started and that´s why a serious fight occured
in Petersburg, where about 200 rival hools participated.
Zenit hools were better prepared and organised and made
moscovites run. On 12.12.99 about 70 Spartak Moscow hools
came to the party of the CSKA lads (they had a party in a
club, celebrating the end of the 99 season), suddenly
attacked and smashed everyone who was outside the club,
where the party took place. Among total 300 CSKA lads there
were many seriously injured.
Relations with police.
Police in Russia and especially riot police, which is really
cruel here (like anywhere else, I suppose), have never
treated football fans as humans but like animals, and no one
could do anything did all they wanted – beat 12-15-year old
fans, rob them and so on. The situation did change in ´99,
when hard core hooligans from main firms started fighting
for their rights at the terraces. There were almost no
clashes between fans on the matchdays, while figths with
police happened almost every league tour. Major riots took
place at the away games of Spartak Moscow in Ramenskoye and
Nizhny Novgorod. In Ramenskoye after the goal of Spartak and
the slam on the terrace of red-white fans, riot police
started battering young fans, and the trouble kicked off!
Because hard core couldn´t stand it any more and they fought
police back! The battle was really huge and cruel, so that
the match was stopped for 15 minutes (for the first time in
the history of the russian football). Results – lots of
injured policemen and torn out plastic seats. Riot police
had to leave the stadium (otherwise hooligans would never
calm down) and only after that the riots stopped. In
N.Novgorod Spartak hools were ready for the riots, because
this town was famous for its cruel police (in ´97 when hools
wheren´t strong at all, police fought young fans and injured
many of them, so hools wanted a kind of a revenge). After
the first half the fight started and the results were almost
the same as in Ramenskoye, probably, even worse – more
injured policemen (1 riot policeman died in a hospital some
time later). The power of russian hools was also proved by
CSKA, Dynamo and Zenit fans at home and away games.
Russians abroad.
As it was mentioned in the beginning of the article –
russian fans, particularly, hools, haven´t got much money to
travel, especially after economic crisis in august ´98. But
the situation is getting much better and probably quite soon
we´ll start putting on shows in Europe. Anyway, at the
moment the best opportunities for us to show ourselves are
the trips to the countries of the former USSR and Eastern
Europe. And at the moment there are 3 major international
conflicts (Ukraine-Russia, Belarus-Russia, Sparta
Praha-Spartak Moscow), but, believe me, there will be much
more if we meet countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland,
Chezh Republic, Romania and some others... As for these
former events – the first one occured at the game
Ukraine-Russia in Kiev. Ukranians are a kind of national
rival for russian hools, so many firms decided to unite and
forget about their own rivalries for some time. As a result
russians brought about 2000 lads to Kiev (lots of hard core)
and riotted a lot in the city. During a game a really cruel
fight between russians and the riot police broke off. The
second huge fight happened in Minsk during the friendly game
Belarus-Russia. Normally belarus people are Slav brothers
for us, but these time some nascionalists of Belarus
provoked russian hools (totally we had 500 lads and hard
core part was mostly represented by Spartak Moscow hools).
First russians made these idiots run and then a fight with
riot police started. Police was really beaten but the riots
were taped, so after the game many hools were nicked. The
third event happened in Prague and was the major
international incident, caused by Spartak Moscow hooligans.
After chezhs met us badly in ´90, we´ve been waiting for
this away and in ´99 it happened at last. Unfortunately,
chezh didn´t bring anyone to Moscow, but anyway we aren´t so
coward as they are, we brought 800 lads to Prague – 300 hard
core. All the day we were searching for Sparta Praha
hoolsbut there was no one. So before the game we made a
march to the stadium wrecking the city centre, during the
game there was a cruel fight with chezh riot police (many
people were nicked after that because of CCTV, 1 hool had to
stay 5 months in prison), we also burnt Sparta flag and
fired lots of smoke-bombs (the game was stopped twice).
After the game we had a draw in a clash with Sparta hools in
the underground (at last we had found them, but most of them
were well-armed with knives) 50x50. Anyway, it was the
greatest hooligan action abroad Russia.
Current affairs (part of 2000 season).
The 2000 season was supposed to start in a really violent
way. And, actually, it did. In the very beginning there were
several extreme games – two derbies Spartak-CSKA (league and
cup) and Zenit-Dynamo. These were considered to be high-risk
ones even before the start of the championship, but besides
them every single tour caused problems – either between fans
or between fans and police. As for these 3 games: 1
(probably more people, 1 is official information) Zenit
supporter died in a clash of rival hooligans (about 350
lads) in St.Petersburg. First derby Spartak-CSKA caused
serious troubles at the terraces, both stands fought police.
As for hools themselves, they didn´t manage to clash and all
attempts of scouts were in vain. The second derby caused a
battle of Spartak hools with police and after the game rival
hools clashed in the underground (about 150 lads), CSKA
hoolies were well-armed what let them to take over. Before
these two derbies the leaders of the hard core
(Spartak&CSKA) met to cancell all kinds of armour in the
fans clashes (bottles, stones, sticks) and they made a kind
of a assignment. It was made also because of the death of a
fan in Petersburg (he died probably of a hit with a steel
stick) to prevent new deaths. But as you see CSKA hools
broke the assignment during the second derby. After that
there were games Spartak-Dynamo, Dynamo-Zenit and
Spartak-Zenit, and all of them besides the last one,
unfortunately, caused riots which involved from 100 to 300
hools. That´s al about the first half. The second one will
be probably even more violent. And we´ll have eurocups
too...
English style. Casuals.
When the russian firm Flint´s Crew began the revival of the
russian fanatism in the middle of the ´90s, its members
chose the english way of the further development. Soon,
other firms did absolutely the same way. As a result in the
end of the century almost all hard core, all respectable
firms of Russia are presented by fit and stylish young men –
casuals. Scarves, hats and stuff like that now is used only
by simple supporters, so called “scarfers”, which of course
have nothing to do with football hooliganism. Russian
casuals appeared not only because of the english example,
but also because of the rising attention of the police too.
First, the most popular brands were Umbro and Lonsdale
London, but some time later the same thing which happened to
Ralph Lauren in England to these brands – all people, often
children, who pretended to be tough hools began wearing
these two brands. So at the moment these brands are still
popular, but mostly not among real hard core,
represantatives of firms and so. These lads wear La Coste,
Fred Perry, Bem Sherman (we know there´re very old... but
casuals in Russia appeared a lot later than in England) and
some other things like traditional sports wear – Kappa, New
Ballance, Nike and so on. Also comparing to England we
haven´t got Stone Island, Burberry´s and Henry Lloyd at all.
So...
So to end the story, I would say the following. Many people
don´t even imagine what we are doing over here (european
sports press doesn´t speak a lot about the russian
championship, and the situation with the international aways
has been already described). For example, if you come to
Moscow on a derby day, you´ll be quite surprised to find two
or sometimes more stylish mobs of 200-500 hard core
searching for each other (anyway, derby day is just a good
example, firms try to clash even not on the derby days...).
Russian have become really strong recently and they´re
getting stronger every year. Probably, at the moment we´re
the strongest in the Eastern Europe (anyway, we´ve got to
meet Poland to learn who is who). Many people after watching
tapes with russian riots say these kind of things. So, if
we´ve got a chance, you´ll hear about us as soon as it is
possible!
info from http://geocities.com/colosseum/field/6261/archive.htm
Ответ: ....it's an information about Russian hooligans ..-4 u
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