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The Estonian football team got a great chance to play its part in determining someone else's fate. First, the Estonians almost took away points from the Slovakian team, and four days later they took Russia, who also hopes to get a ticket to the championship ...

The Estonian football team got a great chance to play its part in determining someone else's fate. First, the Estonians almost took away points from the Slovakian team, and four days later they took Russia, which also hopes to get a ticket to the World Cup.

The existence of football in this Baltic country is only reminded by the stands on every corner with the image of the forward of the Moscow Torpedo Andreas Opera advertising shampoo. When asked how to get to the stadium of the Estonian national team, the first resident of Tallinn he met thought for about twenty seconds, as a result, showing the direction with his hand, he said with a true Estonian intonation: "Somewhere there."

Russian fans in Estonia are hardly happy to see. Several fans of the Russian national team who travel to support the national team for all matches and have no problems with the law did not receive visas at all. And without explanation. They say that the Estonian authorities are not very enthusiastic about the events that took place at a friendly match with the Russian team three years ago, namely, the mass fraternization of visitors from Russia with the Russian-speaking population of Estonia and the banner "The hosts have returned."

Estonia's desire to distance itself from Russia as much as possible can be compared with the desire of a civilized person who has changed his apartment not to communicate with his previous drunken neighbor. And therefore, in the Historical Museum of Estonia, excursions in Russian are only once a week, sightseeing tours in Tallinn are held in many languages, but not in Russian.

One of the rare announcements in Russian is about a fine for ticketless travel in public transport of 600 crowns (more than 1,300 rubles). However, during the three days of my stay in Estonia, I never encountered any manifestation of a dismissive attitude, although the scarf of our team made it clear to everyone where I came from and why I came.

Before the match, the Estonian Football Federation in a special statement indicated that on the territory of their state tickets would be sold only to Estonian citizens, and for Russians they would be distributed through the RFU (Russian Football Union), which was allocated ... only 748 pieces. According to the Estonians, the RFU did not ask to expand the quota, and therefore the remaining seats were put on free sale.

It was not possible to check for yourself whether a ticket will be sold to a Russian citizen. Simply because there is not a single box office around the A Le Coq Arena (named for a brand of beer). Entering the stadium through the service entrance, found only an electrician. Without presenting any documents, I freely passed into ... the guest locker room. The locker room was cramped.

Half an hour later, the first competent employee finally appeared at the service entrance - the coach of the Tallinn Flora, who arrived on a bicycle. He said that all tickets for the match with Russia had long been sold through a point in the city center known to Estonian fans.

Interest in the match was rather caused not by football itself, but by opposition to former compatriots. After all, the average attendance of the Estonian championship matches is 300 people, the clubs are called “non-commercial partnerships”, and the budget of the Estonian champion Levadiya is about 700 thousand euros, which is half the minimum requirements for a Russian first division team.

“Levadia”, by the way, represents the Russian-speaking population of Tallinn, and “Flora” represents the Estonian-speaking population. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Estonian national team is formed on the basis of Flora. Spartak Moscow striker Tarmo Kink said that it was almost impossible for a player who refused to play for Flora to break into the national team.

A full house at the 8,000-seat stadium was expected for the first time since the match against Holland in 2001, when the stadium had just opened. Meanwhile, it is still being completed: Estonian builders are slowly swarming around it, there is no scoreboard. In order to somehow prepare Flora's home arena for the matches with Slovakia and Russia, ... fans were invited to clean the field and the stands. The fee was a free ticket to the match with Russia.

PS When the newspaper went to the printing house, the result of the match was not yet known. About how the game went and the events unfolding after it - in the next issue of Novaya.