3 points and 25 thousand euros

After the qualifying match with Montenegro, the Russian team received a technical victory and a fine of 25 thousand euros. Victory - since the opponent was punished with a technical defeat. A fine - for the behavior of Russian fans during the time of the match, not finished on March 27 .

The control, ethical and disciplinary committee of UEFA on Wednesday made this decision after a very long discussion. At first it seemed that there was nothing special to discuss, because at the very beginning of the game in Podgorian Fayer, thrown from the rostrum, was injured by Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev. The Montenegrins, by the way, received another punishment: they will hold two home games without spectators with the teams of Liechtenstein and Austria. Also, Montenegro was fined 50 thousand euros, and, in general, with her punishment everything was about everything clear.

Later, the press service of the UEFA and the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko denied this information. And the representative of the UEFA press service said that the decision would be made on Wednesday in the evening or on Thursday morning. But subsequently, all the above decisions came from UEFA.

It is not clear what in the future Russian fans actually remained unpunished can go

Apparently, in UEFA they decided for a long time how to punish the Russian team. On the one hand, the Russians were the injured party-due to Akinfeev’s injury. On the other hand, Russian fans also did not behave in the best way, there was both pyrotechnics and extraneous objects thrown on the field, and a demonstration of prohibited symbols - the flags of Serbia, the self -proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian Empire, despite the prohibitions of UEFA. Meanwhile, the Russian team since 2012 has been under conditional punishment from the same UEFA - for the entire qualifying cycle of the 2016 European Championship. And her punishment could be much more significant than, frankly, a relatively small fine of 25 thousand euros.

I think football Russia was not punished, for example, with three home games in empty stands primarily because her “status” of the injured side was undeniable. The Internet was filled in by Igor Akinfeev’s burns, and Russian fans were ready to explode protests in case of more serious punishment. True, it is not clear what Russian fans that were actually unpunished can go to the future. They avoided punishment first for 2012 (the match of the European Championship against the Czech Republic), now for 2015 (playing Podgoritsa). They will not pay 25 thousand euros, and you can only guess what will be embraced in the head during the next game of the Russian national team, which, incidentally, does not give grounds for purely football joy.

Alexey Kuznetsov - Sports Observer Radio Liberty