The state of fans

Why does official Russia are forced to approve the actions of football hooligans

In 1985, in Brussels a terrible tragedy ended the final match of the European Champions Cup between the English Liverpool and Juventus from Italy. Fans from England arranged a real massacre at the Eiseel stadium. 39 people were killed, mostly Italians. After that, English clubs were excluded from European competitions. Returning to the European Cups, and at first only two teams were allowed only in 1990, after the World Cup in Italy, where the English ultras kept with all the conceivable in their midst. “English fans behaved with dignity in Italy. The newspapers wrote that out of 10 thousand fans, only 66 were arrested, and among the almost 400 deported many were absolutely innocent, ”the writer, a researcher of the near -football movement and simply an authoritative douglas“ arcs ”Brimson (he wrote a book in his co -authority with his brother Eddie, also, of course, also, of course, also, of course. fan).

At the 1994 World Cup, the defender of the Colombian national team Andres Escobar scored a goal against the United States in a key match of the group tournament. The national team flew out of the championship. A few days later, in the city of Medelin, Escobar was shot dead by the football fan of Umberto Mugnos Castro. Shooting, Castro shouted: "Thank you for the Motorgol!"

In February 2007, the Italian championship had to be stopped: as a result of the fight of fans of Palermo and Katania, more than a hundred people were injured and a policeman died. And a list of such stories can be continued, alas, almost to infinity.

Not really football

They are afraid and heroize them. They write books about them and make films. Their closed world has its own fashion, their own music, their favorite bars, their ideas about the correct world order and political views (most often ultra -right). But in fact, these are deeply secondary things. The main thing is to yell offensive chants on the fan rostrum, wave flags, light fireflies, and it is more important to fight with fans of another club before or after watching the match. Or even instead. Therefore, many are seriously engaged in martial arts: good sports training is a condition for survival in the world of fans. They beat each other, appointing a place in advance and stipulating the conditions of the meeting. Arrange ambushes for enemy "firms". Fight the police. Do not spare on occasion “ordinary” fans and even random passers -by. Get serious injuries. Dying.

A real fan would have been offended, probably, if they were told that he did not like football. But yes, he loves not football. He loves the opportunity from a complex modern world built on compromises, to run into simple and ancient, where there are no compromises. Where it is immediately clear: here is your own, but a stranger, because, for your own, let's say, a “rose” (scarf) with the emblem of “Spartak”, and on a strange - with the emblem of CSKA or “Zenith”. And he is ready to kill for this emblem. Or die. After all, a stranger is necessarily an enemy, and with the enemy we will allow only one type of dialogue - war. These are not even times of knights, these are times of caves, skins and clubs. But there are people who are more comfortable in the world of caves.

A stranger is a certain enemy, and with the enemy we will allow only one type of dialogue - war. These are not even times of knights, these are times of caves, skins and clubs

In this ancient world, everything is told to us by anthropologists: the symbols are supervalued, the capture of the symbols of the enemy - flags and club scarves, followed by their desecration - the most surely sign of victory, the moment of maximum self -realization, gaining life meaning. That is why fans are so fond of pose with inverted flags of enemy clubs.

Ours in the city

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, fans from the countries of Eastern Europe got the opportunity to accompany their clubs at visiting matches. And Western Europe learned that English fans, perhaps, is not the worst of the phenomena of near -football nature. The glory of especially desperate fighters acquired ultras from Russia and Poland. On Euro 2012 (the countries of the holding-Ukraine and Poland), the Poles and Russians got the opportunity to converge and converged: a mass fight in Warsaw, 184 detainees (including 25 Russians), dozens of wounded. In general, the French police should have understood with whom to deal with Euro 2016 and prepare for the meeting more serious.

The first match of the Russian national team at the championship - just with the British - was supposed to take place in Marseille on June 11. However, small skirmishes between the fans began the day before. And just before the game in the old port of Marseille, a real battle happened - a little more than a hundred Russian ultras attacked groups of English fans, many times higher in numbers. The police did not immediately manage to take control of the situation. Chairs from the surrounding cafes, bottles, and even smoke grenades of police officers - fans picked them up and threw them at each other. At the stadium during the game, Russian fans lit fireers and threw firecrackers on the field (of course, this is prohibited by UEFA rules), and immediately after the match, a fight began on one of the stands. The British provoked, the Russians did not endure and went on the attack. The battles in the city continued at night. As a result - dozens of wounded, four British - in serious condition, one subsequently died. The national teams tied, and Russian fans recorded the victory over the English. The UEFA remembered the Warsaw Battle of Warsaw and considered that the Russian Football Union (RFU) over the past two years "did not carry out work with fans." As a result, the national team was fined £ 150 thousand and conditionally disqualified (that is, at any moment they can simply be expelled from the championship if the riots are repeated).

The “desecration” of the Russian flag was the theme of the TV show and the reason for the performance of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Lill, France, June 14, 2016

The French police tried to rectify the situation: they detained a large group of Russian fans who went by bus from Marseille to Lill, for the next match of the national team. The main part of the detainees was later released. On June 16, three Russian fans appeared before court and received prison dates for fights in Marseille - from a year to two years. The prosecutor of Marseille noted that the Russians are very well prepared. The British also arrested and tried.

And in Lille, before the match Russia - Slovakia, fights took place, but a smaller scale. In addition to all, English fans arrived there - to take revenge for a defeat in Marseille Street Battle. In a few skirmishes, happiness was on the side of the British, one of the groups managed to capture the Russian tricolor, which drunken fans joyfully trampled in front of the television cameras. The British managed to fight with the fans of the Wales national team, despite the fact that the players of the two teams from one island sing the same anthem before the game - “God, keep the queen.”

On June 16, five Russians were detained already in German Cologne. On the way from France, they managed to beat Spanish tourists (real internationalism!) Now the hooligans are now threatening real terms - up to 10 years in prison.

At the highest level

In short, fans behaved like fans. But the most interesting thing was not in Marseille and not in Lille - in Moscow.

Fights Ultras - a sad and apparently inevitable background for the most beautiful game in the world. We can say, routine - fans beat each other, police officers - fans, UEFA will final teams for the behavior of fans. By the way, the RFU reacted to the situation just like that: he stated that he would not dispute the fine imposed on the national team, and released two appeals to the fans with timid requests not to be naughty.

But at the same time it is impossible to imagine that government officials at the highest level can justify fan disgraces, admire them and find some special meaning in them. Rather, it was impossible to imagine before. Now the state, ready to protect the hooligans, is, and this, alas, is Russia.

 ** Honest and consistent representatives of the state honestly and sequentially take the side of citizens who destroy each other skull with bottles in a drunken fight **

The first, immediately after Marseille fights, Igor Lebedev, a deputy of the State Duma (LDPR), spoke out. At first he wrote on Twitter: “I do not see anything terrible in the fight of fans. On the contrary, our guys are well done. Keep it up!" And then, in an interview with Life, his own thought deepened: “The guys defended the honor of the country and did not allow the British to somehow desecrate our homeland. Our fans need to be forgiven and understand. ” Lebedev did not remain alone. SK spokesman General Vladimir Markin, reacted to the phrase of the Marcelsky prosecutor about the good sports training of Russian fans with his inherent subtle humor: “A normal man, as he should be, causes them surprise. They are accustomed to “men” on gay parades. ” And Markin entered Life a whole column in which he called the actions of Russian fans “the legal form of protecting his rights to rest, health and life” and added that the organizers from UEFA and France are completely to blame. The presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov even had to take state lovers of football and specifically explain that such statements were their private opinion, and not the official position of Russia. However, he also promised all possible assistance to fans detained in France.

But it turned out that Peskov is not the most important authority in the world of power near -football. On June 15, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saw in the actions of the British fans almost an attempt on the war with Russia: “We cannot turn a blind eye to the absolutely provocative actions of fans from other countries. You probably saw outrageous personnel on television, when the Russian flag is trampled, when they shout insults to the Russian leadership, to the leading Russian athletes. ” The ambassador of France was called to the Foreign Ministry and conducted a conversation. On all television channels, a talk show came out, where the speakers are the same that have been telling either the atrocities of the Kyiv junta for years, then about the machinations of the State Department-one after another, they would have rushed into battle with the “our guys”. And on one of these talk shows, commentator Vladimir Stognienko, who dared to recall that the fight at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille still started “our guys”, in response was abandoned contemptuously: “Are you rooting for Russia? Something is different. "

The Columnist of the State Agency of RIA Novosti Maxim Kononenko saw in what was happening something like a new national idea: “They wanted a war? Yes, they wanted war. All these dubious stories about doping at the state level. All this lie about the "occupation of Crimea." All these fantasies about the threat of the Baltic states (!?). All this nonsense, they brought war. Counded to the Russians: answer! And when the Russians answered, they cried out: how could it! ” His text, by the way, is called "for Russian fans is not ashamed."

Apology of wildness

It was read that the fans are “an advanced detachment of Putin's foreign policy”. And even that they were specifically sent and learned to be too. Which of the conspiracyrs explain - why. Why learn to fight and out of the people, for whom the main way of self -realization is fights and disgrace. Fans fought to Putin and will, unfortunately, fight after.

These are not fans turned out to be ambassadors of official Russia. Everything is exactly the opposite - official Russia turned out to be the state of fans. Through propaganda, official Russia built a world in which there are no compromises in which every stranger is an enemy, and it is clear how to talk to the enemy. In which the symbols are superiority and the idea is impossible that the Englishman who sorted out the beer is stomping the flag not in order to desecrate our millennium history that shows modernity, a bright future and reconsider the results of World War II, but simply because it is accepted in a fan party. And honest, consistent representatives of the state honestly and sequentially take the side of citizens who destroy each other skull with bottles in a drunken fight. Honestly go to the club, skin and cave. And inconsistent-they dodge and mutter something about the official position.

Because it is not a drunken fight, this is a war. "Hybrid", as is now accepted. The war, by the way, is still going on. On June 16, the Federation Council called on Russian tourists not to travel to France, and Roszdravnadzor banned the sale of English condoms in Russia Durex. He struck the enemy in the heart.

Photo: Leon Neal/AFP, Marius BeCker/DPA