Despite all of these things I’ve been determined to take in a game. I’ve seen Newcastle play at some pretty fearsome venues over the years, the (old) Den, Roker Park, Ayresome Park, Filbert Street, Victoria Ground, Upton Park, Stamford Bridge, just how bad could a UEFA league tie between Lokomotiv Moscow and Anderlecht be? The chance arrived, I’d be landing in Moscow five hours before the game and a friend and work contact who spoke Russian was up for going along. Decision made, tickets bought and studying a little history of the team and players seemed appropriate, I was starting from a position of zero knowledge after all.
Lokomotiv Moscow were formed in 1923 as the Club of the October Revolution, and this was where the connection with the Russian railways began as many players connected to the railroads were signed up to the team. After a name change to “Kazanka” in 1931 the club eventually stuck with the name of Lokomotiv from 1936 onwards when the club was part of the “Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society” controlled by the Soviet Ministry of Transportation. The name change seemed to benefit Lokomotiv as in 1936 they became the first winners of the Soviet cup after a 2-1 victory over the Georgian side Dynamo Tblisi, quite how Stalin (himself Georgian) let that happen I’m not really sure, perhaps playing in a stadium called “Stalinets” at the time helped. Despite being seen as one of the big Moscow sides Lokomotiv have had a relatively moderate history, winning two league titles, two Soviet cups and five Russian cups through their history whilst being runners up in league and cup with great frequency. They did win their first national title in 2002 and repeated the feat in 2004, impressive when you consider the competition from CSKA, Spartak, Zenit, and more recently Rubin. Indeed the first title was secured after what was termed a “Golden Match”, Lokomotiv having finished level on points with CSKA at the end of the season and winning the title after a 1-0 victory in the play off, quite a way to win your first league championship. Oh how I’d love to see Newcastle United achieve such a feat.
More recently Lokomotiv fans hit the headlines for the wrong reason especially in the UK when their fans displayed a banner featuring a banana in order to send Peter Odimwengie on his way to West Brom. A disgraceful incident that can only be condemned was blown into a wider debate about Russian football with the 2018 world cup having been awarded to the country for the first time only recently. As per usual with the British media the incident was used to paint a very negative image of all Russian football supporters and whilst having learned on my travels that there are certainly problems with right wing extremism in Russia I was really keen to see for myself the supporters of Lokomotiv and test the impression created through coverage of the racist banner incident.
My day began with a truly terrifying plane journey. My flight was delayed from Kazan to Moscow and when I boarded the plane I really had second thoughts about the flight and contemplated getting off, the only thing that kept me on the Tupolev 154, the same kind of aircraft that was involved an accident that killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski last year, was the thought of being able to get to the match! Still, I landed and made it to my meeting point with my friend, a Russian speaking American resident in Moscow for some years and Russia for longer.
The journey to the game was of interest to me and it took barely twenty minutes to travel from Red Square to the Lokomotiv Stadium. What was noticeable was the Police presence as dozens of Russian coppers lined up at each station on the way. A few Lokomotiv supporters looked on with interest & intrigue as my friend and I yapped away in English but there was no edge to them, no surprise as it was hardly a local derby. Arrival at the stadium saw yet more police lining the route to the ground, my mate explaining that it was fairly standard for the Russian Police to swamp the area around a game. Security at the ground was pretty tight, I was frisked twice and had my ticket checked on three separate occasions before being able to take my seat as stewards and paramilitary looking Police looked on.
The stadium was a very impressive sight, modern and well sized for the level of support Lokomotiv attract without looking too identikit like many modern British grounds. Outside is a locomotive representing the relationship with the railways that is a key part of the identity of the football team and its supporters to this day, the club is presently sponsored by the Russian national train company. Our seats were right in the middle of the stadium and provided an impressive view not only of the pitch but both ends of the stadium. One held the main body of “Ultras”, the “South Way”, and the other another group of “Ultras” calling themselves “Reactive”, who were smaller in number but impressive in voice. Not too far from the Ultras shoved in the corner of the stadium were the Belgian travelling support who numbered 43, I counted each and every one of them. Apparently the reason for the ultras being seperated into two groups was a split that led to "Reactive" heading off to the North end of the stadium. Whatever the reason, both sets of fans provided an excellent atmosphere in a stadium that held about half the number of people its near 30,000 capacity can accommodate. If only English football had the same kind of supporter culture rather than sanitised, music after goals nonsense, this was truly impressive.
The game was something of a damp squib from the perspective of us visitors supporting the home side. Whilst Lokomotiv dominated the ball and possession for long periods it was the incisive attacking play of Anderlecht that counted when they scored with their first chance through Argentine Mathias Suarez. For Lokomotiv Russian international Dimitri Sychev and Brazilian forward Maicon were the main dangers but they failed to turn their possession into any meaningful threat or clear chances. What danger they created was a greater threat to the empty plastic seats in the crowd and the Ultras, Victor Obinna ex of West Ham United wasting a series of decent situations to trouble the Anderlecht goal. Obinna was one of two former West Ham players from the side that was relegated from the Premier League last season along with Manuel Da Costa at centre half who put in a competent enough performance. It was a shame as Lokomotiv played pretty well but having added a second through that man Suarez again Anderlecht completed an excellent smash and grab raid much to the delight of the 43 visiting fans who went crackers when they scored.
From the perspective of the visiting fan it was great to see how the Russian supporters got behind their team, or in many cases berated their profligacy in front of goal. It took not 15 minutes for a man with some serious prison tattoos to ask my friend and I “Anderlecht?” as we spoke in English. A quick explanation that we were a Brit and a Yank taking in a game saw my American friend ignored and my being questioned on friendly terms on which team I supported. Surprisingly it wasn’t Man United or Arsenal that my new friend seemed to favour but Spurs and Everton. I turned my nose up at both and he nodded approvingly as I told him I was a Newcastle United supporter. Our friend then turned his attentions back to the game and as proceedings went against Lokomotiv the quality of his insults towards referee and his own team grew and grew. Plenty of questions as to the player’s mother’s promiscuity and the Lokomotiv players “taking it up the arse again” were thrown out in evermore creative ways as all around giggled and the Russian cop just next to us ignored him. It was fine until the second goal went it and then my tattooed friend span around and looked at me, the Englishman, and spat out “it’s all Tony fucking Blair’s fault”! I didn’t disagree.
The walk out of the stadium was interesting; the streets were lined with even more Police to the Metro station and in order to regulate the flow of the crowd every person heading for the train was funnelled between six mounted Police horses, three on either side. This created something of a bottle neck, nothing sinister, but it was imperative to stay away from the horses as they tried to sniff and nibble those who were unfortunate enough to be pushed and shoved closest to them. Once on the other side we walked through the lines of Police back to the metro. I’m not sure that crowd control methods in Russia are particularly advanced compared to the UK and I wouldn’t have liked to have gone through those horses had the stadium been full to capacity.
The experience of Lokomotiv was fantastic, horses aside, with an excellent stadium, good people and zero racism on display at any point in proceedings. One in the eye for the British media was the presence of black Lokomotiv supporters in our section, not exactly the hot bed of racism I’d imagined from tabloid tales. I later that evening discussed the issue of racism in Russian football with a Lokomotiv supporter and was told that the banner had been an act of a few idiots wanting to attract attention to themselves, it worked, and that the majority of Lokomotiv fans were well known as being among the most tolerant in Russia. I’d certainly support that from what I saw. Russia isn’t a stable democracy of decades standing; it’s a country with great income inequality and is to all intents and purposes a one party state. The likelihood is that there will be extremism on show in sporting arenas, it is of course inexcusable, however it is equally inexcusable to imply that all supporters of Russian football teams are racist bigots or that black players will be necessarily be treated any worse than they would be in Italy, Spain or even England. I look forward to my next visit and wish Lokomotiv the best of luck this season, I’ll be keeping an eye on their results.
No comments:
Post a Comment