CSKA Moscow’s ultras have long had a reputation for violent and racist behavior. Last season, the ultras drew unwanted attention to the Russian champions in the Champions League twice. First, they were caught yelling racial slurs at Manchester City’s Ivorian midfielder Yaya Touré, leading UEFA to punish them by closing the ultra’s stand in CSKA’s stadium Arena Khimki.
Piara Powar, the executive director of FARE (Football Against Racism Europe), tried to convince UEFA to give CSKA a full stadium ban, but those are only given after a second offence. CSKA’s second offence came in the last group match against Czech side Viktoria Plzen, when their fans were found guilty of racist abuse as well as using fascist slogans. And if this was not enough, 15 CSKA fans were arrested in Prague a few days later for giving Nazi salutes and attacking police officers.
The punishment for the incident in Plzen was one Champions League game in Moscow without spectators. But before CSKA had the opportunity to even serve their punishment, their fans caused trouble in Rome in their first Champions League game this season. After the game, CSKA was punished for “racist behavior of supporters”, “crowd disturbance” and “setting off/throwing of fireworks and missiles” by UEFA. As punishment, CSKA was ordered to play their next three UEFA competition home matches behind closed doors. They were also fined €200.000, and their fans were banned from buying tickets to the next two Champions League away games.
After the horrible scenes in Rome, a group of CSKA fans started a social media campaign called #CSKAFansAgainstRacism. I am happy to bring you an interview with the man behind the campaign.
First, can you tell me a bit about yourself?
We’re a group of dedicated CSKA fans who wants to change general perception of the Club’s supporters, to show “the other side”–the bright side–of our legendary club with its great traditions.
CSKA midfielder Alan Dzagoev with a strong message to the fans.
What made you start the #CSKAFansAgainstRacism campaign?
The incident in Rome was the point where we said “enough is enough”. CSKA’s international image was completely ruined. We are perceived not as a team that won UEFA Cup, but as one which has awful racist fans, who focus only on destroying things and abusing black people.
So, we wanted to show the international football community that those who are mentioned only as racist hooligans are in the absolute minority. But, unfortunately, this small marginal group is on the front pages of the mainstream media and forms our image in the public.
The last reason why we started our campaign was that we hoped to persuade UEFA officials not to close our stadium again, as we sincerely believe that it won’t solve the problem. Especially during Champions League home games, we wanted to prove to the international football family that racism is unacceptable among CSKA supporters. We planned many colorful anti-racist performances. That would have been the best support to UEFAs fight against racism. The whole stadium would have been involved in an anti-racist campaign. Not UEFA ordered it, but because people wanted to show their solidarity.
What is more damaging, the decision gave that marginal group of racists the feeling that “they are the owners” of the stadium and can decide upon our “fate” as they want. Unfortunately, nobody listened to us.
Can you tell a bit about the campaign, your goals and how you try to achieve them?
Firstly, as we mentioned, we want to “mend” the image of our club as we believe that it’s unfairly perceived in the football community. We do have problems with our fans, but they will never represent the absolute majority of CSKA supporters who strongly oppose any racist or fascist ideas.
Secondly, we realize perfectly that the fight against this evil is a long-lasting process that requires much effort. That’s why we’re incredibly happy that a young generation of CSKA fans has joined our social network accounts. They sent their support in the form of nice pictures, banners, collages, etc. We try to reply to each letter and thank them for their great level of solidarity. These bright kids will replace the current fans at the stadium and they will hopefully represent different ideals.
We understand that only education can solve the problem, that’s why we don’t expect any immediate changes or miracles. So, as thousands of different people joined us in social network accounts, we have published photos and messages of support every day. If we create an alternative role model for fans, that would be the greatest achievement of our campaign.
What do CSKA fans think about your campaign?
There were different groups of people and reactions. Some ultras didn’t like it, as they believe they’re fighting for the right ideals. But surprisingly we received many e-mails from our ultras, where we managed to constructively discuss the current situation in the fan movement. But mostly, of course, we got stunning support from all generations of CSKA fans: letters of support tweets with our hashtag #CSKAFansAgainstRacism, photos, etc.
Are you surprised how much attention the campaign has gotten so far?
Definitely we are. Our campaign showed that there was a “hidden demand” for such a movement. We’re glad to further discussion among our fans of what kind of future we want for our club. It’s enough to read hundreds of comments under our petition to UEFA to understand how people are worried about their Club and sincerely want to help.** Moreover, we want to thank allthe big Russian sports websites for writing about our campaign.
Have you been in contact with CSKA Moscow (management)? What do they think of the campaign and are they trying to help?
Yes, club management fully supports our campaign. They continuously retweet and repost our messages and photos in social network accounts, so the number of fans joining us is increasing every day.
CSKA will play their next three Champions League matches behind closed doors because of the Rome riots. What do you think of the punishment?
As we’ve already mentioned, an empty stadium is only an attempt to “hide” the problem: “no people – no racism”. If this is the logic, than it is absolutely identical with the racists logic, who claim: “no black people – no racism”. An empty stadium is a “dehumanization” of football. It’s like the death penalty in judicial law. It has been scientifically proven that it doesn’t affect the criminal rate and has no deterrence effect on a potential criminal. The European Union, for example, holds a strong and principled position against the death penalty. We sincerely do not understand why UEFA officials are using such a measure, which kills the soul of the game we love.
Last year CSKA was punished after the home game against Manchester City and the away game against Viktoria Plzen. Did anything change after the punishments?
Yes. During home games, CSKA had no bad recordings at all. Security measures were tightened and pressure on ultras from ordinary supporters increased, so everything was fine. But the incidents in Plzen and Rome were out of CSKA’s control. UEFA charged Roma with insufficient organization of the match. This means that the home club is liable for security and that it failed to provide necessary security. Moreover, one of CSKA’s fans was seriously wounded in a knife attack before the match, but nobody cared about that. We sincerely don’t understand why innocent fans in Moscow are being punished so severely for the awful work of the Italian police? How could our fans bring flares and missiles to the stadium? How could the club management control which banners were displayed in Rome? We will never defend those who awfully behaved there, but we really can’t find the logic behind this punishment.
Do you think the clubs and Russian authorities do enough to fight racism? If not, what should be changed?
We can speak only for CSKA, as we don’t know what other clubs are doing. CSKA posted a video where CSKA players condemn any act of racism. But we should understand that Evgeny Giner can’t replace the mother or father of each fan.
Russian authorities seem not to be ready or willing to fight this problem. Only certain punishment can fundamentally change the situation. The personal responsibility of each fan seems to be the key to the solution, but nobody cares about it at the moment.
Have fans of other Russian clubs supported your initiative?
No, we haven’t received any support so far.
Has the new Fan Law, enacted in January, changed anything?
Unfortunately, not. I can just cite the Russian Premier League’s head of security Alexander Meytin who recently told Russia’s best-selling sports daily Sport-Express that they don’t have any effective procedure that they can implement to make the situation better. So, the so-called “Fan Law” only existed on paper. According to Meytin, if a banned hooligan wants to find his or her way into the stadium today, he or she will easily do that. So, if the League’s head of security says that, no additional comment about the law itself is actually needed.
Why do you think racism is this big of a problem in Russian football?
Frankly, this is the paradox and nonsensical part for us as well. How could the country, which had a decisive impact in saving the World from fascism, face such a big challenge is impossible for us to explain. How can the grandchildren of World War II veterans chant racial abuse? We have really no explanation for that.
Do you feel the Western media are too one-sided in their coverage of Russian football?
This is one of the most disappointing issues for us. A couple of days after we started our campaign, we wrote to all Western mainstream media representatives, but nobody replied. It seems that only bad news from Russia is attractive. When a small group of CSKA fans is involved in an ugly issue they immediately report it, but when thousands join an anti-racist initiative nobody is interested in it. Could you just imagine what would happen if we created a group “CSKA Fans Support Racism”? We would become world famous! It seems that as long as bad news is coming from Russia, everything is fine for Western journalists. Good news doesn’t sell.
The only NGO that almost immediately replied to us was FARE. We express our deepest gratitude to them for their sincere and full support of our campaign.
But despite the complete silence of the Western media we will fight for the bright future of our kids! That’s why we thank you for this interview! With your help, we will simply show the rest of the world that everything is not as bad in Russia as it’s portrayed in their home countries.
Join us! // Присоединяйтесь к нам
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WeAreCSKA
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WeAreCSKA11
VK: http://vk.com/wearecska11
Instagram: http://instagram.com/wearecska
The petition can be found and signed here: http://www.change.org/p/uefa-do-not-punish-innocent-cska-fans
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Follow Toke Møller Theilade on Twitter: @TokeTheilade