Meet Europe's most racist fans

Zenit St Petersburg's fans celebrate victory. Source: AP

THE true face of Zenit St Petersburg, concealed from me for a week, walked in on his tiptoes and hidden under a hoodie.

A 23-year-old, out-of-work car mechanic with "34" tattooed on his arm - the shirt number worn by Vladimir Bystrov, a right winger no less - was willing to break the strict code of silence among the hardcore fans of Europe's most racist club.

He spoke fast in Russian, occasionally making a cut-throat gesture with his scarred hands.

He predicted a hostile atmosphere inside the Petrovsky Stadium for Liverpool's Europa League match against Zenit tomorrow, with racism at its ugly core. "There may well be monkey noises aimed at Liverpool's black payers," said our informant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Monkey noises do happen. There are thousands of fans in the ground - some could make the noises, some will not. Some might throw on a banana skin, some will not."

Those chill words, uttered on the top floor of the Galeria shopping mall just off the Nevsky Prospect - the high street of this grand city "made out of nothing by a Tsar who wanted everything" - ended a five-day search for a real Ultra.

It is absolutely right to say we do not want black players. We want Zenit to be different. To retain our identity.

All week I asked where I could meet one and was told to try the SBG bar, which is painted in the white, dark blue and light blue colours of Zenit down to the urinal pipes. But on the several nights I called in, there was only the odd unremarkable customer sipping beer and dragging on those Russian cigarettes that grab passive smokers by the throat. The trail was running as cold as the water that turned into ice blocks at the end of the drains just above St Petersburg's slushy pavements.

But now we had our informant and he went gabbling on.

"Our fans will find any Liverpool hooligans, follow them and start fights with them," he said, his blue eyes fidgeting. "There are about 300 of our fans who want to fight.

"We will not look to kill anyone. There will be no bottles or knives — just fighting. It is the normal football culture."

Fans of Zenit St. Petersburg football team destroy a goal after their team won against Dynamo Moscow during a Russian Premier League match. Source: AFP

Our informant, an orphan, is a member of Landscrona, the club's largest and most fanatical fan group. These 5,000 or so fanatics sit in the "virage" - four sectors at one end of the ground. They all broadly subscribe to Selection 12, Landscrona's manifesto issued last December calling on Zenit club officials not to sign black or gay players.

That document was written by - or certainly with the involvement of - Landscrona leaders Alexander Rumyantsev and Ruslan Druyma. They both refused to talk to me, so it was left to our informant to expand on the group's controversial policy.

"It is absolutely right to say we do not want black players," he said. "Spartak Moscow have black players. Many teams in Russia do. We want Zenit to be different. To stand out. To retain our identity."

I asked him about Selection 12's objection to homosexuals. He laughed and shook his head, saying: "It is impossible to imagine a gay player coming here. Totally impossible. The club know we object to black and gay players and they cannot go against what we want because they are concerned with making money.

"But it is not just black players; it is as much about Muslims. People, including Muslims, think we won wars because of our superior numbers, but that is not right. It was more about the spirit of Russia.The Muslims come to Russia and act in inappropriate ways. They have wives in their home countries, which are not developed, and more women here. They bring all their traditions over with them. And drugs - heroin.

Zenit St. Petersburg's supporters react after defeating Rangers in the UEFA Cup final. Source: AP

"They join the police and get into high positions. They start to bully non-Muslims, the real Russians.

"The last player we had from those parts was Sargis Hovsepyan (an Armenian full back) and he left in 2003. We do not want that sort of person in our team."

There are around seven million Muslims in Russia, with an estimated 20 million expected by 2050. They are coming over the border as well as reproducing faster than the indigenous population. Most people I spoke to on the street at least partly shared the extremists' anti-Muslim convictions.

But the fans' logic is muddled because they have two non-pure white imports, the Brazilian Hulk and the Portuguese Bruno Alves, in their team. They accept them but threw a banana at Roberto Carlos, the former Brazil defender, before a league game against Anzhi Makhachkala in 2011. The club were fined £7,500, a mere inconvenience given that their £50m backing from Gazprom, the world's biggest extractor of natural gas, makes them the richest club in Russia.

The list of Zenit's race crimes is extensive. Marseille complained of their players being abused in March 2008. Later that season, former Zenit manager Dick Advocaat admitted: "I would sign anyone, but the fans don't like black players." Supporters have worn Ku Klux Klan masks. Hardliners make Nazi-style salutes on the terraces.

Dmitry Dubrovsky, a campaigner for the anti-racism organisation SOVA, said he was attacked six years ago by Ultras after delivering a seminar on Neo-Nazism. "The very active, very aggressive core, politically orientated, became a serious force in the late 90s," he told me. "Football is a political entity post-Soviet era.

"These real 'hools' fight. They model themselves on Millwall. Many of them are educated, upper middle class. They are a white supremacy group. The hardcore number about 100."

He brought up Brian Idowu, a St Petersburg-born player with a Nigerian father who was developed in Zenit's youth structure. In 2010, he was moved to Amkar Perm, another Russian team. Was that because he is black?

Dubrovsky insists his colour was key but others say he just was not good enough. Aged 20, Idowu has made one senior appearance for his new team.

Racism is common across Russia, surely because the planet's largest country was for so long behind the iron curtain. Foreigners stood out even more in the Soviet era than now. I have seen only three black people in my week here. Attitudes have not kept pace with the west.

What would largely be Russia's problem is given greater relevance because the 2018 World Cup will be staged here. So what is being done? The clubs pay lip service to anti-racism projects. UEFA and FIFA are too slow to condemn. What of Zenit's most famous fan since Shostakovich, the Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev? I contacted his office to ask what he thought of Selection 12 and how he intended to combat the Ultras.

The response: "The behaviour of fan club representatives as well as their politically incorrect declarations must first of all remain on the conscience of the fans themselves. Fans must try to filter out those who behave in an improper way and disgrace the name of the organisation.

"The fans who demonstrate their aggressive position usually come to the stadium not to watch a game but to start riots. Violations of the law by the fans must lead to severe punishment, up to life-long bans from attending sports events."

Yes, he used what by the standards of these official pronouncements are strong words. But why not invoke criminal law if Russia is serious about beating the racists? The answer appears obvious.

As for Mr Medvedev, he will not be in the Petrovsky Stadium tomorrow evening. He has a prior engagement in Siberia.

 

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