Policy in varying degrees have always been present in sport in General and football in particular. Passing in France, the European championship on football was no exception. And that is not surprising, again “distinguished” by Russia.
Before to Express their concerns about the scandal connected with the Russian fans, in multiple social networks was posted two surveys concerning quite delicate, but long-debated controversial topics. The first is about the relationship of people to the performance of players of Shakhtar Donetsk and Lugansk “Dawn” for Ukraine, the second — prohibit organized football fan thing?
No claim for compliance with survey requirements surveys, still call the numbers, especially because the survey involved over a thousand people. More than half of them — 56% of respondents are neutral to the performance of players of Donetsk and Luhansk, for the national team, which organized the genocide of the Donbass, and 36.5% believe these athletes people who supported the policy of Nazism and traitors to their region. As for the fan movement, 42.8% believed it to be a hotbed of nationalism and fascism, 38.6% — legalized bullying that 14.5% of those who took part in the survey people, believes that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, and 4.1% said football hooligans children.
The numbers are alarming. However, what caught my eye in the comments a lot of people, especially young people, literally screaming that you cannot mix football and politics. That sports and politics was not near, can not touch these “sacred concepts” as the right player to make money wherever he sees fit, the right of a fan of “sick” way he considers acceptable.
But if the performance of the Donbass players under the flag of the country to shoot their own stadiums, it is still possible to justify the love of money or political indifference were Ukrainians for the Russian national team in the 90s), to justify the antics of the Russian fans in France nothing. Because they went beyond the accepted rules of morality, ethics, common sense and sport.
As a consequence, the disciplinary body of UEFA has decided to fine the Russian football Union on 150 thousand Euro and to impose on the national team pending suspension for riots Russian fans after the match against England on 11 June for Euro 2016. Disqualification can be applied in case if the Russian fans again will trigger riots for any of the remaining matches of the Russian team at the European championship on football. UEFA stressed that this decision applies only to incidents at the stadium in Marseille where Russian fans broke into the sector with the fans of the English national team and staged a brawl.
So out of politics any sports? Whether you want society to leave everything as it is? And quietly contemplate what is happening. Football is just a game, prank, fun, neither the state nor the government nor the people have nothing to do with. Why disturb the delicate soul of athletes and fans? Let it continue to bully Europe, while it is not clear at whose expense, disgrace Russia in the international arena and give a reason to accuse in all mortal sins. Including in the preparation of terrorist acts, as did the Ukrainian security service.
The slogan of the world Olympic movement: “Oh, sport — you are peace!” — not just empty words. If the war has been called the continuation of politics, sport is a kind of simulation of war. And, therefore, is part of the policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, believes that “sport is back among the priorities of the state policy”. And the Chairman of the Motherland party, state Duma Deputy Alexei Zhuravlev congratulated all Russians on the victory at the Olympics in Sochi, in General, said: “the sports continuation of great policy”.
Numerous boycotts of the Olympic games, intrigue and corruption in determining the host countries of all kinds of Championships. How not to recall last year’s scandal in FIFA, organized by the law enforcement officers of the United States? As the 2012 fellow Ukrainians had not with Russia and with Belarus and Poland, became the main lobbyist for dragging Kiev into the orbit of the EU, further escalation and war. The then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko during a meeting with the President of Poland acknowledged that the European championship in football 2012 is not only an important sports event of global scale, but also an important political project.
Chief editor of “Russian folk line” Anatoly Stepanov, in the course of the past championship of Europe on football, it is reasonable to assume that a weak match of the national team of Russia with Greeks, which allowed the opponents to pass on, was arranged. The match result was influenced by the mood of Greeks voting in parliamentary elections. And was another proof that football is the continuation of politics.
“What has led to the victory of the left in the elections? And if the Greeks lost, frustrated residents of Greece probably would have voted for the exit of Greece from the European Union. First, it would lead to the depreciation of the Euro, the fall in oil prices and turmoil in international markets, why seriously lost to Russia. Second, the exit of Greece from the EU would lead to the fact that the next day the new Greek government would go to Moscow to ask for money, and Vladimir Putin would have had the money to give to our Orthodox brothers Greeks. And we have our problems do not count. To put it bluntly: if the Greeks today contain the Germans, then they would have had to contain Russia. I think that in these conditions the Russian leadership decided that it was cheaper for the Greeks to lose than the Greeks to contain — says Stepanov.
A vivid example proving the hybridization of sports and politics, is the appearance of the chairs of the State Duma, the Parliament, ministries and departments of the former athletes and coaches. Which in turn act as the lobbyists for funding one or another of the sports project or government program. You can go through the list of governors, mayors, and see among them the presidents of various sports federations. Enough to reveal the budget of any city or region to discover there tangible figures on the financing of sport, and football in particular.
SPORT OUT OF POLITICS?
Sports in General and football in particular, have become a global phenomenon, much more than just a competitive event. The sport has become a significant political, cultural and economic phenomenon. It is most relevant to politics, because it brings a sense of patriotism and national pride. Here it should be added that the predatory nature of young carnivorous apes, Homo sapiens, at all times felt the necessity of Patriotic hatred, the passion, the release of collective aggression. It’s human nature.
The sport is not guilty for some part of society, with the permission of those in power, has become the last refuge of a patriot. And mentally and morally most advanced patriot. Before kings and Queens, nobles and landlords themselves organized peasant fights wall to wall, becoming a kind of sports simulation war. Gave people need to have the output impulses of aggression. Currently, it has become exotic. Now the sport, as such, has become a busy professional, elite, image, political. In other words — not for the masses.
What is left for the masses? At best exercise and innocent “sick” at the stadium and at the TV screen in the worst — participation in sports hooliganism and fan movements. The fan movement that came to us from Europe, have become a political phenomenon. Or don’t know the fans that originated in the British Isles, the game became a symbol of national and political autonomy of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland? In the presence of its, separate from the England football team, the local nationalists see the first step to political independence. This is our answer to the question of Donbass players playing for Ukraine.
In Italy football—the political preferences of fans for decades to pass through the left-wing and right-wing parties. Fans of “Roma”, “Milan”, “Torino” is predominantly leftist, Lazio, inter and Juventus are right. Dictator Benito Mussolini was a fan of Rome’s Lazio, and in 20-40 years of the club playing with Nazi symbols on t-shirts. Right politician and tycoon Silvio Berlusconi buying Milan, aimed to win over the fans left sentiments. And the party Berlusconi “Forward, Italy!” — the cry of the Italian fans. In Spain, the FC Barcelona is the leader of those fighting for greater autonomy of Catalonia. Athletic Bilbao connected with the local nationalist movement of the Basque people.
Can be infinitely long to remember the political confrontation between the football giants of the USSR, Moscow “Spartak” and Kiev “Dynamo”, where the important role is played fixed matches with other teams of the USSR with the direct participation in the negotiation process of the heads of republics. At the 1952 summer Olympics, the USSR team lost to the team of Yugoslavia. In Moscow, the defeat of the recognized political, so was disbanded the repeated champion of the country of the CDSA, and the number of players and the coach has lost the title of masters of sports.
SPORT OUT OF POLITICS?
It can be a lot to write about the movement “ultras” in Ukraine, which became hardly probable not the main supplier of cannon fodder for Kiev announced a so-called anti-terrorist operation in the Donbass. Almost none of the bloody events in Ukraine has not passed without the participation of football fans. 2 may 2014 in Odessa and Kharkiv the local “ultras” become complicit in one of the worst in the postwar history of Europe the mass murder of innocent people.
Who raised, funded by fans and guide them? Ukrainian oligarchs and their well-trained leaders of nationalist groups that exist at football clubs and far-right political structures. In fact — all of the movement “ultras” — a legalized gang with his hierarchy and the control center. Not accidentally, the football fans of Ukraine supported the Maidan, and many of the members of the movement went at the call of the puppeteers to fight against the “untermensch” in the Donbass.
In 2006, the leaders of fan-clubs of Moscow “CSKA” and “Spartak” was delivered to members of Pro-Kremlin youth movement “Nashi”. So the Kremlin reacted to the orange revolution of 2004. The leader of “Nashi” Vasily Yakimenko boasted that in the event of such riots in Moscow, he can summon thousands of ultras to “disperse” demonstrators. Events at the Manege square in Moscow were also held with the participation of the fan movements. Stormtroopers “ultras” opposed to ordinary Muscovites protesting against the construction of an Orthodox Church in the Park “TORRANCE”. A surge of indignation caused by the murder of Yegor Sviridov and the subsequent riots in Moscow, became a kind of political capital to seize the many who tried, including at that time the head of the government Vladimir Putin. He held a meeting with 40 representatives of all fan-clubs of RPL.
The head of the Russian Union of fans Alexander Spragin is the assistant Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma Igor Lebedev, the son of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. In an interview Spragin admits that the current fan movement financially self-sufficient: “each person has a mandatory set of documents. One of them is a work book”. This is the answer to a reasonable question: how the bully falls to the stadiums of Europe, involved in criminal carnage is a blot on the honor of Russia? Yes, the most common way of the fan movement in Russia and the Ukraine, located in control box power, crime and political structures. These structures and Finance expensive trips hooligans abroad.
It is enough to read the Russian media, which fights for Euro 2016 paid attention much more than positive result of the Russian team in the game against the main rival in the group — England. Which, incidentally, laments and the head of the VOB. Like the Russians and went on the championship not to compete, and to participate in fights. Duma Deputy Lebedev, for example, encourages fans to “continue in the same spirit.”
Press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, some state Duma deputies in their speeches to the media stressed that the interests of the Russian fans will be protected by the diplomatic and consular missions of the Russian Federation. In addition, high-ranking officials and elected representatives, fueling a passion, said that the Russian fans were provoked by the French and the British. The riots could be repeated, this opinion was expressed by the head of the Russian football Union (RFU), the Minister of sport Vitaly Mutko.
Europe, as in the case with the introduction of the Crimean sanctions against Russia, doping of pressure on the Russian sport — very solid and unanimous. The French Prosecutor’s office said that the cause of the brutal violence in Marseille for Saturday’s match between Russia and England became the Russian football hooligans — well prepared to conduct quick and very brutal action. The sports Minister of France Patrick Kanner stated that he would be happy if the national team of Russia disqualifiziert for Euro 2016. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for stiffness in the fans ‘ attitude of England and Russia.
From information duel European partners of the Kremlin and the Russian politicians the conclusion that the incident with the fans — quite-thought-out and planned action. Only at the target each side of your.
In the West, eliciting the anti-Russian hysteria, which in the future may even become a justification for military aggression against our country that occurred a conflict — reason to throw another batch of russophobian propaganda in the ears of the world community. Practice shows that no one will understand the fault of a fan, all the “hang” on Russia. So, how did the French gendarmerie, another reason for all to think — and if we’re “cool”, really? Or a short hour throughout Europe will begin the peremptory Stripping the Russian people, as is happening in Ukraine.
For the Russian government to fight our football hooligans are satisfactory event. Apparently, this and many shouting that our fans almost forced to tremble in fear the entire Old world. It’s simple: in the Donbass resumed active phase of hostilities, increased the number of victims among the civilian population, as well as the “Minsk process, there is no alternative”, to divert attention from the failures of Russian policy, the fan scandal in Europe — as a balm for the wound of the Kremlin.
What is the conclusion? Sport is still part of the policy. And evaluate a sports event the company shall, not only from the standpoint of the result of the athletes as well including the bell tower sporty orbit. And it is noticeable that nothing positive for Russia for Euro 2016 has not occurred. In this regard, remember two statements of the network of wits. First: “the Tricky Obama has forced the Russian fans to get after the match on the podium of the British for fighting to deprive the right to host the world Cup.” Second, in the background of photos taken in a mass brawl: “Russian fans invite football fans for the 2018 world Cup in Russia.” There is something to ponder.
Provoked the fans? Possible. But provoke one who himself is ready to respond to provocation. After going to the matches “kuzmichi” — foremost production, and professional, adventurous fighters. What are the consequences of such actions? Because violence is the main official campaign of FIFA and UEFA, to deprive the country of the 2018 world Cup is much easier than the corruption in FIFA,” and especially “over the Crimea and Donbass”.
Matter how fantastic it may sound, football in the history of the world has not only become a reason for fights and deterioration of relations between politicians, but also to start a global conflict. In 1969 came the “soccer war” between each other territorial claims of Honduras and El Salvador. In a series of play-offs for qualification to the final stage of the world Cup in Honduras started riots, the victims were several hundred Salvadoran immigrants, more than sixty thousand were forced to leave the country. Their property was looted local. Two weeks later, the army of El Salvador invaded Honduras. Victims of the decade-long conflict began about two thousand civilians, and all sides have lost more than six thousand people.
However, again back to the slogan “O, sport — you are peace!”. In football history there are examples of how this game was decided in the area of peacekeeping. It is appropriate to recall the match of German and British soldiers arranged a truce for football on Christmas eve 1914.
After the success of the national football team of côte d’ivoire, in this torn by military coups and uprisings the country began peace negotiations. Didier Drogba will be remembered in the history of Africa as a football player, to stop the war. From the beginning of the war, Drogba spoke to the people with calls to stop, he did everything on the field and beyond for this. He waited for the moment that the country could unite on the basis of football, this moment came in 2005, when the national team of côte d’ivoire for the first time qualified for the world Cup. Immediately after the last qualifying match in the world Cup, Drogba in the dressing room recorded a video message to the parties of war! A couple of days later the appeal was heard, the fighting has subsided. And the case is still a few months played on national television.
Didier Drogba. The player who stopped the war
In this regard, to the place again to remember the players of the national team of Ukraine. And no matter where — from Donetsk, Lugansk or Kiev. None of them expressed public protest, the boycott policy of the Kiev authorities, appealed to the European public with the requirement to take all possible and impossible to stop the conflict, which killed tens of thousands of people. Perhaps the players and the fans all together would be able to turn the mood of the Europeans and to stop a possible major conflict. Where the expense of the victims may have to go into the millions. But the players, the fans, their owners and officials just make money and let off steam, without hesitation, as a lot depends on geopolitics…
