By Vestnik Kavkaza
The State Duma has adopted the so-called "law on fans" in the first reading. It requires a toughening sanctions for violation of behavior rules at sporting events. The head of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs, Igor Ananskikh, stated that “it is a big step in development of the Russian sport. At the moment a series of laws was initiated, which should give a new impulse to our sport. For example, the law against fixed matches, the law on fans, even though it touches on not fans, but organization and holding sporting events. The law says a lot about organization of sporting events turn them into a real sporting festival. I believe that the governmental law which was adopted is not perfect. It needs amendments.”
“One of norms launches such a notion as “steward,”” Ananskikh says. “The aim of the norm is a reduction of the police role, which should positively influence the atmosphere in stadiums and sport arenas. There are a lot of such things in the law. It is really progressive. However, to make it work, it must be improved. I hope for the second reading we will include the amendments which will enable the law to be a breakthrough in development and holding sporting events in Russia.”
According to Ananskikh, “new requirements to sporting grounds must appear. The well-known match between Zenit and Dynamo showed that despite video control at the stadium in Khimki, it is not enough to find the thrower and punish him. As the result, the Interior Ministry could not do it. We should radically change security requirements at stadiums and sporting events. Of course we will launch requirements on improvement of video control and video monitoring at stadiums for software could provide not only visualization of a person, but also his personification for detecting his name and his ticket, even if he changed a sitting place. All sporting facilities should invest into development of their infrastructure. It includes logistics, i.e. entering sporting events. Today, unfortunately, entering takes 1-1.5 hours, which is absolutely wrong. The internal infrastructure of stadiums – cafes, entertainments – should move forward.”
Ananskikh is sure that “the Ministry of Sport must accept these rules. We insist on including the rules into the law ahead of the second reading. We will adopt the second reading of law parallel to making amendments for fans and owners of sporting grounds understand what rights and duties they will have according to the new law. Unfortunately, the law is not a dogma, the law is an instrument for making all participants of the process want working under new rules.”
