Before the football season in Russia started, fears about a new round of confrontation between fans from the North Caucasus and metropolitan fans that we discussed with VK have come true at an alarming rate. It all began with an incident in Makhachkala during a game between Zenit FC and local Anzhi FC; according to allegations of fans from St. Petersburg, two of their friends were beaten by employees of a private security firm. There was also fighting in the hotel "Leningrad", where fans from St. Petersburg were staying. The Russian Premier League denied reports of a beating in the stadium, and the incident at the hotel was called “an averted fight”.
"We have no information about it. The exit of the fans from the stadium was well organized. They got into a bus and were brought to the border with Stavropol with a police escort. Now we are carrying out an investigation; I talked about this both with Zenit FC and with Anzhi FC. But this instance has not been confirmed," the director of security of the Premier League, Alexander Meytin, told a press conference.
The representative of the sports organization said that, after the match, representatives of Anzhi FC who tried to start a fight in the hotel "Leningrad", were detained. But fans seem to have decided to avenge their comrades; for this purpose, they chose a match of the European Cup which Anzhi FC had to play not in its own stadium because of a UEFA ban on holding European cup matches in Makhachkala for security reasons. It turned out that holding the match in Cherkizovo is far more dangerous for the fans of the club than holding it outside Russia.
In the Moscow district of St. Petersburg on Wednesday evening about 50 youths attacked fans of Anzhi FC who were going to leave for Moscow for a match of the European Cup. Two people were hospitalized with serious injuries. One of the victims is in intensive care. According to the fan site of Anzhi FC, the incident was accompanied by shooting. Masked men came up to the bus of the fans and allegedly fired two shots with a traumatic weapon at the side windows and six times - at the windscreen. The driver of the bus miraculously managed to dodge the shots and get on the floor. The second driver was slightly injured and taken to hospital, according to fans. The site confirmed that two fans of Anzhi FC had also been hospitalized with stab wounds.
The opposition of the fans continued in Moscow during the match between Anzhi FC and the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar. Moscow and St. Petersburg fans came to the stadium in order to cheer against Anzhi FC. It was reported that nationalistic slogans and insults to fans and players of Anzhi FC sounded from the two sectors of Lokomotiv Stadium, where the match took place; pyrotechnics were also used. Apparently, the fans of the metropolitan clubs wanted to punish the Makhachkala club instead of UEFA. However, the head manager of Anzhi FC, Guus Hiddink, is confident that the representatives of UEFA dealt with the fans. As a result, 80 people were detained at the stadium.
Then, according to a correspondent of "Echo of Moscow", after the game at Lokomotiv Stadium about a hundred fans from Moscow and St. Petersburg moved to the metro station "Chistiye Prudy" and attacked a car carrying fans of Anzhi FC. A fight broke out. The police detained several people and led them through the Sretensky Boulevard station. The reporter emphasized that, in his opinion, in this case it was not about the fans themselves but a nationalist group.
The media reported on clashes between fans of Anzhi FC and Zenit FC last autumn. It was reported that in November, before a match between two teams, a group of St. Petersburg fans beat a few fans of Anzhi FC on a bridge near the Petrovski Stadium . This July, a match between Anzhi FC and Zenit FC was interrupted for a few minutes due to a conflict between the St. Petersburg fans, the police and supporters of Anzhi FC. As a result, some fans were seriously injured. About 10 people with injuries to the soft tissues of their heads, legs and arms needed medical treatment.
In addition, the players of Anzhi defeated the Dutch team AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the fourth qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. The game between the rivals at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Moscow ended with the score 1-0 in favour of the nominal hosts.
