MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2022) Moscow believes it is necessary to maintain dialogue with football fan associations in order to understand the reasons behind their firm opposition to the idea of introducing Fan IDs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
On Monday, several fan associations of big Russian football clubs, including Spartak, Zenit and Rostov, announced a boycott of all games played by their teams to protest the introduction of the fan identification system.
"We believe, of course, that dialogue with fan associations is necessary, raising awareness is necessary. It is necessary to understand why their position is so irreconcilable, maybe members of these associations simply do not understand some nuances. Then they need to be explained. In any case, this should be done through dialogue. And representatives of these associations as well, before taking such irreconcilable stance, they must first seek clarification somewhere," Peskov told journalists.
At the same time, former president of FC Spartak Moscow Andrei Chervichenko said that the topic was overhyped by the media and if not for this, fans would have just ignored the vocal minority and registered their Fan IDs to see games. He compared the system with buying tickets to cinema or showing ID to board trains, which are necessary steps to ensure public order.
Fan ID is a system for identifying football fans, designed to make the entrance to stadiums safer and more convenient for spectators. The system was introduced at the 2017 Confederation Cup, later extended for the 2018 World Cup, as well as at the Russian matches of the European Championship in 2021 for both Russian and foreign visitors.
