30 April 2018, 14:28
Residents of Chechnya tell about compulsion to attend football match
Today, in Grozny, the local "Akhmat" Football Club (FC) will play a match with the "Ural" FC from Ekaterinburg. Students and employees of the organizations funded from the state budget were instructed to attend the match as fans.
On June 6, 2017, the board of directors of the then Grozny-based "Terek" FC decided to rename it to "Akhmat" FC in honour of the first pro-Russian Chechen President, Akhmat Kadyrov, the father of the incumbent Chechen leader. Fans and residents of Grozny have reacted ambiguously to the renaming.
"In the first round of this championship, the 'Ural' FC managed to defeat our team. Today, the 'Akhmat' FC should take revenge," said an official from the Republic's Sports Ministry.
University students and employees of state-owned organizations report that they were obliged by their bosses to attend the match.
Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.