Russians, English divided by nationality, but united by Premier League

Gurjant Pannu

Tribune News Service

Volgograd, June 17

Russia and England have had inglorious relations in the recent past with the Sergei Skripal spy scandal and the violence at Marseille at Euro 2016 that the English are almost entirely absent from the FIFA World Cup 2018.

England kick off their World Cup campaign here on June 18 against Tunisia, but only a handful of Englishmen can be seen at the FIFA Fan Fest and the city.

The curious thing is that while the Englishmen have stayed away, there is a lot of support for the Three Lions owing to the huge global outreach of the English Premier League and none other than the natives are the ones looking forward to see the Premier League stars such as Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy in action.

The free train from Moscow to Volgograd was filled mostly, almost entirely, of Russians and all have the names of Manchester United, Liverpool, etc, on their lips. 

The English Premier League is more popular than the Russian Premier League as it is in a lot of countries.

Viktor, a middle aged man from Moscow, is eager to see Harry Kane in action and is rooting for England till the final even at the expanse of Russia.

Swedish, Finnish and even the Mexicans on the train are supporting England and want the team to have a good tournament this time around.

If you ask any native for directions to a FIFA venue, he may not speak English but he may sing “Glory, glory Manchester United”, to let you know where his allegiance lies.

The English have been warned by their government that they may get killed if they travel to Russia but Martin Burns, who has made the trip, has had a change of mind after coming here.

“The Russians have been really warm and friendly and it’s been really wonderful, something I had not expected and I think they have been misunderstood. It’s been a revelation to me to see how amazing this country is. I think more Englishmen would be travelling here for the second group match against Panama,” he said.

Ellis and Jason Heidi, a couple belonging to London and Sheffield, also have only positive things to say about Russians and feel the issue has been blown out of proportion.  

However, Jason says he was asked to hide his England flag in the bag by the policeman at the FIFA Fan Fest venue due to it being large in size but said he has been unfairly targeted since the South Americans are allowed to carry their large flags.

Russians are equally clueless about the violence that broke out in Marseille and say they were not the normal citizens who were involved but “specially trained martial artists”. 

I met a couple of Russians in a group on the train and again at the Fan Fest venue here. 

Mikail and Anatolly are just like any other Russians who enjoy their vodka and smoke. Russians value family over everything else and for them the World Cup is like a holiday from their work and they plan to get drunk and sing their Russian war songs known as “katusha” and make merry. Violence or Englishmen is the last thing on their mind.