In another terrifying incident in an Europa League match between Liverpool and Zenit, here in Zenit St Petersburg stadium on Thursday, Liverpool’s fans were reportedly beaten up before and during the match by a bunch of hooligan said to be the host fans. A local news channel flashed the news about 40 peoples’ strong group who attacked the traveling fans when they landed on the metro stations to attain the match. The attack was so severe that supporters had to take the shelter inside stadium itself until security forces used bats to scatter the hooligans. Surprisingly, it all happened when Zenit had ensured that there would be adequate protection inside and outside of the ground so that match could be played in a clean atmosphere, but on the contrary, everything that happened was against the commitments. Actually, racism has ever been a biggest cause of ground attacks in this part of world, perhaps not too far ago, a group of strong hooligans warned Zenit to avoid playing with any black or gay player; they were not given much attention by anyone that time.
Even the club issued a statement earlier this week ensuring no tolerance of racism; it reads as, “The club’s personnel have been working hard so that the players and fans alike would enjoy the match. Zenit have always condemned any form of racism. We hope our opponents share the same principles and tomorrow we all be treated to a great football match and passionate crowd support.” That is why there were around 2500 police personnel patrolling outside the stadium ahead of the match, but despite all this, a big mess-up could happen. It clearly signals how devastating situation is there.
This is not the first time; such an incident has happened in Zenit and more especially there is no sign of improvement in the thinking of fans out there about racism. That is why many black players have backed off playing there in the past. If things did not improve in the near future, there could have been a ban or no spectator play in this region until situation improves a little bit. The only good news was that match could finish and host defeated Liverpool by 2-0. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told in a press conference post match, “We are very disappointed. I thought it was a near-perfect away performance. We had chances to score and should have been in front. We looked defensively solid so to concede those goals, especially the second one, was very disappointing.”