For which the head of the Vob, Alexander Shprygin, lost his membership in the Russian Federation and his car. Near-football "feeder" of the Kamanche Shprygin is known in football circles as the Comanche

Today Shprygin was detained in the toilet of the Holiday Inn hotel in front of. Leaving the building, accompanied by the police, “fan No. 1” was silent and did not try to resist law enforcement officers.

Shprygin is a defendant in a criminal case regarding a mass brawl between CSKA and Spartak fans that took place on January 31, 2016.

At the same time, it was Shprygina as the head All-Russian Association many people call fans

Apparently, the detention of Shprygin is part of the work on requests related to the events in France during the European Championship. At the same time, I want to say that the VOB, which was led by Shprygin, discredited itself, and also seriously let down the entire Russian football. At the same time, almost the entire leadership of the VOB has problems with law enforcement agencies,” Mutko commented on Shprygin’s arrest.

By the way, many English media, including The Guardian, accuse Mutko himself of helping Shprygin lead the VOB in 2007, and recall Mutko’s energetic gesture shown to the fans after the Russia-England match.

It cannot be denied that Shprygin’s creature initially raised a lot of doubts. He has to his credit a year spent in a pre-trial detention center for a conflict involving the lead singer of the group “Corrosion of Metal” Sergei Troitsky, known under the pseudonym Spider. In addition, a photo of him, together with Troitsky and a fan nicknamed Red Vulture, demonstrating a Nazi salute is very popular on the Internet.

In the 90s, the group of fans he led was, in fact, one of the divisions of the LDPR, regularly participating in violent actions at rallies and demonstrations.

At the same time, Shprygin himself was never a particular fan of waving his fists. Unless he could attack journalists if he had behind him respectable men with a meter-long shoulder turn. For example, at one of the LDPR holidays, he snatched a camera from Novaya Gazeta journalists and broke it.

How Shprygin hooked Cucumber and Barmaley

At some point we began to laugh: as some kind of makhach is planned, Kamancha is ahead of everyone: shouting slogans, waving his arms. And a fight begins, he disappears somewhere unnoticed. Such things happened regularly,” recalls one of Shprygin’s Dynamo fans and associates in the 90s. - Actually, they began to call him Kamancha because he was always very energetic and proactive.

- At what point did Shprygin become, in fact, the head of the Dynamo fan movement?

Well, I wouldn’t call him the head of the movement... In general, the Dynamo “movement” in the 90s was not geared towards fights. The main thing was the support of the team. There were a lot of respected fans, the so-called old men: Barmaley, Nakhodka, Zayats, Fraser. Entire football tournaments were even held in honor of Barmaley. They were called "Matroskin Tournaments". This is his real last name, like the famous cat. There was also the colorful character Bull - a man with money, a businessman, a hefty...

There were younger guys, but at the same time they enjoyed enormous authority. Cucumber, for example. Kamancha was also one of the young ones, he came out somehow suddenly and was always more active and louder than everyone else. There is a picture before my eyes: he is standing on the escalator of the Teatralnaya metro station, towering above the crowd, like Lenin, and shouting something about running to “cut down the butchers.” At the same time, as I already said, he had an amazing ability to evaporate directly during a collision.

- What are the most memorable fights involving Shprygin?

There were enough of them. I remember there was a respectable makhach in Ivanovo. About 50 people went to the cup match with Tekstilshchik. And already at the station the locals were waiting for us. And they didn’t greet us with anything! One came to the fight... with skates. After the massacre, he, restless, wandered around the station square and asked us: “Guys, haven’t you seen my skates?” I don’t remember why, but they didn’t touch him...

Since 1998, Shprygin has already officially worked at the hockey team “Dynamo” in the position of “specialist in organizing work with fans.” Were fans paid for tickets to the matches? And train tickets, for example?

At that time, inexpensive fan passes were sold. And the trips - no, they were not paid, of course. Most often we went “by appointment”. That is, you get on the train, hide somewhere, and then get out later, after checking the tickets. Most often they hid in the “coffin” - a small luggage compartment under the shelves. Often someone alone would enter the carriage, open the window in the toilet - everyone would climb into this window. Kamancha also often hid from the inspectors in the toilet. Although he usually had money... I don’t know, maybe he was given something from the club. But nothing really reached the fans. In fact, he made a fortune for himself by selling tickets, which he received in batches for free while working at the VOB, and then resold them.

Did you participate in the trips that Shprygin organized when he was already the head of the VOB? - a question to another Dynamo fan.

Last year, Dynamo Moscow played Anderlecht in the 1/16 finals of the Europa League. The club organized a charter for fans; tickets were relatively inexpensive - 7.5 thousand one way. There were about 500 people on the plane. When they were flying back, Kamancha began to behave violently and inappropriately. It seemed like he was not even on alcohol, but on drugs. For some reason, he started yelling at everyone, demanding that everyone sit exactly the same as when they were flying to Brussels. Naturally, he was sent. It's one in the morning, someone is drunk, someone is sleeping...

How the greed of the fraer ruined

Shprygin became the head of the VOB on May 25, 2007, on the day of its creation at a conference held in the ROC building. Three years later, representatives of the most massive fan movements left the association: Spartak, CSKA, Zenit. At the same time, Shprygin addressed those gathered at the next elective conference with a fiery speech, ending with the phrase: “I plowed like a slave on the mountain for three years!” It is not clear which mountain was meant, but in the end the current president was re-elected.

It is difficult to evaluate the work of PSA. On the one hand, the presence of large-scale actions and performances at the matches of the Russian national team is obvious. On the other hand, it is quite obvious that a significant part of the funds allocated by the RFU and preferential tickets ended up in the pockets of Shprygin and his closest associates.

After Shprygin was detained during the third match of the Russian national team at Euro 2016 and 2 thousand (!) tickets for different matches were found on him, the fact that VOB had finally turned into a private giant feeding trough became completely obvious.

Shprygin's name thundered throughout Europe after a fight in Marseille on June 11 after the end of the Russia-England match. Three days later the police detained a bus with Russian fans who were going to the match with Slovakia. Three of them were later sentenced by the court to prison terms of one to two years for participating in mass riots. And another 20 people, including Shprygin, were expelled from the country.

However, the greed of the friend ruined him. After being expelled from France to Russia, Shprygin returned to the Euro a few days later. Apparently, the desire to sell the tickets allocated to the VOB overpowered caution. The re-detained Shprygin was no longer expelled, but deported from the country and banned from entering France.

Mutko, who had until now patronized the head of the VOB, reconsidered his position after the Euro.

We long years worked with VOB. “They were our bridge between football and the fan,” Mutko said today immediately after his re-election to the post head of the RFU. - We paid for everything for them in Euros: the plane, the performance, the tickets. And the result was fights and a scandal. They really let us down. My attitude towards Shprygin, of course, changed. We had brilliant matches for the national team, and an excellent relationship with him. But then, when I left the RFU, I don’t know what was happening there at VOB, why the fans of Spartak, CSKA and Zenit left there.

Nevertheless, Shprygin continues to enjoy support powerful of the world this. For example, today I came to the elections in the company of Zhirinovsky’s son Igor Lebedev. The latter, by the way, was nominated today to the executive committee, which at that time was still a subject of the RFU.

According to Life, Shprygin took the flag of our country with him and planned to give a patriotic speech that the British trampled the Russian banner during the match with Russia, insulted Vladimir Putin and that no one Russian man I couldn’t stand it, that’s why the fight happened.

It is noteworthy that some time ago Shprygin was already detained by the SOBR, and also at the moment when he planned to give a speech of approximately the same content in the chamber of public assembly. Then he was interrogated as a witness to the Marseille events.

It is difficult to predict how the story of “fan number 1” will end. But there is no doubt that in the near future we will hear Shprygin’s name again and again - even despite the fact that today the VOB was deprived of membership in the RFU.

The All-Russian Fans' Association (VOB) is going through difficult times. On Saturday, September 24, the organization was removed from the membership of the Russian Football Union (RFU), and its leader Alexander Shprygin, nicknamed Kamancha, was detained by riot police. Over the next two days, there were reports of searches being carried out at the VOB office, as well as of Shprygin’s burned-out car. Lenta.ru explains the reasons for what is happening.

Eau de Toilette

Let's start with the most recent events that occurred on Monday night. VOB President Alexander Shprygin posted a photo of his burnt car on Twitter, calling the incident arson. The victim refused to comment on the incident, noting that he needed to understand the situation.

According to Lenta.ru, the cause of the incident could have been revenge from one of Shprygin’s former supporters in the VOB. Thus, the head of the organization was “informed” about the reaction of the fan community to the events that had occurred the day before, as a result of which the All-Russian Association of Fans will, apparently, announce self-liquidation in the near future.

It all started on Saturday, when during an extraordinary conference of the Russian Football Union, law enforcement officers staged a “mask show” and detained Shprygin in the toilet of the hotel where the election of the RFU President was taking place. Literally immediately information appeared about mass searches being carried out at the VOB office in Tovarishchesky Lane in the capital. The official website of the organization has ceased operation. It also became known about the exclusion of the VOB from the membership of the RFU.

Official information about the reasons for what was happening was contradictory. The newly re-elected president of the RFU, Vitaly Mutko, said that work is being carried out against Shprygin at the request of law enforcement agencies in Germany and France, who continue to investigate the riots organized by Russian fans at Euro 2016. Later it was reported that the detention of the head of the VOB was connected with a mass fight of football fans that occurred on January 31, 2016 in the area of ​​the Moscow metro station “Sportivnaya”. Allegedly Shprygin acted as one of its organizers.

However, no official charges were brought against the leader of the VOB. “The only thing was that searches were carried out at his place of residence and at his mother’s. But they did not find anything essential to initiate a case. The hard drives were seized and they will be checked, but I talked to Alexander, and he said that there could be nothing serious there. He was released without any charges being brought. He himself views this as an attempt to influence him in order to be relieved of his position,” R-Sport quotes lawyer Artur Golovanov, who previously represented Shprygin’s interests in the courts.

According to Golovanov, the detention is unlikely to be related to a clash between fans. “He has an alibi for this; he was at home that day. And on this occasion he was called and questioned a month ago. And since there were also no compelling reasons to bring charges, they were released. In my opinion, this is a formal occasion.”

Speaking about the searches at the VOB, the lawyer said: “Nothing significant was found there either. The hard drives were seized, but Alexander is completely sure that there is nothing in them that has anything to do with the cases in which he was accused, and nothing that will incriminate him will be found.”

The specialist also considered the charges related to the claims of law enforcement agencies in France and Germany to be incompetent. “This is an assumption, like an accusation related to extremism. As of today, there are no compelling reasons for the arrest. Moreover, after Alexander left France, he was in Europe again, crossed the border, and European law enforcement agencies did not have any questions for him. Otherwise he would simply have been detained.”

Golovanov noted that Shprygin has not yet decided whether he will take any retaliatory measures, since he understands that he “faced serious structures represented by operational agencies.”

Friend of the Indians

The real reason for everything that happened, according to Lenta.ru, was the conflict between Shprygin and Mutko, which began to develop after incidents involving domestic fans that happened during the European Football Championship in France. In particular, the Minister of Sports was very upset by the behavior of Russian fans who staged a mass brawl in Marseille. The head of the VOB was named as one of the main culprits of the clashes, as he failed to ensure the proper level of organization of fan activity.

For the second time, Shprygin upset Mutko when, after being expelled from France, he voluntarily decided to attend a match in Toulouse with the Welsh national team, after which he was again expelled from the country. According to sources close to both sides, Alexander not only did not want to admit his guilt for what happened, but also went into open confrontation after he was asked to quietly and peacefully leave his post at the VOB.

Shprygin was guaranteed immunity and a decent “golden parachute,” but he refused. As a result, even the high patrons he acquired at the dawn of the organization’s existence did not help Alexander, which, according to its charter, was conceived as a unifying force, but eventually turned into a dividing one.

The PSA was created on May 25, 2007 at a conference specially convened for the occasion, held in the building Olympic Committee Russia. Its creators are officially considered to be Dynamo player Alexander Shprygin, who took the post of president, army player Andrei Malosolov, who agreed to become vice-president, and Torpedo player Valery Puzanov, who joined the central council of the organization.

The main objectives were declared to be upholding the rights of fans as the main consumers of football and sports, uniting fans of different clubs around the Russian national teams, as well as promoting sports and healthy image life.

The organization was created under the patronage of the then president of the RFU, Vitaly Mutko, despite active opposition to the project from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and even the security adviser to the head of the RFU, Nikolai Sorokin. Rumor has it that Mutko also doubted for a long time the need to create a public association of fans, who have a controversial reputation in Russia due to the large number of hooligan groups, and even almost fired Malosolov, who actively lobbied the RFU for this project.

In 2010, Malosolov still had to leave the VOB as a result of a conflict with Shprygin, in which one of the informal leaders of Spartak fans, Ivan Katanaev, took an active part. The riot organized by representatives of CSKA and Spartak failed, as a result of which the fans of these clubs left the organization. Soon fans of St. Petersburg Zenit also distanced themselves from VOB.

Kamancha and his “Indians” began to divide the money on their own, expanding the business - including the ticket business - to its fullest. The raging financial flows turned Shprygin's head so much that at some point he lost it. According to the majority of those close to him, recently some of the actions of the head of the VOB had a serious conflict with adequacy. Consider the strange persistence shown in returning to France after the country's authorities strongly recommended that he refrain from traveling. Mutko himself noticed the changes and eventually had to rein in the presumptuous creature.

I decided to write this material at the big request of people close to me. It was planned to be in the book that I want to publish for the 10th anniversary of Fratria at the end of this year, but my colleagues convinced me to do it separately in order to finally dot the i’s. Why didn’t I write and publish this before? There are several reasons. Firstly, I have no one to justify myself to - my friends and inner circle already know it all, and I didn’t see any point in proving something to someone unknown. Secondly, until the last moment I doubted whether it was necessary to bring all this information to the public eye - I was sure that in the 5 years that I had been outside the Spartak movement, everyone would forget about me and I would be of no interest to anyone, but time passes, and rumors and the speculation around my person not only does not subside, but only multiplies. And so, my comrades convinced me to post this material in order to answer everyone’s questions and finally close this topic.

The topic of what happened in the winter of 2009-2010.

The All-Russian Association of Fans (VOB) was created in the spring of 2007. At that time, the organization’s presidium included all the real leaders of the country’s leading fan movements. A “conditionally neutral” was elected president Shprygin (Kamancha). If there had been a person from Spartak, the horses would not have accepted him; if from the horses, I would never have agreed with this. And so - an option where the nominal president is from Dynamo, according to right hand Spartak, and on the left - CSKA, suited everyone.

The management and decision-making scheme in VOB looked like in the following way- everything was decided strategically by the three of us - Kamancha, Max Rabik and me. Next came a slightly more expanded composition in the person of Andrei Batumsky, who at that time worked as the press attache of the RFU, maintaining direct communication with the leadership Russian football and the leader of the Lokomotiv movement - Sergei Latysh. It was not difficult for our trio to convince the two of them of something, especially since we never did anything bad - we simply came up with new topics for the benefit of all movements, quickly received the consent of the others and implemented them.

The primary task - to raise the prestige of the national team, fill the stadium stands at home matches and arrange colorful performances at the national team's games - was completed quite quickly. We did this with joy, having extensive experience behind us at our club level. I won’t speak for the others, but I, like Fratria, was really “sick” about this topic! I was constantly coming up with something, new performances, organizing trips, new exercises for the national team, contacts with partners, attracting sponsors - I really liked all of this and was truly a gem. The three of us constantly communicated - we met in the office, had dinner in restaurants, went to the countryside for barbecues, and this was the key to the success of VOB at that time - there was trust between us. Fragile, but trusting.

But the main thing is that our movements benefited most from this cooperation within the framework of the VOB. We resolved all problems with the administrations of stadiums, cities, and police wherever our teams played. We carried out titanic work and our movements were really at the top not just in Russia, but throughout Europe! Now we can say this with confidence.

In 2009, the delicate balance of our mutual trust began to crumble. Several times during the year we openly accused Kamancha of dishonesty - incomprehensible money transactions, separate meetings with some high-ranking people, and every time we raised these issues in our narrow circle - he made surprised eyes, said that you were imagining all this, and if you want accuse me of something - prove it. We simply could not prove anything without real levers to manage the organization - access to accounts, accounting (Kamanchin was the accountant) and everything else. All this was superimposed on Max and I’s open dissatisfaction with the fact that nothing was happening with the organization itself - it was not developing.

Yes, we filled the stadiums at the national team, yes, we staged beautiful performances, yes, we organized trips, but what about the other questions? They hung like a dead weight - membership and the loyalty system and the legal service and a bunch of other topics that had long been invented, planned, but not implemented. And most importantly, nothing was done to implement them. By the fall of 2009, Max and I decided to replace Kamancha as president of the VOB.

I was then 26 years old, behind me, as I thought, stood the strongest movement in the country and one of the strongest in Europe. All this time, the wind always blew favorably for me, despite all the difficulties that I had overcome by that time. I was full of strength, energy and self-confidence. It didn’t seem difficult for me to replace Kalancha - after all, the truth was definitely behind us. We prepared very poorly for the “coup”, one might say, we practically did not prepare. And the most important matches of the national team lay ahead. On October 10, 2009, Russia played Germany at home. The most important game and if we had won, we would have qualified directly for the World Cup in Brazil. The excitement around the match is colossal. Putin and Merkel were supposed to attend the game, but in the end they were not, but Medvedev, the German ambassador and other top officials of the country filled the Luzhniki presidential box to capacity. When such important matches happen, and even with such an important opponent, there is always an incredible rush for football tickets. Here we need to make a small digression and talk about the tickets that VOB sold.

The VOB podium was always behind the gates. We divided it proportionally between all Russian movements and almost never refused anyone - there are a lot of tickets, Luzhniki can accommodate almost 20 thousand behind the gates and all movements received as much as they asked for. For Spartak, I always took from two to three Luzhniki sectors. We always officially received a commission from the RFU from all tickets sold. According to the official agreement, they received their small agent percentage absolutely legally. This money went into our movements. I can’t say who spent it and on what, I can only speak for myself and for the Spartak movement - we were all aware of this. The entire council of Fratria always knew how many tickets I took for the national team and how much money we received from them. Since there was never any money in Fratria, this commission immediately went to our own performances, to pay for the office, to pay off debts and other expenses that we constantly incurred. The tickets that I picked up for the movement were first divided between our football-related companies, ultra organizations and simply informal associations of fans, and only then were released into open sale. I always tried to treat everyone absolutely equally - I was not a member of any company or organization and was equidistant from everyone, but at the same time Union always thought that I communicated more with the Alliance, and the Alliance always believed that I was closer to Union and I sympathize with them more. In reality, both were equal for me - the only ones I really empathized with and constantly tried to give more tickets to were the young ultras. There were several reasons for this. Unlike football-related companies, they did not give away their tickets to hucksters and did not replenish their common fund due to this. During the hype matches, the official teams sold 50 to 100% of their tickets to hucksters. Everyone knew this very well and this situation existed in all movements. This was no secret to anyone. But I also couldn’t refuse to satisfy their requests, so cutting them down as much as possible, constantly hearing people say “I’m crazy,” I tried to give more tickets to young ultras who regularly went to matches and made a fool of themselves - We had to support the team somehow! That is, VOB tickets for the national team were first divided between the main fan movements of the country, which occupied the central sectors behind the gates, stirred up performances and organized support for the team. Next came the regions, whose requests we also always satisfied almost 100%, since they had tiny requests for dozens of tickets. Next came our friends and partners, who helped us in our work and whom we always helped with tickets, and we simply sold the rest through the office. There were always about 20-30% of the total leftovers - in the entire history of VOB - there were only two super-hype matches - Russia - England in 2007, where we deprived half of the hucksters of tickets for the game and in the end I quickly left for the army, and Max a few I lived in Turkey for months while the issue was being resolved here. And this game with the Germans. Why am I telling all this? There is a series important points, which will then greatly influence both my fate and the fate of the movement.

The excitement around the match with the Germans was enormous. Simply colossal. The commercial director of the RFU, Pyotr Makarenko, who, after the same match with the British in 2007, without any hesitation, arrived in a brand new blue Bentley literally a week after the game, smiling modestly and rubbing his hands. The RFU put a lot of pressure on us to put half of our tickets on public sale. On the one hand, we were torn apart by our movements, where each party sent me applications from the series - Alliance - 500 tickets, Union - 350, etc., despite the fact that both of them had never taken more than 200-250 before)) ) On the other hand, there was pressure from the RFU, which leaked most of their tickets to huckster agencies, and for the right picture and for journalists, they had to show that fans have the opportunity to buy tickets to the game. Superimposed on all this was the preparation of a large-scale performance for the entire stadium. We only dreamed of peace.

A couple of weeks before we received the tickets, Kamancha suggested that I lose a couple of thousand to hucksters and make money. In all the time of our communication, this was the first and only time. I am ready to swear on the Bible that during the entire time that I was in the fan movement, I did not leak a single Spartak ticket or a single national team ticket to the hucksters. This fateful match with Germany was the first and the last. And so, I heard this proposal in the VOB office, looked at Rabik sitting next to him - Maxim, in his unique manner of God's dandelion, smiled modestly and I agreed. The following scheme was invented - we announce a lottery. Anyone registers on the site, receives a serial number, after which we hold a drawing and randomly select about 4,000 thousand lucky ones. Here I will note again - these were purely VOB tickets, our movements had already received their standard quota by that time, and we always sold these tickets directly through the office. It was decided to lose half of the tickets to the dealers. In order to avert the slightest suspicion, everyone registered on the newly created fanat.ru portal owned by Championship.com and the draw was carried out by them - the General Director of the Championship, Dima Austrian, was also in on it. Moreover, he was supposed to become the future president of the VOB, although neither Kamancha nor he himself knew about this yet. We have not yet had an open war with Kamancha, and I have just begun to process the Austrian for a future post. Thus, everyone was in the black - we would openly sell several thousand tickets, the Fan.ru portal received several tens of thousands of registrations within literally a week, journalists who came to the drawing received a beautiful picture with queues for tickets and a transparent drawing - the RFU was satisfied, and we Each earned about one million rubles. The whole secret was in the winning numbers - we bet on the standard inattention of people. We really registered everyone, we really assigned numbers to everyone, we really entered all the numbers into the computer, pressed the magic button in front of the journalists under the cameras and held a drawing. And we actually received more than four thousand winning numbers. It’s true that no one bothered to check further - all the numbers that were drawn were drawn twice. That is, each number was duplicated and instead of more than four thousand, two thousand actually won. Who received their tickets, and the rest went to the left to hucksters.

I dwelled on this episode in great detail for only one reason - this was the only time in my entire life when I took part in such a fraud, and in the future it will have its say.

We lost the match with the Germans. Last game in Baku, in Azerbaijan, where I simply took my friends at my own expense (this money came to me so easily, so easily and quickly I parted with it) did not solve anything. We had play-offs with the Slovenians coming up. The first game was at home and again at Luzhniki. This was a month later, November 14, 2009. There was no longer any excitement here - Luzhniki was half empty and there were a lot of these tickets to be chewed up. We are standard scheme distributed tickets and sold a certain number of them through our movements. But we couldn’t even sell our stand outside the gates - people were very disappointed in the national team and no one wanted to go to the stadium to watch football, freezing in mid-November. At the same time, I regularly sold my Spartak quota and took the money to the VOB minus our standard commission, which then amounted to about 600 thousand rubles. And then Kamancha began to push the topic to me, saying that the RFU does not pay VOB a commission for this match, because few tickets were sold and we did not even sell our entire stand. Like, take the commission to the cashier too. To which I sent him away and said that this is the money of our movement, we sold all our tickets and have a legal right to our commission and that if anyone from the RFU has questions about this, let them call me. And then I made another mistake - I sent Kamanche an SMS saying that we already knew everything about this. I lied - we weren’t all in the know, since there had not yet been a gathering within the movement, and this one unfortunate SMS would later play a role. And a couple of weeks later, on November 29, there was an enchanting game of Spartak in St. Petersburg. It was memorable, first of all, for the fact that our entire squad did not make it to the game due to a beautiful passage in St. Petersburg wearing masks. Yes, yes - all these masks and much more for this match were bought, including with this money. Buses were organized and other things were paid for.

For this topic, I received two days of administrative arrest in court and slept in a cell for two days.

And then December came. And active actions began to overthrow Kamancha from the VOB throne. The plan was as simple as five kopecks and looked something like this - “well, Max and I will push, our movements will support us, the rest will also take our side, the new president will be an Austrian, social network Fan.ru, with almost 80 thousand registered users, is becoming our main resource and we are taking the organization to a fundamentally new level of development.” Yes - everything was just that naive and simple. After all, the truth was behind us...

We knew that Kamancha had some connections and patrons among our special services. We didn’t understand how much he was patronized by the Minister of Sports Mutko. Therefore, we were afraid to push ourselves directly and were looking for serious support. At first we tried to get it from Mutko - we went to his ministry several times, met and talked. We openly stated our position, said why we are not satisfied with Shprygin, why we want to replace him and what will happen after that. Mutko’s reaction can be briefly described as follows: “do what you want, just don’t touch me, I don’t care who your president will be.” At the same time, we worked within our movements - I carefully met with all the leaders of our official collectives and ALL assured me of support. Rabik achieved the most important thing - the unconditional support of Yaroslavka, in 2009 this was more than enough for the horse movement. They were aware of Jugent, but were a little distant, while they openly did not like Rabik, because all the benefits went to Yaroslavka, and they got the crumbs. In general, I had an even relationship with everyone, I didn’t reveal all my cards to anyone (which was also my mistake), but at the same time I received verbal support from the Union and from the Alliance and from the School and from the old people in the person of KVO and MB . Within the VOB itself, we immediately won over Lokomotiv to our side; Batumsky took the longest time to make up his mind and, in general, expressed sound, balanced concerns, but when Rabik received support from Yaroslavka, he also stood with us. The last vote of a member of the Central Council - Vasya Petrakov from Torpedo in this context was no longer very important, so Vasya was simply confronted with a fact and he signed a formal piece of paper where all members of the Central Council of the VOB insist on changing the president and holding an extraordinary conference on this matter.

In addition to purely fan matters, we were also looking for administrative support. We found her in the person of two people from the Presidential Administration with whom Styopa Grib brought us together. They supervised the fan topic, were aware of all the plans and expressed their unconditional support for us by starting to help with lawyers and preparing documents for our extraordinary congress. All these events happened in just a month. Everything was so fast, everything changed so quickly that now I can’t even believe it. But in reality, all the events described are just the end of December 2009 - January 2010.

Before the open phase of our conflict, the three of us met Kamancha for the last time - Rabik, me and Kamancha. We met in a cafe on Prospekt Mira - the situation was tense to the limit. Everyone already understood everything, but it was not said openly yet. At the meeting, we suggested that Sasha calmly resign from the post of president, otherwise, we will do it as we see fit. He did not accept our ultimatum and said “let’s fight.” On this we parted ways.

Next came our attack on Shprygin. Direct, open, dashing - checkers drawn, brave, in general. We unleashed a barrage of attacks on him in the media - we had all the sports media and the future president of the VOB, an Austrian, coordinated the work with them. All the country's sports media wrote about Shprygin's change, about the extraordinary VOB conference, and at the same time completely ignored him. The only resource that Kamancha had left was the VOB website - it was put up with the help of our friends from the presidential administration. When he published a statement on the RFU website, they also shut down the RFU website, which had not worked for almost a week, and Mutko yelled that we were completely stupid and that the RFU website should be quickly restored.

An extraordinary conference was scheduled for January 30, 2010; a sufficient number of delegates from all our regions were supposed to fly to it to make a legitimate decision on the re-election of the president of the organization. We paid for the entire event ourselves - the Austrian gave the money and we ourselves covered tickets, accommodation and other organizational expenses for all delegates. But since we were complete idiots and had no experience in all these dirty behind-the-scenes games, we did not calculate at all and did not even think about what Shprygin would do in response. And in mid-January we met with him again - by that time we had an overwhelming advantage on all fronts and Sasha looked depressed. And at this meeting we came to an agreement! We agreed that he sits quietly until April, when we are supposed to have a planned, annual conference, and already at this conference, he voluntarily leaves his post and we elect an Austrian as the new president. It was a victory.

That same evening, Max and I, joyful, met with Grib and two people from the AP and at this meeting, completely unexpectedly for us, Mitryushin appeared, who had never appeared anywhere before! At first this bothered us, but Mitryushin immediately promised Max to “close the issue with the Yugents” and help us in every possible way. Well, we tell everyone that this is how it is, we agreed with Kamancha, everything is fine, and in a couple of months we will officially change it at the annual conference.

And here comes a topic that I still don’t have an answer to. These characters from the Presidential Administration sharply, without objection, insist that this is all complete nonsense and in two months everything can be turned upside down and that we must act according to the previously developed plan and hold a conference on January 30th. Nobody wanted to listen to any arguments - either January 30th, or “do everything yourself.” I remember very well how much it stressed me then - I could not understand the logic of this decision and my whole insides resisted such a turn. But after the meeting, I called Kamancha and said that our daily agreements were cancelled, we were holding the conference now and changing it now. The clock was ticking the countdown tick-tock tick-tock... For Kamancha it was a severe blow then. And if it weren’t for his closest ally Bykovsky, I think he would have accepted defeat. But the older comrade did not let him fall and they began to practice their game - that is, to drain EVERYTHING that was in the VOB. It was the twentieth of January, the phone was ringing off the hook - dozens of delegates from all over the country were flying to Moscow, it was necessary to organize a conference room, invite journalists, organize a bunch of events, prepare just piles of documents. We worked day and night with terrible nerves, and I gradually began to receive alarm bells... The Boxers were the first to call me - we met with Plus, with Fabio and with someone else, whom I simply don’t remember now. And at the meeting Plus tells me that Kamancha came to them and offered five thousand euros so that the Boxers would dump me from VOB! We then laughed with them, saying how cheaply he values ​​me, but they told me, “be careful, Kamancha works for you, and not everyone in the movement loves you like we do.” Looking ahead, I will say that he also offered money to other people in our movement for me - I don’t know whether they took it or not, but only the Boxers told me about it. I didn’t attach absolutely any importance to it then - I was so confident in my own abilities, that these attempts of Kamancha seemed funny to me. On January 28, Roma Kolyuchy calls me and says we need to meet. We meet in the evening of the same day at their base. And the Alliance’s base then was the office OUR movements, which they guarded and through which they stirred up their topics. And so I come to Belorusskaya, to the office of OURS, the young Alliance is everywhere on guard, I go up to the hall on the second floor - Roma Kolyuchy, Vasya Killer, Ilyusha Ninja and Kiril Kerensky are waiting for me there. So and so - we have information, they say, do you want to tell us anything about VOB? At first I didn’t understand what the joke was, until Vasya nervously took out of his pocket a previously prepared piece of paper on which a number was written - one and a half million rubles. “That’s exactly how much you got from tickets at VOB - we know for sure!” Vasily blurted out to me. Here I begin to understand that Kamancha leaked this whole topic with Germany to them, but in what context I did not understand and therefore said that this is complete nonsense and either show evidence or goodbye. I understood perfectly well that they couldn’t have any evidence other than Kamancha’s words and, naturally, they didn’t have any. The conversation was generally very strange with a lot of omissions; it ended with Kolyuchy proposing to organize a general meeting tomorrow before the VOB conference. With that we shook hands. The next day a meeting of the Council of Phratria was held. Literally a couple of hours before the training camp, Kiril Moskal called me and said that we definitely need to meet before the training camp. The gathering was in our Hardcore pub on Chistye Prudy and Moskal and I met right on the road on Sakharov Avenue. They didn't talk for long - literally five minutes. Kiril decided to warn me that at the training camp I would be “cut down from the VOB.” At first I didn’t understand what he meant - then all these meetings, all the calls, really seemed like nonsense to me - my brain was on a completely different plane, I was thinking about completely different things and to imagine that a movement (any one) could kill its representative in At that time, it was simply impossible! So that everyone understands, the Council of Fratria never discussed VOB’s affairs! NEVER! At all the Councils, I spoke briefly about what was happening, they discussed tickets, discussed departure (especially when it came to freebies) - but no one ever got into it, no one cared!

And so I come to Hardcore for the training camp. To be honest, such a representative composition of meat was assembled only once before - on the day when they decided to make Fratria five years ago. The focus was then on me, and today, January 29th, 2010, the only agenda was me.

When we all somehow sat down in a separate room where all our training took place, I was amazed and it was at that moment that it finally dawned on me what was happening. Absolutely everyone was there! Even young ultras who had never participated in any Council were invited. The Professor was barking from the side, Prickly was broadcasting. He took out his phone and showed me the same SMS that I sent to Kamanche that I had taken a commission from tickets for the match with Slovenia! Kamancha sent this SMS to Roma and do you know what the motive was for me?! Attention! I was told that I did not have the right to dispose of this common money at my own discretion! At that moment everything just exploded in me and I lost it! I just started yelling that you are all crazy and why the hell even allow yourself to make such claims to me! Here I have to make another, small digression.

Since the founding of Fratria, for five years, the entire common fund of the organization has always been with me! All Phratrian money always went through me! For all five years, for all the time that we met dozens of times, NOT ONCE, NOT ONE PERSON asked me a single question about money! Do you know why?! Because Fratria never had them!!! We always didn’t have enough money for anything!!! During all the time I ruled Fratria, the club never helped us. Everything we did, everything we did, everything we achieved was done at our own expense! Where did they come from? Good luck to the world! That's it literally! At first we made a markup of 50 rubles on tickets, then, when I could no longer tolerate the constant attacks and accusations of ticket huckstering, we actively began organizing trips, sometimes earning something from the buses, and sometimes even going into the red. Then we made membership, started collecting money from firms and initiative groups - all firms chipped in at five thousand rubles a month, and initiative groups at three thousand. And do you know how it happened? Well, when I finally pestered someone over the phone, the leaders of the companies brought me debts for 2-3 months. Only Vasya Killer always delivered on time. All the rest - until you call a hundred times. Then they began to develop the store, but it was still very far from profit. Some of our performances cost more than a million rubles! There was never enough money for anything! Everyone knew about this very well, everyone was aware of it, and everyone always preferred to pretend that everything was fine - the battalion commander would resolve the issue anyway. And the Battalion Commander solved the problems - he constantly invested his money, ran around among businessmen who supported Spartak, begging them like a beggar for money for performances, looked for sponsors, negotiated with companies about the most low prices, contacted manufacturers directly to purchase everything needed as cheaply as possible! And sometimes he simply wrote promissory notes, received fabric or paint, and paid later when the money appeared. [...]

Now imagine my state when I’ve been sleeping 4-5 hours a day for the last couple of weeks, I’m all on my nerves with the VOB conference, which is supposed to take place tomorrow, and they present me with the fact that the money that I pulled out of the VOB (!) was brought to I didn’t have the right to spend my money (!) as I saw fit! All five years before I had the right, but now I don’t, and due to the “loss of trust,” as they say now, I can no longer represent the interests of Spartak in the VOB.

That's the whole result of this collection.

And here is the official statement of Fratrius on this matter, which I also wrote, like all previous statements of the movement:

Lately there have been a lot of rumors and gossip around the situation in and around the All-Russian Fans Association. As a result, many fan movements in the country were drawn into the conflict.

Today there was a meeting of the leaders of the Spartak fan movement. ALL Spartak associations and blocs were represented. The current situation around the PSA was examined in detail and a unified position on everything that was happening was developed.

I have been instructed to present it:

The current president of the VOB, Shprygin Alexander, bears full responsibility for the current situation and, as having failed in his duties, must immediately leave his post.

The Central Council, as the main governing body of the PSB, is also responsible for everything that happens and must resign in its entirety.

A reporting and election conference of the PSB should be held in the near future.

Due to the fact that Ivan Katanaev, as a member of the Central Council of the VOB, is involved in this conflict, until the current situation is resolved, the position of the Spartak fan movement will be represented by Ilya Novikov.

Ilya Novikov, this is Ilya Ninja from Kabanov, this pseudonym was invented for him right at the training camp. This was an official statement, but unofficially we agreed that I would prepare a report on the money, report to the meeting and all issues would be closed. That evening it was just a huge blow for me. I simply took it as a stab in the back from my own movement. Let me remind you that all this happened exactly on the eve of the announced conference! The very next morning there was this VOB conference. I didn't sleep all night. I just lay in some kind of prostration, lay there until 6 in the morning, took a shower, got dressed and went to the Belgrade hotel, where our conference was held. Not only was I the host, I had to give out a million more interviews, sign a bunch of papers and everything else. I conducted the conference purely automatically. Kamancha at that time was sitting directly opposite the hotel in the IlPatio restaurant on Smolenka and nervously caught any news from there. We held a conference, but it didn’t matter. While fighting Kamancha, we did not think at all that a third force might appear that would enter into a fight with us and with him. And such a force, completely unexpectedly, appeared at the very last moment, when the Spartak Alliance decided to take the VOB for itself. After only six months, having dug deep into this and realizing that VOB is just an abbreviation, but in reality these are living people who made this organization successful and that nothing works without us - they will abandon this matter and completely anathematize VOB. But this will happen only in the summer, and for now it’s February. Having become agitated and somehow calmed down, I began to play the situation back. Moreover, everyone expressed support for me - like, come on, let's report and win it all back. At that meeting, it is worth saying that the absolute majority simply remained silent. No one opposed the Alliance, and with my hysteria I also did not give a reason to vote for myself. The only one who said words in my support was Kosoy from Union, the whole ultra was silent, it is understandable given such a composition of participants, the Alliance was sharply against me, Union, Boxers and the School were silent, the Professor barked, but he always barks and no one pays attention to it attention. That's how we made that decision. But a week later, everyone once again expressed support for me and said - let's get ready for the next training camp. And here a new blow - Rabik is cut down by horses! He was my ally, and those who are in the know understand perfectly well that he could also influence some topics in meat. And here the whole horse movement, which he lived by as much as I lived by Spartak, makes him anathema. A video was leaked online where he gets into someone’s car and allegedly leaks an internal story to the cops. I can’t help but tell you how this video appeared. The fact is that Rabik had one, but very strong problem - he was on all Interpol lists and travel abroad was prohibited for him. And knowing his connections with hooligans in Europe, knowing his desire to stir up topics in Europe and generally ride around Europe for CSKA - you can imagine how much this issue bothered him. Yes, he could not sleep peacefully trying to solve this issue by any means and disappear from these lists. And so Roma Kolyuchy suggested to him, a few months before our revolution, to resolve the issue using his connections, which by that time Roman actually had serious connections. Kolyuchy put him in the car where they recorded Rabik and Max, the fool, got hooked and got this video as a souvenir. There were no options here, and even his Yaroslavka, which he brought to the European top and in which he invested everything he had then, even they did not support him. The game was played. Both Rabik and I got our own movement at VOB in just one week. And Kamancha no longer interfered with the new representatives of our movements. They came to an agreement with him. But I was still in the game. Having lost the official support of his own movement, Kamancha unleashed his bull bandits on me, who tried to “talk” to me by catching me near my house. Like any bull bandits, they did it rather clumsily and ingenuously, never getting anywhere. I quite quickly prepared a report on all the finances of Fratria for almost the last six months, sat and waited for the next collection. You yourself understand where my mood and general state of mind was all this time. And so, the gathering was scheduled three weeks after the events described - February 22, 2010. Still the same Hardcore, still the same lineup. I arrived at half past eight, as usual, half an hour before the meeting. Usually everyone arrived at this time, ordered a pint of beer and at 8, without delay, the gathering began. And there was no one in Hardcore, my high spirits immediately disappeared, I ordered a pint of beer and waited. Twenty minutes to... It's fifteen minutes to eight - I started dialing numbers - no one is available. At exactly eight o'clock I realized that I had been leaked. All phones are turned off - all are inaccessible, which means that the collection is taking place, but in a different place. You know, the next couple of hours were some of the hardest in my life - this oppressive feeling of extreme disappointment. A feeling of betrayal that just tears you apart and you can't do anything. I don't care about my enemies, but my friends?! I talked to you on the phone this afternoon and we discussed today’s training camp! I was betrayed even by those whom I sincerely considered my friends, and this understanding simply destroyed everything alive in me. For two hours I couldn’t even drink one glass of beer - nothing would fit, there was a lump in my throat and there was complete devastation. I never expected this. This situation took me by surprise and I was completely unprepared for such a turn. At about 10 pm I left Hardcore and walked across half of Moscow towards home. I just wanted to go wherever my eyes looked without thinking about anything. The first call came to me at the beginning of the twelfth night - Poodle called. Sorry, he says, the Alliance, literally a few hours before the meeting, moved the meeting place from Hardcore to Small Pub, they said that I should not be at the meeting under any circumstances, like we are discussing VOB affairs, and, they say, we will discuss me later. I hung up the phone silently. [...]

New facts and evidence are emerging regarding the organization of riots at the European Championships. And first of all, they say that the head of the VOB Alexander Shprygin, who is called Kamancha among football fans, did everything possible to ensure that the most radical representatives went to the first match of the Russian national team at Euro 2016 on a charter paid for by the RFU fan movement.

The departure of Russian fans to the Euro became the main news of the first days of the championship. Images of the destroyed streets of Marseille and the bloodied faces of British opponents filled the front pages of the Western press. From the outside, the story of sending a plane with fans of the Russian national team from Moscow looks like a detective story. WITH the list of those departing was presented by Shprygin literally the day before the departure of the flight from Sheremetyevo, which did not allow verification measures to be carried out and the isolation of the so-called radicals who flew to France solely to wave their fists.

There were a lot of people who wanted to get into the Vobov charter,” one of the fans of St. Petersburg “Zenith” told Life. - There was no clarity on the flight for a long time. This was explained to us by the fact that the VOB and the Ministry of Sports could not find an economical flight option and money to rent an aircraft. It seemed like no one was ready to spend a lot on fans. As a result, VOB was nevertheless allocated a plane, and the distribution of seats was entrusted to the heads of fan clubs. The charter was taken on the following principle: mainly leaders and authoritative representatives of fan groups were included; it was extremely difficult for ordinary fans to fly to France.

As a result, an impressive team of football hooligans went to Marseille on a charter. There were a lot of fans of Spartak (a club that officially left the VOB several years ago), many representatives of Lokomotiv, several people from the Moscow clubs Torpedo and Dynamo. Some of the seats went to representatives of regional fan movements. True, for most of the Wobb charter, the Euro ended in Marseille.

From France the plane flew almost empty. Many who arrived on it were afraid, for obvious reasons, to return home on the same flight, so as not to be detained at Marseille airport. After the fight in the port, fans left France in scattered groups through neighboring countries. Many had problems with leaving: those who arrived on a free charter did not expect to urgently buy tickets to Russia, the price of which increased several times during the European Championship.

It is possible to understand those who did not dare to board a free plane again. As a result of those events, members of the VOB central council Alexei Erunov, Sergei Gorbachev and Nikolai Morozov, who arrived in France on a charter, were sentenced to prison terms and still continue to be in a Marseilles prison. Another 22 fans from that charter, including Shprygin himself, b were expelled from France. True, after a couple of days the head of the VOB returned to France. But not to rescue his comrades who remained in captivity, but to the final game of the Russian national team against the Welsh national team. Continuing to this day to adhere to the position thatVOB was not the organizer or customer of fights with English fans and was interested in peaceful support for the national team.

In order to understand why Shprygin took “radicals” on the plane, it’s worth diving a little into the history of the Russian fan movement in general and the creation of the VOB in particular. Despite his public position, the chief football fan the country has not enjoyed support among ordinary fans for a long time. There is an opinion among fans that Shprygin’s activities were initially aimed not at unification, but at splitting the fan movement and radicalizing the fan environment, which together caused image damage Russian Federation as the hostess of the upcoming 2018 World Cup.

The split in the VOB matured back in2010, when a real revolution took place in the central council of the organization, as a result of which representatives of Spartak and CSKA, authoritative in the fan world, left the organization. Later, representatives of the capital's Dynamo staged a demarche after them. As a result, today the central executive committee of the organization includes only representatives of Lokomotiv, Torpedo, Tom, Samara Krylia Sovetov and Rubin.

Another confirmation that there is no unity in the VOB was the organization’s conference, which was held in January 2016 in St. Petersburg. Only 45 out of 90 delegates came to the city on the Neva. And only those who supported Shprygin came. Currently, fans are openly sabotaging all VOB events. For example, in July in Voronezh, under the auspices of the VOB, a football tournament “Holy Rus'” was planned. But representatives of 12 regions of the country officially refused to participate in the tournament, which was eventually cancelled.

Let's go back to the year 2010. In order to maintain power over all Russian fans in his hands, Shprygin began to actively flirt with the leaders of football hooligans, organizing free trips to Europe under the auspices of the RFU and VOB. The split immediately arose due to the fact that in 2010, Shprygin’s dubious affairs in selling tickets for matches of the Russian national team became public. They say that Shprygin then sold part of the tickets allocated free of charge and earned a significant amount, which is expressed as a figure with six zeros. All this provoked statements from fans of Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo and many regional branches about leaving the VOB.

Where is the money, Kamancha?

But let's return to the events at Euro 2016. The actions of the head of the VOB left active fans without a championship, and the national team itself without support. Facts of abuse of official position in the distribution of funds allocated by the RFU to the VOB for organizing the performance became public knowledge. Thus, according to VOB members, the RFU allocated 5.5 million rubles from the budget to the organization before the start of the European Championship.

It was assumed that this money would be used to produce banners and other paraphernalia that would be used at all matches of the Russian national team. In fact, the promotion from VOB football Europe I saw it only at the group round match between Russia and England, when at the very beginning of the game a huge Russian flag was stretched out in the sector behind the goal.

As for supporting the team, here we completely failed the Euro,” one of the active fans, who attended all three Russian games in France, said in a conversation with Life. - We only looked decent in the match against the British. In Lille and Toulouse, the team was essentially left without support, both visual and noise. There were no performances, there were only “Kuzmichi” with their families in the stands. In Lille, even the Slovaks beat us in terms of support, to say nothing of the Wales fans, who are remembered throughout Europe for their outstanding support.

Personally, I saw the performance of the Russian national team, but I don’t presume to say how much money was spent on its production,” Sergei Drozdov, an authoritative representative of the Dynamo fan movement, former executive director of VOB, told Life. - If we are talking about 5.5 million rubles, then perhaps Alexander Shprygin sewed the banner from gold thread.

People around Shprygin himself also believe that only a small part of the money was actually used for its intended purpose. The main funds ended up in the pockets of the head of the VOB and several of his friends.

Fans are sure that Shprygin enriched himself at the Euro not only by saving on performance. The head of VOB also made good money on tickets. Thus, 940 tickets were allocated for each match of the VOB group stage. Almost all of them were sold by Shprygin (his trusted people) not at face value, but with a 20% markup. Moreover, the tickets, which were intended for Russian fans, were in fact sold to everyone. This is how, at the Russia-England match, English fans ended up in the sector where only Russians were supposed to sit. They got there using tickets sold by VOB. All this resulted in brawls during the match and at its end.

There is a rather strange situation with tickets for the Euro,” one of the fans who visited France told Life. - All clubs submitted applications for tickets centrally through the same VOB. Thus, the Russian side had to win a large number of packages for three Russian matches. On average, we expected to receive 10-15 packages in our hands. But in the end we received 4-5 packages (three tickets in one package) per person. The biggest excitement was, of course, around the match with England. Two weeks before the game it was no longer possible to get tickets. Therefore, it was surprising when in Marseille itself there were an abundance of free tickets for sale on the streets.

But Shprygin’s ticket program was valid not only for national team matches. Dynamo fans are confident that, having built a speculative chain in the club, he regularly makes a profit from the blue and white home matches. The club's fan relations staff are involved in the process and have many opportunities to leak so-called free tickets to speculators.

The process consists of several stages. Dynamo has a program to attract spectators, for which hundreds of tickets are written off. For example, an educational institution makes an official request to a club to provide seats for students at a match. The management approves it without any problems, after which the tickets end up in the hands of fan relations specialists through the box office. From this moment on, only they are responsible for their subsequent implementation. Some of the tickets, of course, reach the right consumer, but the other part simply disappears and turns up at the stadium in the hands of hucksters an hour and a half before the start of the match. Fans claim that Shprygin is trying to control the operation of this scheme personally, regularly appearing at Dynamo home matches in Khimki. By the way, on last match Dynamo and Baltika were also present.

In the 2016/17 season, the activity of speculators for Dynamo matches increased sharply. Due to the fact that the team dropped out of the RFPL to the FNL, the number of ticket offices at the home arena in Khimki was almost halved. In addition, due to traffic jams on Leningradka on the eve of matches, a huge line forms at the box office half an hour before the start of the game. In this case, it is really easier to buy a ticket from speculators.

Path to power

In light of the above circumstances, it is worth recalling how Alexander Shprygin appeared in the football community and headed one of the most popular organizations football fans in Russia.

Being one of the leaders of the leading informal association of Dynamo fans, Blue White Dynamite, from 1996 to 2000, he established close contact with the club’s management. Even then, at the expense of the team’s budget, he organized trips to away matches. At the same time, the monthly income of the organizer himself, according to sources in the club, reached 500 thousand rubles. In 2007, Alexander decided to go further and initiated the idea of ​​creating a VOB. She was supported by the president of the RFU at that time, Vitaly Mutko, but he did not see Shprygin himself at the head of the organization. But the then and current president of the RFPL Sergei Pryadkin and the former commercial director of the RFU Makarenko spoke in favor of the latter. As a result, in the same year, at the May founding conference, Shprygin was elected president of the VOB. Having come to power, he personally began to organize ticket programs for matches of the Russian national team at international football tournaments(European Championship 2012, European Championship 2016, World Cup 2014). According to available information, Shprygin’s profit from the sale of tickets for these three tournaments alone is measured in a figure with six zeros in foreign currency. Sources in VOB said that only at the Russia-England match in 2008, a narrow circle of people in the leadership of VOB pocketed from 1 to 2 million dollars. The overall funding of the VOB was provided by the RFU, with Shprygin’s organization receiving up to 50 million rubles a year annually. The organization allocated 500 thousand rubles monthly for renting an office in Tovarishchesky Lane alone.

But it seems that Shprygin’s long-term financial scheme will not last long. The Marseille pogroms, perpetrated by Kamancha with money from the RFU, forced the country's football leadership to take radical measures. At the last meeting of the executive committee, Vitaly Mutko announced that he was closing the VOB, and a new organization would be created in its place.

The VOB has let us down. We expected that the fans would come to support the team and not start riots. Mr. Shprygin showed disrespect for the entire RFU and all of us,” Mutko concluded.

ALEXANDER SHPRYGIN. On his business card below his last name there is the impressive word “president”, in his email address instead of his name there is the nickname boss, on the windshield of the car there is a State Duma pass for travel where others are not allowed. A big man, in a word. Leader of the VOB - All-Russian Fans' Association, member of the executive committee of the RFU - Russian Football Union. This is the place to be on the VIP podium - for especially important guests...

PERSONAL

ALEXANDER SHPRYGIN. On his business card below his last name there is the impressive word “president”, in his email address instead of his name there is the nickname boss, on the windshield of the car there is a State Duma pass for travel where others are not allowed. A big man, in a word. Leader of the VOB - All-Russian Fans' Association, member of the executive committee of the RFU - Russian Football Union. This is the place to be on the VIP podium - for especially important guests...

LEATHER LOCKS

– Is life good, Alexander? Watch football from the executive box - blankets, free drinks, snacks... Not like in the fan sectors under the supervision of evil cops.

– By the way, I’m going to write an extensive article on this topic in LiveJournal, the Internet LiveJournal. I haven’t really understood the behind-the-scenes environment for the elite yet, but it’s interesting to watch what’s happening. Now, according to my status, I am entitled to free tickets and invitations to all matches, it would be stupid not to take advantage. Although I got into VIP for the first time four years ago at the Lokomotiv stadium.

- Exotic?

“I was struck by a fashionably dressed lady who, during a match, chirped loudly to someone on the phone: “Darling, I’m at the football game. It's so weird and cool here! Boys in colorful T-shirts are running around, everyone is shouting and waving flags.” Then I learned that there are different lodges, there is a kind of division. The coolest ones, of course, are government ones. And the so-called red VIP is considered ordinary. This includes a seat in the stands and a buffet after the game.

Of course, watching football with a blanket and hot food is more comfortable and enjoyable than freezing outside the goal. People with money are used to living comfortably, so they want to have all the amenities at the stadium. For example, there was none of this at Dynamo in Petrovsky Park. Zero service! And in Khimki, where the team is moving during the reconstruction of the old arena, it will appear. Rich fans will be able to buy an annual subscription for one hundred thousand rubles and enjoy the game from the business box and have fun.

– How much will a ticket to the match cost?

- Five thousand rubles. For a serious person - pennies. It's like going to a restaurant once. But everything will be familiar, familiar. You can even watch a rerun on TV while you have a drink and a snack. Of course, the atmosphere in VIP is unique, intimate and bohemian. It takes time to get comfortable. On March 7, I was at Luzhniki for the Russian Super Cup. The audience around was entirely respectable: club leaders, sponsors, coaches, honored people - Cherchesov, Simonyan, hockey Tikhonov... No one really shouted or jumped up and down. Everything is quiet, sedate, calm. I won’t say that I felt out of place, but it was uncomfortable. I’m used to going to football to relax, unwind, and show off. So you hit the nail on the head with your question; I am having a deep philosophical discussion on this topic within myself.

– Isn’t the caliper offended that they exchanged it for leather stocks?

- There is nothing like it even close. I am still accessible, everyone knows my mobile phone number, the Internet is full of sites through which you can communicate with me directly. Now we are opening an office in Tovarishchesky Lane on Taganka, anyone is free to come there. I get into the VIP box a couple of times a year, and I regularly attend games of the Russian Championship, in almost every round. So consider...

It’s easier for me behind the gate with the fans. On March 28, the national team will play against Azerbaijan, and I will go to the “B” stand with the guys. Even at the Super Cup between CSKA and Rubin, I looked at the field, followed the stands, and read the banners.

– Have you seen the “message” to the Minister of Defense?

– Fans expressed their attitude towards the idea of ​​disbanding the army club. It turned out, maybe, a little rough, but it was specific.

– The question is not to cross the line of what is permissible. As happened with Zenit fans at last year’s match with Dynamo Moscow.

“The people of St. Petersburg acted extremely harshly with people who dared to insult the memory of the great Yashin. According to the club's decision, thugs will no longer appear at the stadium; they simply will not be sold tickets. Believe me, for those who cannot live without football, it is difficult to come up with a more severe punishment.

– How long have you been a fan, Alexander?

– I first went to football in 1989, for some reason at the match between Spartak and Yerevan Ararat, although I had been a Dynamo fan since I was five years old. At first I went with children’s tickets, but they weren’t allowed into the stadium without an adult, so I chose a more decent guy and asked: “Uncle, tell the controller that you are my dad.” I went to every game with a new “father”. At one time I kept a diary where I wrote down how many matches I attended during the season and what trips I went on. The formation of Russian football took place before my eyes. As is the development of the fan movement in the country. We were once considered rabble-rousers, but today they recognize that this is a powerful and well-organized movement.

RESCUE OF DROWNING PERSONS

– You can move in different directions. For example, along the path of extremism and nationalism.

“It’s not our choice, that’s for sure.” For some reason, fans continue to be stubbornly portrayed as a violent, always drunk and poorly controlled crowd, recalling fights between various factions, clashes with the police, plastic seats in the stands torn out with “meat” and especially the pogrom at Manezhnaya Square after the 2002 World Cup match between Russia and Japan. But then there was a drunken crowd, over which law enforcement officers lost control; this was not a planned action. Fan associations for last years have changed a lot. Today, fans have direct contact with clubs, and in a certain sense even influence their policies. For example, “Phratria” ensured that the leadership of “Spartak” took into account its demands, and moved from confrontation to close cooperation. Dynamo fans have strong ties with the team, the army team, Lokomotiv and Zenit fans...

– Is VOB officially registered?

- Certainly. As an all-Russian social movement, uniting 53 regional branches. There are seven people on the board, five of them represent the country's leading fan organizations. We are part of the RFU, we have the right to vote at conferences, and I am now also a member of the executive committee, I am the plenipotentiary representative of fans in the Russian Football Union.

– If I’m not mistaken, there are 31 people in the executive committee. What can a lone fan voice change in this harmonious chorus? Who will hear him?

– Today it is important for us to state our position, to indicate our presence. And this is already a lot. Not all at once! VOB is less than two years old. For now I’m keeping quiet, delving into it, listening, learning, but I’m sure, if necessary, I’ll be able to prove and defend the fans’ position. With the active participation of the VOB, the rules adopted back in 2002 regulating the behavior of spectators at sporting events. The procedure for carrying banners into the stands, agreeing on their content, and requirements for sound-amplifying equipment will be more clearly defined. The document is currently being approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs; if it is accepted, it will be our major achievement. Although, I will not hide, the struggle is tough, the police, of course, are trying to tighten the rules as much as possible, limit any actions, but we believe that everything should be balanced, without excesses.

– Fans themselves often give reasons not to be mean to themselves.

“But this is not yet a reason to introduce draconian measures against everyone. If you follow this logic, Russia has long needed prohibition. How else? There are so many alcoholics here! It’s easier than ever to impose bans, but it’s much more difficult to make sure that every match turns into a truly interesting spectacle. At the Super Cup, three quarters of the seats in Luzhniki were empty. In my opinion, this is terrible. Is it normal that fans didn’t come to watch two best teams last season? In England or Spain, people would be flocking to see such a game, but in our country, I’m sure many didn’t even know who was dating, with whom, when and where. People need to be attracted, find non-standard forms that can arouse interest. Let's say, what's scary about an organized fan performance? It's part of the show after all.

Take the same banners: they can be witty, bright, and expressive. And sometimes sad - depending on the situation. In any case, this is not a reason to ban them, which the police regularly try to do. At the match with Rubin, army fans were not allowed to carry a banner dedicated to the memory of their fallen comrade. They say it’s a holiday for people, there’s no need to spoil the mood. Who would the banner harm? This only causes irritation, a desire to do something out of spite. Moreover, in the cold season it is not difficult to drag any banner onto the podium by wrapping it around the body. Who knows! You can’t strip everyone down to their underpants.

Rather than waste energy on a “who will win” fight, it is better, I repeat, to try to come to an agreement by spelling out all the details in the law. In the end, you can attract not only lawyers, but also linguists. Let them give an expert assessment of the content of the banners.

“But when the stands start hooting like monkeys at the sight of black players, I’m afraid no amount of expertise will help.” This sounds like a diagnosis.

– I look at the situation differently. What you are talking about is the result of buying cheap foreign players, which undermines the level of Russian football as a whole. We need to raise our own students, and not bring here a bunch of random people. Agents, trying to line their pockets, sell third-rate goods, but you can’t fool a fan with chaff. People have learned to figure out what's what. I assure you, no one will holler at a strong player. Skin color does not matter in this situation.

FAT GREASY HANDS

- In a word, Alexander, everything is fine, don’t you see any problems with manifestations of racism in the stands?

– Of course, the culture of fan behavior needs to be improved. The VOB is also involved in this. We are currently developing a procedure for joining the organization. This is not about drying everything up and putting it on bureaucratic lines. We don’t want to trivially hand out membership cards and then walk around high offices, trumping the number of people covered. It won’t be difficult for us, as they say, to put half a million people in the country under arms, but that’s not the goal. We plan that those who are members of our organization will be able to receive some benefits; for example, a leading mobile operator has already offered a special tariff for VOB members. In addition, we are thinking of introducing modern interactive forms that will allow us to record and track information about each fan in a special database.

- Meaning? Is it easier to manage?

– Similar electronic cards have existed for a long time, for example, in England and Holland, and you can immediately see from them how regularly a fan attends matches. If, for example, there is an important game coming up, for which there are more applications than there are seats in the stadium, the most active ones will have an advantage. Vitaly Mutko liked our proposals, he said that he was ready to transfer to the VOB all issues related to the distribution of tickets for the national team's matches, leaving for himself only what concerns VIP guests. But we cannot yet take on such responsibility.

-What are you afraid of?

– The question is double-edged. It is necessary to create a transparent system that will exclude any fraud. There are plenty of people who like to speculate and make an extra penny. I will not hide that, as the president who has a significant quota for tickets, various businessmen periodically approach me with “interesting” offers.

- You, of course, are not corruptible?

“I’m smart enough to understand that attracting fans to our side will bring the organization much more dividends than momentary profit.” Ticket distribution companies think differently. They take advantage of the shortage and make the most of it. To break this bad practice, we want to introduce an electronic registration system. Then it won’t be difficult to track where and in what quantity the tickets went. These are obvious things, another question is that corruption has penetrated deeply into our football, affecting almost all structures. I don’t want to say anything bad about the RFU, but...

– You should try to criticize the organization of which you are a member of the executive committee!

– That’s not the point. The union itself does not sell tickets; it does not have a license. Previously, the RFU delegated rights to someone, but now, thank God, it has decided to create its own agency that will keep order. Today we can already predict that the match with Germany will cause a stir no less than the game with England a year and a half ago. VOB then passed the test with dignity, we had about 20 thousand tickets, they were distributed to organized fan clubs and were sold under strict control. In this sense, you won’t be spoiled at VOB.

– Do you know what they say in Ukraine? The one who holds lard always has greasy hands...

- Right. But I don’t forget for a minute that today you can earn a certain amount of money by chasing the jackpot, and tomorrow you can lose your good name and never get it back. I’m not ready to answer for others, but I will say about myself: there is no amount for which I would put my reputation on the line. Chairman board of trustees The VOB is Sergei Lipatov, president of the TTK company, which hosted the Russian Super Cup. It was he who helped us organize three free charters for the match with Germany. The trip was free for the fans, but in fact the pleasure cost almost four hundred thousand dollars, which Sergei Vladimirovich entrusted to the VOB. This attitude should be valued, and we understand this very well. Believe me, this is not Shura Balaganov from The Golden Calf, who is capable of stealing a wallet on a tram, forgetting about fifty thousand in his pocket. I’m fine – both mentally and financially.

– What do you earn from?

– My personal assets are well distributed. I am the founder of several companies, I am engaged in car service and cargo transportation, I have a share in a fashionable sports cafe, and I own land plots in the Pskov region.

- Did you buy the collective farm?

- Something like that. Broke, driven to bankruptcy by the previous careless owners.

- What is the name of? Something like “Testaments of Ilyich”?

– Agricultural cooperative “Pukhnovo”.

– What are you producing?

– We are currently looking for investors. The most valuable thing in Pukhnovo is land; it will always be profitable. I think that in Russia in a couple of years an agricultural boom will begin, people from cities will flock to the villages. But we seem to have digressed from the topic?

SPIDERS IN A JAR

- Why? The President of the VOB is a public figure, people should know how the leader of the fans lives. And there are still dark pages in your biography.

– Which ones, for example?

– In 2003, you were accused of robbery and attack on the leader of the Metal Corrosion group, Spider. How did it end?

– The prosecutor's office dropped all charges against me, admitting that they had gone too far. Today I am clean before the law and people. The story dragged on for five years, during which time the case was returned four times to clarify the charges, but in the end they could not incriminate me with anything. We couldn’t find anything to cling to.

-Have you made peace with Spider?

“A year ago we were supposed to meet and discuss everything in private, but, to be honest, I have no desire to see this person. When, because of a banal quarrel, one friend is ready to ruin the life of another, this, you see, is not normal. If I happen to meet Spider somewhere, I’ll shake his hand, no problem, but I’ll probably no longer be able to be friends and communicate as before.

– You spent a year in a pre-trial detention center?

- In “Matrosskaya Tishina”. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I’ll just say: the pre-trial detention center is not a test for the weak. I instantly matured, became tougher, more decisive, learned to stand up for my rights and say the word “no.” Now it’s useless to try to bend me or break me - it won’t work. Of course, prison is a powerful school of life, but I don’t advise anyone to rush to sit at this desk. In the detention center, by the way, they say that they have never had such a unique prisoner before, since I still maintain relations with the management of the pre-trial detention center and go there from time to time.

- Are you bored?

“Matrosskaya Tishina is undergoing renovations, and I want to negotiate with the local authorities to remove the unique Dynamo panels that have been preserved from the thirties of the last century. They hang on the walls in the administrative building of the pre-trial detention center and are in no way inferior to those that decorate the lobby of the Dynamo metro station. It's a shame if such good things go to waste. Just imagine how many people looked at these panels, what kind of energy comes from them... For almost two years I convinced the head of “Matrosskaya Tishina” Fikret Tagiyev and, it seems, he persuaded him. We have a good relationship, sometimes I even help the pre-trial detention center staff with football tickets. Do you know that the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Yuri Kalinin, recently signed an order awarding me the medal “For Strengthening the Penitentiary System”? We do a lot of work with convicts, regularly take teams of fans to colonies, play with prisoners...

– The fact that the president of the VOB was imprisoned certainly adds weight to you in the eyes of ordinary fans? Like an authoritative guy.

– I never trumped with such things. If it were up to me, I would erase this page from my life. There's nothing to be proud of. The famous chanson group “Vorovaiki” wrote a song that they dedicated to me, and shot a video based on it, where this whole story is played out in an artistic form. A presentation is due to take place soon, I hope it will be the final chord, I will put an end to it and will no longer think about the Spider or anything connected with him.

Cheap thieves romance has never attracted me. So that your fingers fan out and snot bubbles. Not my style. And the fan world is far from the criminal one, they are like two poles. Another thing is that sometimes they try to force us into different stories.

- That is?

– Let me remind you of the sensitive issue of tickets. When the VOB took away twenty thousand tickets to England, we ruined someone's business. If the tickets went to the box office, they would inevitably end up in the hands of speculators, who, according to the most conservative estimates, would make a million dollars. People from law enforcement agencies were involved in the scam. Having lost their money, they had a big grudge against us and began to settle scores. They went home to the leader of the Spartak "Phratria" Ivan Katanaev, known to many as a Battalion Combatant, and were drafted into the army, although Vanya was already 26 years old. I am not against defending the Motherland with a machine gun in my hands, but everything looked defiantly provocative, as if it were a measure of punishment, and not the fulfillment of a sacred duty.

-Did you interfere?

- Of course. Vanya served in the garrison for six months, and then we achieved his transfer to internal troops, and now he is engaged in performance at national team matches. By the way, the police tried to put pressure on Maxim Korotin from the army fan club after England, they put pressure on him in every possible way. And they didn’t give him any offense, they beat him back.

FACE WITH A SCAR

- Well, I see you have a scar on your nose...

“I’ve been boxing for three years.

– Do you want to say that you were injured in the ring?

- No, my nose was broken in a street fight, but that was a long time ago. In his youth, he sometimes got excited and got into trouble unnecessarily. Now I try to avoid conflict situations, although it doesn’t always work out. The last time a fight happened was in 2006 in Kyiv, when our Dynamo played there with a local one.

- Who will win?

“On the football field, the Ukrainians turned out to be stronger, but outside of it, we were stronger.”

– It seems that later you and the Caucasians waved in Petrovsky Park.

– This is already without my participation. Our guys didn’t share something with amateur team“Vainakh”, I came to resolve the situation. We parted ways.

– Why did they threaten Igor Rabiner?

– Again you attribute the merits of others. My close friend and namesake turned to Rabiner when he drove into Dynamo for something unrelated, and offered to talk like a man. The letter was supported by many fans, but the journalist went to America instead of answering... Then the meeting did take place, and the conflict was settled. As with Vasya Utkin, who initially had a misunderstanding with Vanya-Kombat. In the end, we also got along.

- Why, by the way, are you Kamancha? Were there Indians in your family?

Remember the old Soviet film “The Leader of the Redskins” based on the stories of O’Henry? In 1993, we went on an away trip with Dynamo, and one of the guys called me Kamancha. Apparently, I was somewhat like the eccentric and restless boy from the movies. So the nickname stuck...

– Is it true that you are an assistant to State Duma deputy Abeltsev? The one who sometimes backs up his verbal arguments with his fists?

– This is the fourth convocation in a row. Sergei Nikolaevich is a serious man... I have been a member of the LDPR since 1998, and am listed as Vladimir Volfovich’s adviser on sports. He and I even have the same football preferences. Zhirinovsky has been a Dynamo fan since childhood; his entire office in the Duma is painted blue and white. But his son Igor Lebedev is an ardent Lokomotiv fan. And, by the way, largely thanks to the VIP boxes at the stadium in Cherkizovo. The first time Igor got there by accident, but then he became addicted and began going regularly. I was so carried away by the game that last season I sent a deputy request to the head coach why he did not release a player as a starter.