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The Conversation
The Conversation
Simon Chadwick, Global Professor of Sport | Director of Eurasian Sport, EM Lyon

Why the ‘Putinisation’ of sport must no longer fool the world

Russia Vladimir Putin England UEFA Champions League FIFA World Cup Kremlin

At the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, there were sixty-thousand Chinese fans in attendance even though their national team hadn’t qualified for the tournament. By comparison, there were only fifteen-thousand England fans, who eventually saw their team make the Semi-Final stage.

One reason for this can be traced back to events at the 2016 UEFA European Championship in France, when a group of well organised Russian football hooligans attacked England fans in Marseille. Some observers speculated that these Russians had links to the Kremlin hence many English fans subsequently feared for their safety should they head to the 2018 World Cup.

Shock and awe

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