Football club Lokomotiv appealed to the Russian Football Union (RFU) and the Russian Premier League (RPL) because of complaints from fans following the match against Zenit.
This is stated in a statement published on Monday, May 3, on the club’s website.
The Moscow club called on the country’s football authorities to deal with all manifestations of inappropriate attitude towards the movement of fans during the 28th round match of Tinkoff RPL with Zenit.
The statement notes that the club receives complaints from fans against whom excessive restrictive measures were taken during the match. For the fans, they provided 1,817 tickets instead of at least 2,000 according to the regulations with the stadium occupancy at 75%, the statement says.
In addition, fans in the attributes of the guest team were massively transferred to the sectors of Lokomotiv. Thus, according to the club, the part of the stands allocated for the guests was overcrowded. Lokomotiv believes that the security service of FC Zenit did not provide for a sufficient number of reserve seats for the duration of the match.
The football club also drew attention to the fact that in the middle of the second half, the team’s fans were not allowed into the room under the stands, as the exits were blocked by riot police officers. It is noted that those present at the guest sector were “en masse and forcibly” taken to buses and taken to the city center. Some buses broke down along the way, but the fans continued to be kept in them for a long time. As a result, many fans were late for flights to the airport and train departures. However, many of them were on buses with children, the club said in a statement.
“We draw the attention of the leadership of the Russian Premier League and the Russian Football Union to the situation that arose during the match. We urge <...> to deal with all manifestations of inappropriate attitude towards the fan movement, and also ask the leadership of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg to assess the actions of their employees. This is all the more necessary, since the stadium “Gazprom-Arena” and “Zenith” will very soon receive guests three times as part of the Champions League performances, ”the club’s website says.
On Sunday, Zenit became the champion of the country ahead of schedule thanks to the victory over Lokomotiv in the 28th round match of Tinkoff RPL with a score of 6: 1.