Football: Russia cracks down on hooligans ahead of World Cup

Russia's parliament today backed harsher punishments for football hooliganism, including a seven-year ban for black-listed fans, in a bid to combat violence at stadiums ahead of its hosting of the World Cup in 2018.
The lower house of parliament, the Duma, passed the bill unanimously in its crucial second and penultimate reading.
It still needs a third reading and then it goes to the upper house Federation Council before signing by President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's organised rival football fan groups model themselves on British hooligan "firms" and communicate on the Internet, with some taking part in nationalist rallies in their team scarves.

Racist chants directed at black players and those from the Russian Caucasus and lighting of flares are common.
In 2012, Zenit Saint Petersburg fans threw a firecracker at Dinamo Moscow goalkeeper Anton Shunin, forcing the match to be abandoned.

Russia's hosting of the World Cup in 2018 would mark the most high-profile sports event ever held in the country.
The bill would try to control fans by allowing the government to rule that tickets for certain sports events can only be bought by fans who show ID.
Under the proposed legislation, those fans who caused a match to be abandoned could spend 15 days in cells or get a ban for up to a year.

The bill would then allow a judge to ban repeat offenders from stadiums for up to seven years. Those who breached the ban could also be forced to pay up to 25,000 rubles (USD 764) in fines or spend 15 days in police cells.
Currently the maximum fine for fans who cause a match to be stopped is just 2,000 rubles and the top penalty for fans who commit a less serious offence is 1,000 rubles.
The bill also calls for trained stewards to be present in stadiums, which are now largely guarded by police. The stewards would have powers to search fans and prevent black-listed fans from entering.

It also places more responsibility on stadium owners to ensure security with measures such as closed-circuit television cameras. Organisations could be fined up to 500,000 rubles (USD 15,250) if people were hurt due to security breaches.
In December 2010, fans ran amok in central Moscow, beating up migrants from the North Caucasus after men from the region allegedly shot dead a Spartak Moscow fan in a fight. Twenty-nine were injured.
Yet in an ambiguous response, Putin opted to meet leaders of fan groups and visited the grave of the man killed.