Women from Chechnya claim being forced to support “Akhmat” FC

Residents of various regions of Chechnya, including women, are being forcibly taken to watch football matches of the “Akhmat” Football Club (FC) in Grozny. Chechen women complain that they often have to get home on their own after the football matches.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Grozny public sector employees and students have repeatedly complained about being forced to attend the football matches of the “Akhmat” FC under threats of dismissal from work or expulsion from a higher educational institution.

On April 21, the “Akhmat-Arena”, the largest stadium in Grozny, hosted a semi-final match between the teams of the “Akhmat” and “Krylya Sovetov” FCs. The football players from Samara turned out to be stronger, and they defeated the home team with the score of 4:1.

On the eve of the football match, heads of republic’s enterprises and educational institutions received an instruction from the heads of local administrations to ensure the attendance of football fans.

“It is a rare situation when you can find fans of football among Caucasian women, and the previous matches were attended mostly by men. And here, it was decided to introduce women to this sport, too,” said Khava, a resident of the village of Prigorodnoye in the Grozny District of Chechnya.

Political analyst Ali Magomadov believes that the compulsion of residents of Chechnya, including women, to attend football matches is associated with the authorities’ desire to show that the population of the republic is in solidarity with the government in everything. For example, if there is a need to support the Chechen football team, then everyone is ready to come to the stadium and become a football fan.

It should be also noted that residents of Chechnya have also repeatedly reported about their forced participation in subbotniks (voluntary clean-up work days).