MOSCOW, November 8 (R-Sport) – The Russian football association's decision to order Spartak Moscow to play two games behind closed doors will end up costing the team $1.4 million, its owner told R-Sport on Thursday.
The ban was combined with a further $18,500 cash fine for crowd trouble during a Russian Cup game at Shinnik Yaroslavl last week. The game was stopped for half an hour as fans clashed with police and a Nazi flag was unfurled.
“Spartak will lose 45 million rubles [$1.4 million] because of this situation, and this is a big blow to our budget,” Leonid Fedun said. “Something should be done with the fans. Now there is a fight against the clubs, but not the fans.”
The team failed to overturn the decision in two appeals.
Spartak will play its second match behind closed doors on Sunday when it faces league leader Zenit St. Petersburg after losing 3-1 to Lokomotiv Moscow last week.
Russia over the summer introduced legislation aimed at curbing misbehavior at sports events, with the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 football World Cup on the horizon.
The so-called Fan Law comes into effect on January 19, 2014. There have been more than 14,000 offenses committed at Russian sporting events over the last three years, according to Sports Ministry figures.
