In the penultimate round of the season, Vladikavkaz confidently beat Baltika (3-1), who had previously secured a direct ticket to the RPL. Thanks to this result, Rubin won the Premier League championship.
“Alania” also scored 59 points and secured third place. A place in the play-offs with a representative of the RPL traditionally counts for him. Only now residents of Vladikavkaz have already been denied a license to perform in the RPL. The club has filed an appeal, and the final decision is expected on Monday, May 29. Insiders are confident that the red-yellow appeal will be denied.
What is the stadium?
The reason is simple: Alania does not have its own stadium. The Republican Spartak Stadium, which in the golden 90s for the club gathered 33-38 thousand fans each, and also hosted guests from Dortmund and Liverpool, is currently under reconstruction. It started in June 2020. Then it was reported that the arena, which was built in 1862, was in poor condition.
“Spartak” stadium in Vladikavkaz in the 90s.
Since then, Alania have been playing home games in Grozny, which is 114 km from Vladikavkaz by highway and 88 km in a straight line. First, Vladikavkaz played at the stadium. Sultan Bilimkhanov, then, when he was also sent for reconstruction, they moved to Akhmat Arena.
Initially, Ossetian officials promised that the stadium would be completed in a year or a year and a half. Almost three years have passed since then, and the arena is approximately 35% complete.
The President of the Republic, Sergei Menyailo, during one of Alania’s matches this season, shouted from a big podium to the fans that they would receive the stadium this summer. Of course, that didn’t happen. Now, there is absolutely no telling when the arena will be ready. Official comments are not given, but, according to unofficial data, you will have to wait at least another six months. So, at the start of the new season, the stadium will by no means be ready.
Initially, the talk that the stadium would be rebuilt in a year was extremely strange. In Vladikavkaz there is no reconstruction, but in fact the complete construction of a new arena. All stands were demolished and new ones were erected in their place. Just remember that during the preparation of Russia for the 2018 World Cup, with almost unlimited funding, the construction of stadiums took 2-3 years. It is not at all clear where the discussions about the possibility of completing all the work in one year appeared in the subsidized region.
The unkept promises of those responsible hardly surprise anyone. But in this situation, fans and footballers are suffering, who are faced with complete indifference from regional and football authorities.
Recall that in the 2020/2021 season, Alania took 4th place in the FNL and also had to play in the joints. Then they did not let her go, and they also reduced the candidacy of Orenburg, who won a direct ticket to the RPL. It turns out that “Alania” is about to lose what is rightfully hers for the second time. Resounding slap to the Russian champion in 1995.
The regulations must be changed, they do not correspond to the realities
“Alania” is ready to announce the Grozny stadium for RPL matches. But the RFU does not like this option. The regulations contain a rule that clubs must play in their region.
Footballers of “Alania” in the match with “Baltika”
The rule itself is absolutely idiotic, to put it mildly. For example, the Pyatigorsk conditional “Mashuk-KMV” is located 141 km from Stavropol, the center of the Stavropol Territory, and 75 km from Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. And if one day “Mashuk-KMV” (again, purely conditionally) comes to the RPL, and the stadium does not meet the requirements, then the team will not be able to play in Nalchik, although this city is closer than Stavropol.
It is completely incomprehensible that the RFU should divide the teams into certain subjects and regions.
The situation is also very hypocritical. At some point, an amendment was passed that Moscow clubs can play matches in the Moscow region, although it is a different region. Therefore, “Torpedo” played some of the matches of the current season in Khimki and it did not bother anyone.
It turns out that some teams are allowed to play in the neighboring region, if they really want to, while others are not.
Many supporters of the settlement say it should be followed. Say, if you want to play in the RPL, please prepare the stadium. Alright, accepted. And now let someone remind you which regional RPL team built their stadium, not counting Krasnodar and the great Sergei Galitsky? Maybe “Sochi”, which received the “Fisht” for the Olympics? Or “Rostov” with “Rostov-Arena” for the World Cup, “Baltika” with their beautiful stadium for the Mundial, etc. All teams received stadiums in their cities thanks to the World Cup. It’s just that Vladikavkaz, Orenburg and other cities were left without this holiday of life, but someone was very lucky. There is NO MERIT for the clubs themselves and the authorities of the regions here.
Go further. At one time, the RFU was very unhappy with the case of the long-suffering Tambov. The club did not play in its region, but played in Saransk, then in Nizhny Novgorod. Then it was widely rumored that the club went bankrupt due to lack of ticket profit. But, of course, this is pure nonsense. Tickets are an absolute miniscule in the profit structure of clubs in Russia. 90% of them are funded by budgets and tickets are a trifle. And what kind of ticket profit can we talk about after the introduction of the Fan ID? Maybe “Torpedo” got a big profit of 207 spectators in the match with “Ural”?
Spectators at the match “Torpedo” – “Khimki”
Moreover, in the case of “Alania”, the situation is generally different. The club is private, it belongs to the Guriev family. Private clubs are rare in Russia. There are examples from Krasnodar, Chaika, Akron and several other teams. It would seem that such things should be encouraged, but instead companies are scared of football, making them dependent on local authorities and rebuilding/building stadiums. Unfortunately, such simple things do not excite the RFU at all. It should not be surprising if, against the background of such mishaps, the same Gurievs abandon the club and decide to do something more profitable. Who needs a suitcase without a handle?
Anton Mozgovoy, Athletistic
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Source: Sport
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
