This seems like a bad idea.
A Russian politician has proposed a rather bizarre solution to the problem of football hooliganism on the country's streets, just a year before Russia hosts the 2018 World Cup.
You may remember the fan violence that marred Euro 2016, with
large groups of Russian supporters involved in a series of organised attacks on English fans in Marseille.
Terrifying footage was posted to Twitter of three Russians kicking and punching an England supporter who had become separated from a group of his friends.
https://twitter.com/edim_sport/status/742850873416679424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Well politician Igor Lebedev, who sits in the Russian parliament, believes he has just the solution for this issue.
He wants to see hooligan violence legalised and fights between large groups of football fans officially organised in arenas, which would effectively turn hooliganism into a spectator sport of its very own.
"Russia would be a pioneer in a new sport," Lebedev wrote on the
official website of the Liberal Democratic Party. "English fans arrive, for example, and start picking fights. And they get the answer – challenge accepted. A meeting in a stadium at a set time."
Lebedev proposes that a set of rules be drawn up for "draka" - the Russian word for fight - so that fans who are eager for a pre-match fight can do so in a way that "could turn fans’ aggression in a peaceful direction."
Bonkers!
