Fan ID has been simplified – Kommersant

The Government of the Russian Federation has fulfilled the instructions of Vladimir Putin to simplify the procedure for obtaining a Fan ID. True, the adjustments in it turned out to be rather cosmetic. The process of issuing a fan card, the introduction of which caused outrage among football fans and led to a catastrophic decline in attendance at the Russian championship, will become easier only for children, the disabled and pensioners.

Government of the Russian Federation published changes made to the decree of June 2022 regarding the issuance of the so-called Fan ID. We are talking about, perhaps, the most urgent problem for domestic football. Before the start of the current season, a law came into force, according to which admission to sports competitions is carried out only subject to the mandatory identification of participants and fans.

To purchase a fan card, you must register on the Gosuslugi portal.

The football championship became the testing ground for the introduction of the system. In last year’s part of the championship, the fan identification system was used only at five stadiums: in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Sochi (all cities hosted the games of the 2018 World Cup, and the then successful experience of using the system was the basis of the law on Fan ID). After the restart of the tournament, which took place on March 3, the system was extended to all stadiums of the Russian Premier League.

Shortly thereafter, at the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order, according to which the Russian government, together with the autonomous non-profit organization Agency for Strategic Initiatives to Promote New Projects, should “take measures to simplify the use of football fan identification systems by citizens, primarily the disabled, pensioners and children.” Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin and General Director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives Svetlana Chupsheva were appointed responsible for the implementation.

The appearance of the assignment in the fan environment caused a surge of enthusiasm.

The fact is that the associations of fans of the vast majority of RPL clubs, including top ones, sharply protested against Fan ID, threatened to boycott matches and regularly implemented threats.

And this year it became completely clear that it is the new system and the attitude towards it from the side of the “root” football audience led not just to a solid, but a catastrophic decrease in the attendance of the national championship. Supporters of Fan ID in March tried to attribute it to unfortunate circumstances, such as bad weather, but subsequent events confirm that it was definitely not to blame. Last weekend, the 25th round of the national championship took place, in which several important matches from the tournament point of view were played. The average attendance of its meetings was 6918 people. This is a meager figure against the background of pre-pandemic indicators (at the end of the previous decade, about 17,000 people attended the championship games on average). Slightly less was only in four rounds after the resumption of the current season.

Meanwhile, the adjustments made to the law by the Russian government are unlikely to solve the problem. They look more cosmetic.

The government has simplified the issuance of a fan card for only three categories of citizens specified in the presidential order and who are not the mainstay of the traditional football audience – “children under 14 years old, disabled people of all groups, as well as pensioners, regardless of the type of pension.” Starting from May 26, 2023, the identification of children will take place remotely, and “if the data about them is provided in the verified account of the parent or legal representative on the public services portal, then the fan card will be issued automatically.” Now, in order to issue a child’s fan card, a parent must visit the MFC.

Disabled people, as well as disabled children aged 14 to 18, will be able to issue fan cards as part of group applications submitted by RPL clubs. Now, as the government points out, according to the same principle, “the receipt of cards and access to the stadium is provided for football players, coaches and technical staff of clubs.” The resolution also recommends that the regions at each RPL stadium “organize separate windows where pensioners and the disabled can get a card without a queue.”

Alexey Dospekhov