In autumn, 1995, a squadron of ex-Soviet military helicopter flanked the Liverpool team upon arrival at an otherwise eerily redundant airport in the Republic of Northern Ossetia.
The savage fighting in bordering Chechnya, less than 40 miles away, allegedly made Stan Collymore and co a target for rebel activists during the first round UEFA Cup match with Spartak Vladikavkaz. Planning for this trip was like no other.
After the swiftest passing through customs - possibly in Russian history - and a 20 kilometre bus ride across barren terrain, the 120 strong convoy of players, officials and fans from Merseyside were sped to a hotel where the local authorities placed armed guards at its entrance and on all floors.
Had the rebels desired rich pickings amongst its Western visitors in an attempt to seize the world’s attention, they needn’t look very far. Giant red flags draped over balconies from the state-issued accommodation where Liverpool supporters called home for the duration of their 30-hour stay. As inconspicuous as ever.
The Soviet Union had fallen four years before but this was like a scene conjured by George Orwell from his deepest trench of nightmares. During the game, held at the predictably named Spartak Stadium, more than a thousand police and soldiers surrounded the pitch, supported by a militia of salivating Rottweilers in need of an evening snack.
“A lot of managers say it in Europe, but the game really is a journey into the unknown,” observed Roy Evans as he disembarked Russia’s finest Aeroflot.
“It could be a tricky one, this.”
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VLADIVOSTOK: That cold, distant place. When Liverpool’s number was plucked from the hat at the draw for the UEFA Cup, Kopites were presented with the prospect of a first round tie with a team from a city that hosts Russia’s Pacific navy fleet and is so far away from the shores of the Mersey, that it would take an 12,000 mile round trip to get there and back.
Gala ceremonies screened live from Monaco seemed like an innovation of the distant future in the summer of ‘95, so observers fixed their eyes on Teletext to find out where Roy Evans would be taking Liverpool for his first ‘European’ match in charge. Had it indeed been Spartak Vladivostok– further east than any part of China – like the vidiprinter said, the EU would surely have reconsidered their definition of territorial boundaries.
Instead, an unwitting BBC employee had mistaken Vladivostok for the equally remote destination of Vladikavkaz, a city deep in the foothills of the Caucasus mountain range. A mere 7000-mile round trip to prepare for then.
Vladikavkaz qualified for the UEFA Cup by finishing fourth in their domestic league under the guidance of Texan-tached coach Valery Gazzaev who had assembled a multi-ethnic squad of players from across the whole of the old Soviet empire. Aside from three Russians there were as many Georgians, two Belarussians and Ossets, a Ukrainian, a Kubardinian, a Circassian, a Balkan, an Uzbek, an ethnic Greek born in Georgia, a Romany and an Azerbaijani.
Liverpool scout Ron Yeats flew to Russia and watched Vladikavkaz struggle to draws against Krylia Sovetov and Torpedo Moscow, but Gazzaev warned the Reds against complacency.
“UEFA Cup matches are quite different,” he told the media at the pre-match press conference amidst high security. “There is more pressure and more emotion involved, so our match against Samara wasn’t our best. In fact, it was one of our worst.”
Gazzaev was confident that his new squad of players would be capable of matching Liverpool.
“Last year, we did a lot of work on selecting players. In fact we sacked 10 and took on 10 new ones. The players are first class technically and very strong individually.
“I know a lot about Liverpool. I’ve even got tapes of them from the time when Dalglish was in the team and when Rush was at his peak.
“Liverpool, in my opinion are not a traditionally English side. They play their own different game – more of a team game, more technical.
“This is because the presence of players such as Barnes, Fowler and McManaman. They are players who play more technical, creative football.”
Liverpool’s record against Russian opposition was poor. They were knocked out of Europe by Dynamo Tbilisi in 1979 following a 3-0 reverse in Georgia then in 1992 suffered defeats both home and away to Spartak Moscow. Form ahead of this tie was erratic, losing two of the opening five games to Tony Yeboah’s Leeds as well as Wimbledon.
This prompted untypical cautiousness from Roy Evans who abandoned a two-man strike force in Russia, instead preferring to deploy recent club record signing Stan Collymore alone up front with Michael Thomas holding in midfield. Robbie Fowler was on the bench.
When the hosts, buoyed by a typically partisan following, took the lead after 20-minutes through Mirdgalol Kasymov it seemed that Liverpool would suffer more misery on former Soviet soil.
But the 39 travelling Kopites contained in the stadium’s presidential box for their own safety were delirious when goals from Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp secured a priceless 2-1 win. The Echo extravagantly described it as ‘one of the greatest victories in 30-years of European competition.’
John Barnes, a player that had featured in all of Liverpool’s glorious triumphs over the previous decade, was surprisingly playing in only his second European match for the club. He had no doubts that the victory proved that the Reds were becoming more streetwise against opposition from the continent.
“I watched our games against Spartak Moscow in 1992 and I thought we were very naïve. We played end-to-end stuff in the home match and left ourselves open to the counter-attack, which was their game.
“Considering we’ve managed to win in Vladikavkaz, I’d say we’ve come of age.
“But we have to do it again and again. It’s no good if we mess up in the home leg and it’s no good if we don’t reproduce this performance in our next away game in Europe.”
Despite having their plane impounded upon arrival at Speke Airport for licensing reasons, Vladikavkaz were in confident mood for the second leg after moving towards the Russian title, seven points ahead of second placed Spartak Moscow.
Moscow had beaten Blackburn Rovers, the champions of England the previous night at Ewood Park in front of only 21,000, so Liverpool chief executive Peter Robinson decided to slash prices for the Anfield tie. “Ewood Park was half empty and the lack of atmosphere didn’t help Blackburn,” said Robinson. “We need to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to us.” It nearly did.
On the night that Manchester United were dumped out of the same competition by Rotor Volgograd, also of Russia, Roy Evans’s side struggled to a goalless draw without striker Collymore who was rested following a run of indifferent form.
“Stan won’t play well every time he goes onto the pitch,” Evans reflected, post match. “It’s still a learning process for us both. Unfortunately, he becomes the target of the media because of his price tag and that’s unfair. Sometimes you can think too much about things and try to change. But often you need to be yourself and I just think Stan needs to be Stan Collymore. Some of the service he gets here is obviously different to what he was used to at Nottingham Forest.
“But I have no doubt he’ll get there.”
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WHEN Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR on Christmas Day in 1991, it didn’t just mark the collapse after 71-years of the world’s first socialist mega power. It also signalled the dissolution of football across the biggest country on the planet.
The Soviet Top League, a multi-ethic competition including teams from all 15 republics, had previously found champions in the provinces with Dynamo Tbilisi (Georgia), Ararat Yerevan (Armenia), Dynamo Minsk (Belarus), Dynamo Kiev, Dnipro and Zorya Voroshivograd (Ukraine) all providing stern resilience to the politically preferred capital city clubs, CSKA Moscow (affiliated to the Ministry of Defence), Lokomotiv Moscow (Ministry of Transportation) and Dynamo Moscow (Ministry of Internal Affairs – The KGB).
Overnight came a vacuum. Clubs were deprived of the Communist centralised state, which had solicited history from inside the Kremlin, while its players were propelled into a new brisk, sometimes terrifying world.
“Before the fall of the Soviet Union, any amount of success achieved by the non-Moscow clubs like Tbilisi or Minsk wasn’t allowed by the Soviet elites to sustain itself,” says Marc Bennetts, author of Football Dynamo, Modern Russia and the People’s Game. “Soon enough, the state would make sure allegations of foul play off the field were levelled at any offending team daring to break the status-quo, forcing all the best players to leave.
“All of a sudden, the system collapsed with teams, players and even fans unsure of the future.”
Spartak Moscow, traditionally the sports team of the proletariat were the first club to benefit from the break-up. Spartak or Spartacus, according to Roman historians was the leader of an oppressed people fighting for their freedom against a slave-owning aristocracy – hence their nickname, ‘The People’s Team’.
Regular challengers for the title during the days of Gorbachev and before, Spartak Moscow became the dominant force in the early 90s as the Soviet Union evolved into the CIS, then Russia. Under coach Oleg Romantsev, the Muscovites won nine titles in the following ten years, hammering Liverpool 6-2 on aggregate in the second round of the 1992/93 Cup Winners’ Cup as well as reaching the quarter final of the Champions League on two occasions.
“That Spartak Moscow team was the basis for the Russian national side for the next decade,” Bennett says. “Players like Victor Onopko, Valery Karpin, Alexandr Mostovoi and later Yegor Titov are amongst the greatest players the country has ever produced and that includes many of the legends that did so well for the USSR. They would rank alongside players like Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov.”
The only season when another side managed to unbolt Spartak’s stranglehold on Russian football came in 1995 when months after their defeat to Liverpool in the UEFA Cup, Vladikavkaz became only the tenth club in 59 years from outside Moscow to lift the title.
“Vladikavkaz were backed by a strong local administration who wanted the team to do well and backed the manager who was equally passionate about the team and the area,” Bennetts continues. “Valery Gazzaev was born and brought up in Vladikavkaz when it was known as Ordzhonikidze and very passionate about the success of his local side so that spurred him on.
“He was one of the great Soviet strikers of the past and his fame helped him to attract some good players to the South – players that wouldn’t usually consider moving too far.
“Most of all, he built a competent side that worked hard for each other and a strong team spirit helped them a long way.”
Gazzaev, who made his name as a player with Dynamo Moscow before managing them with limited success in the early-90s, returned to Vladikavkaz in 1993 promising to qualify his home-town team for Europe within two seasons. It was a bold statement, considering the club had achieved nothing but mediocrity before his arrival.
A 2-1 aggregate defeat to Liverpool would prove to be the pinnacle of Vladikavkaz’s history in European competition. Twelve-months later, they were humiliated by Glasgow Rangers 10-3 in the final qualifying round of the Champions League and have since failed to finish even in the top half of the Russian Premier League. Liverpool, meanwhile, were later humiliated by Brondby at Anfield in the second round thanks to Dan Eggen.
Bennetts says, “When Vladikavkaz won the title in ’95, it came as a major surprise, although it was obvious they were a rapidly improving team under Gazzaev. Unlike now, where a team can come from nowhere with a lot of money and achieve success, the Vladikavkaz story was more about hard work and togetherness. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough on the European field.”
Gazzaev soon departed for a second spell at Dynamo Moscow before leading CSKA Moscow to an era of dominance in Russian football where they won three league titles and the UEFA Cup. He now coaches Dynamo Kiev.
“Gazzaev has a good reputation amongst football supporters as a strong man-manager. Although Oleg Romantsev is commonly regarded as the most successful coach in Russian football since the fall of the Soviet Union, Gazzaev is up there with him because he has always won trophies when competition has been fierce.
“He may have joined CSKA when they had lots of rubles to spend after being taken over by Sibneft, an oil company then owned by Roman Abramovich, but at that time, other clubs like Lokomotiv Moscow, Dynamo Moscow and Spartak all started investing heavily with big money behind them. So it has always been more difficult for Gazzaev – especially when he was at Vladikavkaz.”
It took another 12 seasons for a team from outside Moscow to win the league (Zenit St Petersburg in 2007) while the uncertain political situation in Chechnya made it impossible for Vladikavkaz to maintain development. A ceasefire agreed in August ’96 ended the Chechen War but three years later rebels launched an invasion of Dagestan leading to a second conflict in the region, which raged for 10-months.
War, though, isn’t the only reason why Vladikavkaz has struggled. Since 1990, they have had more identities than a decommissioned super agent from the KGB. Previously called Spartak Ordzhonikidze they have since been known as Spartak Vladikavkaz (1990–1994 and 2006), Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz (1995-1996 and 2003-2006) and Alania Vladikavkaz (1997-2003 and 2007).
“Some of their fans don’t know what to sing during matches with all the changes,” jokes Bennetts. “They are really proud people down in the Caucasus but the football club has spawned into something unfamiliar with the region. Alania have had a lot of sub-standard Brazilian and African players over recent seasons and it’s all added to a loss of character.
“The main reason why they have changed their name so many times is because of bureaucracy. In Russia, they love lots of forms.
“At the start of the season, each club has to register certain documentation with the FA, but over the years, the people in charge of Vladikavkaz have failed to send those details on time to the powers that be in Moscow. It has resulted in several name changes over the years without too much incident.
“In ’06, then as Alania, along with and another club from eastern Siberia called Lokomotiv Chita, they were denied a professional licence and excluded from professional football – once again because of juridical irregularities.
“After much uncertainty, they were eventually demoted to the Russian third tier of football – with the name of Spartak Vladikavkaz. They quickly achieved promotion back to the First Division and soon reverted back to Alania once again and have been named so ever since.
“I’m not sure whether it will last.”
With no team from Moscow winning the title since 2006 and more and more petrodollars being pumped into the game across the whole country, Bennetts believes football in Russia is changing quicker than ever.
“It is very different now to the way it was in ’95 when Vladikavkaz won the league. There is lots of money for a start. Initially, it was only the Moscow clubs that interested wealthy individuals and companies, but Zenit’s success with Gazprom in ’07 inspired others like Rubin Kazan who look set to win the league two seasons on the run. Before 2002 – they’d never played in the Russian top flight.
“But in recent years attracted some really good foreign players including Alejandro Dominguez and Cristian Ansaldi from Argentina as well as Christian Noboa, an Ecuadorean. Last summer, they signed Karedeniz Gokdeniz, a Turkish international from Trabzonspor for more than £7m. Kazan now have a cosmopolitan squad of players from all over the world – not just the Soviet empire like it used to be.
“Then there are teams like Luch-Energia Vladivostok. Luch-Energia were named so in 2003 after the club was taken over by an energy distribution company. They achieved promotion to the Russian Premier League and boasted a tremendous home record because of the distances teams had to travel for away games. From Moscow, for instance, it’s a nine or ten hour flight and through seven different time zones. CSKA went there unprepared for the jet lag and were beaten 4-0. Unfortunately for them, Luch would have to make the return journey at some point and be on the receiving end of a similar result. Eventually, they were relegated.”
Although Vladikavkaz are a long way from repeating form from the mid-90s, another team from the Caucasus region to emerge from the shadows and challenge for the title in the future might be Terek Grozny.
“One of the big reasons why they could be successful is if the Kremlin decides that life and football should appear to return to normal in Grozny - the scene of one of the fiercest battles in the Chechen War.
“Recently Terek have been improving rapidly. Back in ’04, they somehow won the Russian Cup despite being in the second tier of Russian football. After a few promotions and relegations, they have achieved some stability and are now attracting some high-profile players with the help of the chairman, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the son of the former Chechen president.
“A few months ago, they somehow managed to sign Hector Bracamonte, an Argentinian striker who had scored plenty of goals for FC Moscow over the last few seasons. There was no real reason for him to leave Moscow because the club was doing well and financially sound.
“Bracamonte then told the press that Grozny had made him ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse.’
“That’s the beauty of Russian football. Some things never change.”
