Success or else : Terek Grozny and the image of Chechnya

For the fourth installment of his ‘Football in Conflict Zones’ series, Mike Kobylko takes us to the Russian Premier League to look at how hunger for success and a new image for the Chechen Republic are the driving forces behind Terek Grozny. You can find more of Mike’s work by following him on twitter, @Mike7077.

Earlier this month, Chelsea and France striker Nicolas Anelka was the subject of reports linking him with a move to Terek Grozny, the Russian Premier League club based in Chechnya’s capital city. There can be no denying that, when it comes to football in the North Caucasus, Anzhi Makhachkala of Dagestan steal most of the headlines and, thus far, the biggest name players to arrive in the region. But with the likes of Samuel Eto’o joining the Dagestani revolution, and several of Europe’s brighter lights sure to follow suit, Terek have plans of their own in place. On the football field, the demand for success is real and growing in what remains a fractious and poverty-blighted region of the world’s largest country.

Russia is a land of ethnic diversity. As such, ethnic conflict has never been far away and can spring up in various pockets of the vast territory of the Russian Federation at any time. The Chechens have had a troublesome and often violent relationship with Russian central authority for four centuries. In the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth, they were in almost constant revolt against Russia’s expansionist colonial policies. During World War II, Stalin ordered the Chechen population be deported to the harsh Central Asian steppe, supposedly for collaborating with the Nazis. Many died en route. As Chechens began to return to their homeland following the war, it was clear that popular resentment of Soviet authority was widespread – as it would remain throughout the post-war 20th Century. In 1991, control of the restive republic was seized by a Chechen former Soviet air force general, who declared it independent. Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new Russian authority set about trying to regain control and, in 1994, Boris Yeltsin ordered a full-scale invasion. And so began the Chechen War – a desperate episode of death and destruction, the razing to the ground of Grozny, as well as terrorist atrocities such as the Beslan school massacre and the Moscow theatre siege.

Terek Grozny, the leading football club of Chechnya, could count themselves among the victims of the war in the republic. With the escalation of violence between Chechens and Russia in the early 1990s, the club was, as so often happens, forced to relocate to a safer venue for football. Home games were played in more tranquil territory – the city of Pyatigorsk in Stavropol Krai. But this wasn’t the limit of their misfortune. By the mid-1990s, Chechnya’s instability caused Terek to disband completely. Although the lives of ordinary Chechens were dominated by much more pressing issues than football during this period, there was nevertheless a sense of mourning and of real loss among Terek’s loyal fanbase. The club had never been particularly successful, but they did offer something of a distraction to a population battered by war.

As conflicts go, the war in Chechnya was a byword for brutality. Whilst Chechen freedom fighters did a remarkable job of keeping Russian forces at bay, terrorists from the region were responsible for a series of barbaric acts. One consequence was that Chechnya became synonymous, in the minds of ordinary Russians, with terrorism. The ability to crush Chechen terrorism, and by extension Chechen rebellion in the republic, would bestow major political kudos on those who delivered it. Boris Yeltsin recognised this when he ordered his invasion of Chechnya in 1994. He ultimately failed, but Vladimir Putin, who succeeded Yeltsin as Russian President, had different ideas. He promised to crush the Chechens. The consequences for this included the awful destruction of the city of Grozny, and, perhaps less tragically but no less notably, the disbanding of Terek.

With the arrival of the 21st Century, real change was afoot, both for Terek Grozny and for the Chechen Republic. Vladimir Putin had achieved the kind of popularity in Russia usually reserved for rockstars or footballers in the West. This was partly down to the booming Russian economy, which seemed improbable after the economic disaster of the Yeltsin period. But it was also down to Putin’s success in suppressing the Chechen fighters. He was able to install a pro-Moscow President in Grozny – Akhmad Kadyrov. The rebuilding of Grozny continued apace. Meanwhile, Kadyrov and several of his associates set about re-forming Terek, promising a period of on-the-field success. In 2000, when the club officially received a licence to reform, the Chechen Minister for Sport went on record to promise UEFA Cup football in the near future.

The promise would be realised. However, Akhmad Kadyrov would not be around to see it. Life in Chechnya had changed under Kadyrov. His strongman rule had delivered relative stability and economic growth, as the republic’s rebels were routed as a major force. The rebuilding of Grozny was stepped up. But the militants had not been eliminated and, on May 7th 2004, an attack on a Victory Day celebration in Grozny took the life of Akhmad Kadyrov. He was replaced, both as President of Chechnya and as Terek’s President, by his son Ramzan. Later that month, Terek became the first side from outside the top flight to win the Russian Cup, beating Krylja Sovetov by a goal to nil. In footballing terms, it was a monumental achievement. It also represented the fulfilment of Akhmad Kadyrov’s promise. But the result wasn’t universally welcomed in Chechnya. One negotiator for the republic’s last elected leader described it as another means through which the Putin government in Moscow was tightening its grip on Chechnya. It is a fact that Terek Grozny were being bankrolled to the tune of £1.6m a year by Vladimir Putin’s government at this time. But the tiny group of Terek fans who travelled to the cup final nevertheless celebrated wildly.

By the end of the season, Terek had won promotion to Russia’s top flight. President Putin himself had ordered a new stadium be built in Grozny. It was to be named after the late Akhmad Kadyrov. In purely footballing terms, the future looked bright for the club. But it wasn’t to be. A combination of logistical issues in terms of travel, a perceived bias against the Chechens by referees, and a surprising lack of investment in the playing squad, meant Terek were relegated, their cup success suddenly seeming a distant memory.

But Ramzan Kadyrov wasn’t finished. For Kadyrov, Jr., as with his father, Terek represented a chance to demonstrate the “new” Chechnya that they had delivered. It could be a means of showing the rest of Russia and the wider world that Chechnya was a stable, upwardly mobile place. Of course, most Chechens remained among the poorest people in all of Russia. But perception is always important for authoritarian leaders. By the late 2000s, Grozny had become a gleaming city. The pro-Moscow regime, whilst always wary of the possibility of rebel attacks, had taken a firm grip of the republic’s politics. Terek, meanwhile, were about to raise their profile further. In 2007, they returned to the top flight, determined to make a better fist of it. The following season, against the wishes of most Russian football fans, the authorities granted the club the right to host matches in Grozny.

With the club back home and playing top-flight football, Kadyrov decided, in February 2011, to turn to a name familiar to fans of football across the world in pursuit of success. Ruud Gullit arrived in Grozny to a fanfare of dancing and celebration, and a not insignificant amount of criticism. He was accused in some quarters of associating with human rights abusers. Gullit responded thusly: “I want to concentrate on sport and give the people there a little pleasure in their lives again”. Very noble. But Terek Grozny is no ordinary club. When you carry the image and aspirations of a nation’s politics on your shoulders, it is a peculiar type of pressure for a football manager. Gullit did not impress his boss. The club has languished in the relegation section of the Russian Premier League during its transitional 2011-12 season. Gullit promised to get things right and that he needed time to build a team in a region which still presented so many challenges to the successful running of a football club. However, in June, Gullit was told by Kadyrov that defeat at Amkar Perm would spell the end of his short tenure. Terek lost. Gullit departed. Kadyrov later accused the Dutchman of a lack of professionalism, preferring the call of bars and clubs to the training pitch. Gullit strongly refuted the accusations.

Whether the allegations against Gullit were true or not, the fact is that Terek Grozny must move forward without him. In the short term avoiding relegation is crucial. Controversy continues to dog the club. They are still many people in Russia, including rebel Chechen groups, who believe the Russian authorities won’t allow the club to go down. They suggest that the club is too central to the image of Chechnya that the regime wants people to see. Ramzan Kadyrov remains highly ambitious for Terek, and will probably be even more determined to raise the club’s profile with the emergence of Anzhi Makhachkala in nearby Dagestan threatening to divert attention away from Terek as the leading club in the North Caucasus. The Gullit affair became an ugly distraction. Terek can’t match Anzhi for financial clout. But with money continuing to flow in from Moscow and from the Chechen government, failure will not be an option. Ruud Gullit, a European Champion as a player, found this out to his cost. Will Nicolas Anelka fancy life in the Chechen hornets’ nest? Come next summer, we will probably find out.