By Mark Baber
February 27 – The authorities in Uzbekistan have adopted new rules for fans behaviour in football matches which include an end to shouting and chants.
The new rules on fan behaviour in the central Asian country are not the result of any crowd trouble but rather a control measure imposed by government.
The new laws have reportedly been signed by Interior Minister Bahodir Matlyubov and Uzbekistan Football Federation President Mirabror Usmanov, and were approved by Minister of Culture and Sport of Uzbekistan Tursunali Kuziev last week.
Under the regulations, fans are granted rights including the right to enter sport complexes if they have tickets and to use the services of the kitchen, café, and other services, provided by the administrations of sport complexes.
They are also allowed to bring “flags, flags with plastic staff, photo cameras, mobile telephones, plastic pipes and drums” as well as banners and shirts as long as these do not contain abusive language.
However, fans are banned from visiting sport complexes under alcoholic intoxication, from bringing or consuming alcohol or tobacco products or bringing any form of weapon or pyrotechnic. Fans will be searched at the entrances to stadia.
Furthermore, “Fans should avoid shouts and other actions, degrading match participants, spectators or offending human morality. Fans should never paint the face or other body parts.”
In 2009, Abdurahmon Fazilov, head of the supporters club of Bunyodkor, a club owned by President Karimov’s billionaire daughter Gulnara Karimova, told the Guardian: “It’s a team game, so nobody is allowed to sing about individual players, only the team as a whole.”
The new rules indicate a toughening of the laws and come in the wake of the central Asian country being awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award for 2012. A somewhat controversial award in light of the country’s poor human rights record.
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