13 incredible photos of real football culture in Russia

Disposable camera shots capture football's real impact in the World Cup's host country

Spartak Moscow ultras standing together in Ekaterinburg, rural teams in remote areas of the Ural Mountains, and children playing in deep snow in Kazan.

These are just a few of the images gathered by Goal Click for their latest project, which – to tie-in with the World Cup – is focusing on Russia. 

If you've not heard of Goal Click before, it's a crowd-sourced photography project that aims to show football’s impact around the world through amateur photography and stories.

Their latest project aims to tell a broad story of how a country as big as Russia processes football.

Co-founder Matthew Barrett explains that this is the first time they’ve gone in so deep on a specific country. 

“We wanted to bring out stories from Russia that maybe aren’t often portrayed,” Matthew tells us. "Ordinary people, the fan culture, grassroots football, fan passion – and also the impact that the World Cup is having in the World Cup cities.” 

Matthew explains that they began planning their Russia project 18 months ago – setting out to find photographers from all over the country. This resulted in seven photographers stepping forward, happy to span 13 locations between them – from Kaliningrad in the west, to Ekaterinburg at the border of the Ural Mountains. 

The Russian national team are doing much better than a lot of people anticipated at this year’s tournament, but these photos were submitted in the run-up to the World Cup, when Russia had defeats by France, Brazil, and Austria, and a draw with Turkey in international friendlies.

Matthew says that one of the big themes to come out of the project from different photographers was a sense of pessimism about the state of the nation's football – at least at club and grassroots level.

“We seemed to find that it was a tough moment for Russian football, and that was reflected in the photographers’ view of the future of the game,” he says.

Yet some of the photos do offer a glimpse of the excitement that a World Cup can bring.

One of Matthew’s favourite photos from the collection is that of a wedding party in Kaliningrad.

“The more you look at that photo, the more brilliant it is,” he says. “Everyone’s looking in different directions, and you’ve got this cartoonish figure of the mascot, in opposition to a quite ceremonial moment in someone’s life.”

The photographer, Sergey Novikov, was interested in documenting how people were interacting with World Cup signage and infrastructure in public spaces ahead of the World Cup. 

“The World Cup is the hot topic, so the World Cup 2018 sign was chosen as the perfect mark of the moment for the family archive,” he writes., external

Another photo shows trapeze artists outside Kaliningrad stadium, where England faced Belgium last week.

Meanwhile, Alexander Grivin captured urban decay in Volgograd, a city in southwest Russia, where England took on Tunisia.

“For many years, football was at a very high level in Volgograd. But after years of great performance in Russian and international arenas, football started to decay here,” Alexander explains., external

Alexander believes that “a lot must be changed in Russian football to ensure the improvement of Russian teams”, adding: “I think that more time needs to be dedicated to minor football and to build more playgrounds.”

In Nizhny Novgorod, we see a snow-covered image of the stadium built for this year’s World Cup – where England faced Panama – overlooking the Volga and Oka rivers.

Sergey bemoans the state of local football in Novgorod – a city located about 500km east of Moscow.

“Unfortunately, in Nizhny Novgorod the football is very bad,” he writes. “We have a strong regional championship among amateur teams, but there is no main professional team.” 

Sergey Novikov has also documented football in the Ural Mountains for his project Grass Roots., external

“The main economic activities in the Urals are mining and metalwork, which deeply impact social life and football, including the names of the stadiums and clubs,” Sergey says., external “Of the seven local stadiums that I visited, three were named 'Metallurg', and two were called 'Gornyak' ['Miner'].”

In one photo, taken in the mining town of Degtyarsk, a mountain of mining waste overlooks the pitch.

"I see the stadiums as objects of social infrastructure, as elements of urban environment," Sergey says. "My backgrounds around the stadium always show something local, something important for local community." 

Sergey documents fan culture in towns and cities like Perm. “The Blind Pew Crew is a small fan group of 'Prikamie' Perm,” he explains. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Sergey Poteryaev has captured some startling photos of crowds of Spartak Moscow fans in Ekaterinburg. Shown next to these photos from the Ural mountains, the difference in scale in noticeable.

In one image, the sunlight bursts through a sea of flags and raised hands. “The fact that the photographer’s embedded with the supporters means you can really feel the closeness,” Matthew Barrett says. “I’m always a fan of our photographers who do get in amongst the fans, rather than observing from a distance.” 

“I did not try to distinguish the hero from the crowd,” says the photographer Sergey., external “In the world of ultras there is unity.”

The big goal for Matthew and Goal Click is to be able to show photos from every country in the world where football is played – telling different stories about how the game is understood and interpreted by various cultures.

The Russia collection is on display in Moscow throughout the World Cup.

Originally published 3 July 2018.

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