A criminal case has been opened against football player Fyodor Smolov. What you need to know

A criminal case has been opened against Fedor Smolov, a former player of the Russian national team and Krasnodar. He faces up to three years in prison because of a fight that took place in the same place where football players Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev brawled a few years ago. While the investigation is underway, the 35-year-old striker remains at large and continues to play football. What you need to know about the scandal with the athlete is in the Izvestia article.

What is Smolov suspected of?

• The incident involving Smolov occurred on the morning of May 28 at the cafe "Kofemania" on Nikitskaya Street in Moscow. A video appeared on the Internet in which the football player first communicated with two seated visitors and tried to calm one of them with gestures. At some point Smolov was about to leave, but he turned around and tried to punch one of the men, but missed. Smolov immediately hit the other in the face and knocked off his glasses. The surrounding people immediately intervened and stopped the fight.

• The video was posted on July 5, more than a month after the brawl. Sports journalists and Telegram channels linked this to the fact that Smolov was being extorted for refusing to post the video online. It was reported that the blackmailers demanded several million rubles from him, constantly increasing the amount, but the football player refused to go along with it and himself wrote a statement to the police in connection with the fraud.

Smolov soon presented his version of events. He apologized and said that that morning he and his company had caused some inconvenience to other visitors and wanted to resolve misunderstandings, but "came across rudeness and obscenity." The footballer stated that he wanted to compensate for the damage to his health and moral damage, but blackmailers who were not directly involved in the conflict began to contact him. His wife Karina Istomina confirmed that negotiations with the extortionists continued for a month, but in the end they refused to pay, after which the video of the fight was published.

• When the incident became known, the Russian Interior Ministry announced that they were conducting an investigation into the incident, both because of the fight and in connection with possible extortion. The ministry noted that the victim was a 47-year-old resident of Chelyabinsk, who was taken to the hospital with injuries.

• Already in September, a criminal case was opened against Smolov under Part 1 of Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Intentional infliction of moderate harm to health"). According to it, the athlete faces up to three years in prison. A preventive measure has been chosen against the football player in the form of an obligation to appear, which allows him to remain at large while the investigation is underway.

How Smolov's career has changed

• Just four days before the incident at Kofemania, Smolov won the Russian Football Championship with the Krasnodar club. It became a high-profile event in football, as the team, which has existed for only 17 years, achieved such success for the first time, and it managed to secure the first place only in the last round.

Unsportsmanlike conduct: is Fyodor Smolov facing a real prison sentence

The strange story of the football player's fight has been continued

• 35-year-old Smolov was not Krasnodar's leading player last season, he played only 16 games in the Russian Premier League and scored the only goal in the match against Zenit. However, before that, he spent four seasons at Krasnodar, when this club was gaining strength and joining the elite of Russian football. In the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons, Smolov was the club's top scorer and thanks to this he became one of the fans' favorite players. Last season, he returned to Krasnodar and helped it win the RPL not so much as a sniper, but as an experienced veteran of the team.

• Krasnodar's last contract with Smolov was one-year, so after winning the Russian championship, he was left without a team. Against the background of the incident at Coffeemania, no other professional club demonstrated its interest in the 35-year-old striker. So in the summer Smolov focused on hosting his own podcast, in which he interviews other athletes.

However, he still received an offer from the Brock Boys Club, a team of celebrities and bloggers that competes not only in the semi-professional Media League, but also in the Russian Cup. Smolov got the opportunity to beat Andrei Arshavin in the list of the best scorers of Russian football — the former Russian national football team player scored 158 goals in professional matches during his career, and Smolov has 156 goals.

• As a result, Smolov managed to catch up with the ex-Zenit football player. Together with the Brock Boys, he beat Avangard Kursk in the second round of the Russian Cup, and Leon Saturn from Ramenskoye near Moscow in the third. In both matches, the 35-year-old striker scored a goal. It is noteworthy that his second game took place the day after it became known about the initiation of a criminal case. At the end of September, Smolov will be able to return to the field against the Saratov Sokol.

Coincidences with the Kokorin and Mamaev case

• The criminal case against Smolov bears some similarities to another high-profile scandal that rocked Russian football in October 2018. Then Zenit striker Alexander Kokorin and Krasnodar midfielder Pavel Mamaev took part in two fights, one of which took place in the same "Coffee Mania" on Nikitskaya Street. In a cafe, Denis Pak, head of the Department of Automotive and Railway Engineering at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Sergey Gaisin, CEO of FSUE NAMI, suffered at their hands, and Vitaly Solovchuk, the driver of Channel One presenter Olga Ushakova, was injured in another fight.

• The actions of Kokorin and Mamaev, as well as two other defendants, were qualified under Part 2 of art. 213 ("Hooliganism organized by a group") and art. 116 ("Beatings") of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They were detained and placed in custody, and more than six months later, the court sentenced Kokorin to 1.5 years in prison, and Mamaev to 1 year and 5 months. They served their sentences together in one of the colonies of the Belgorod region. Four months after the verdict, the players were released on parole.