On 12 April a new club played its first game in Russia’s football pyramid. A healthy enough crowd gathered at Novokolor Arena in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 20 miles from the border with Ukraine’s occupied territories, encouraged by a slick buildup on social media. They watched “Zarya Luhansk” begin their slog through the Third League, the fifth tier of a complicated Russian system whose composition shifts annually, with a 5-0 home win over Volgar Astrakhan’s second team. Some had travelled by chartered bus from the city their club purports to represent.
The name may sound familiar. The real Zorya Luhansk are eighth in the Ukrainian Premier League and savour a proud 102-year history. They play European football almost every season and hosted Manchester United in 2016. Nowadays, they play home matches in Kyiv owing to the illegal occupation of their home city. Any idea they would pull out and compete in Russia is beyond laughable.
But “Zarya” – the only difference between the prefixes, which mean “dawn”, is that of preferred Russian and Ukrainian spelling – began their campaign to little pushback from football’s authorities. The imitation club was founded in December 2023 and has played 82 matches, many in a “Commonwealth League” set up for teams from the regions Russia has annexed. They finished third in last year’s 10-team competition. Among their rivals in that event is a sham “Shakhtar Donetsk”.
The appearance of a replica “Zarya” in Russia’s setup feels like a red line crossed. To be clear, nobody is suggesting football should not be played in any form by those in occupied regions. “Zarya” can point out that, for now at least, they will stage their matches in Russia rather than in the country it has invaded. There may technically be no breach here even if Zorya, who prefer not to legitimise the new club’s activities with comment, felt grounds for any complaint.
Yet “Zarya”, who lost 1-0 at Spartak Anapa on Thursday, are not banking on a long spell in the nominally amateur Third League. A glance at their operation suggests significant financial backing. The club president, Araik Asatryan, a former Zorya academy player, told local media this month they planned to “close the issue in this calendar year” when asked how quickly he would like “Zarya” to reach Russia’s two-tier Second League, from where a clear path up the divisions is visible. He made clear they must follow the “historical traditions” of the prewar Zorya.
They have signed a number of players, most of them with professional experience. The door has also been left open to play home games in Luhansk, although Asatryan said “curfew and a certain regime situation” preclude that. Training sessions have been held in Avanhard Stadium, Zorya’s home until the war in Donbas forced their relocation in 2014; this week they warmed up in Perevalsk, which lies between Luhansk and Donetsk.
It is not difficult to see this project for what it is. “Zarya” were formed at the instruction of the illegitimate Luhansk People’s Republic, which controls the city and its surrounding area. Football is being deployed as a tool to normalise a violent denial of the past and the cold truth for anyone expecting a response from the authorities is that they are simply the latest, if arguably the most egregious, example in a concerning but virtually ignored trend.
Should “Zarya” earn promotion to Football National League 2B, the fourth division, they would probably meet the Crimean teams Rubin Yalta and Sevastopol. They were incorporated into the Russian pyramid two years ago and began their third season in the competition last month. In 2023, the Ukrainian Football Association complained vociferously that the clubs had breached Uefa rules prohibiting sides from Crimea competing in tournaments organised by the Russian Football Union (RFU). It asked that governing bodies take action against the RFU, suggesting it should be ejected by Uefa and Fifa.
The loophole apparently deployed by the RFU was that Football National League 2B does not operate under its auspices and, besides, is an amateur competition. The latter assertion has never rung true. Of 15 fourth-tier clubs contacted, the four who responded directly confirmed their players are employed on professional contracts. One, seemingly on the back of that approach, added “professional club” to their official profile on the Russian social networking site VK.
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The Football National League’s statutes for this season say that, on behalf of the RFU, it organises “all-Russian football competitions among professional football clubs of the second league”. It describes itself as ultimately deferential to the RFU. The RFU offered no answer when asked whether Rubin or Sevastopol, neither of whom have yet been allowed into the Russian Cup, would be granted promotion to the third tier if it were earned this season.
Nor did Uefa respond fully when asked, with reference to the Crimean pair and “Zarya”, about its stance in relation to clubs from the occupied territories. In July 2023 it told the Guardian it was “assessing the situation” regarding Crimea. Asked for an update this month, Uefa said it had consistently communicated its position on the matter. There has been no public or private update on its assessment; maybe that process is about to enter its third year. Fifa did not reply to questions on the situation.
Perhaps the issue appears trivial to those in football’s corridors of power. Maybe three clubs from sovereign Ukrainian territory, one a clear rip-off of an existing institution, being blended into the aggressors’ football pyramid is deemed an irrelevant footnote when the headline is that Russia and its sides remain banned from international events. There appears little appetite to stop others following suit and presumably plenty of interest from Russia’s football authorities in accepting them.
Two weeks ago, on a slow and bobbly artificial surface in the Crimean city Yevpatoria, “Zarya” defeated “Shakhtar” 3-0 in this season’s third set of Commonwealth League match days. Their second goal, an impressive chip from Artem Demagin, brought roars from the crowd and wild jubilation on the touchline among players and staff.
“They’re celebrating as if they won the Champions League,” said the commentator on the freely available online feed. That is the remotest of prospects for now, but how far will the creep of clubs representing Ukraine’s occupied territories into Russia’s league system be allowed to continue?