“Accrington Stanley Rubin Kazan, Who Are They?!”

THEY CAME FROM TATARSTAN

Look at them, sitting brazenly atop the RPL table. Just who do they think they are? Indeed, do they even know who they are? The answer is yes. Probably. Thing is, they really have appeared from nowhere.

Well, from Kazan (the clue’s in the name) – and they probably know that too as Kazan is actually quite an important city. Ergo Rubin, or “Ruby”, have much to represent.

In April Kazan was officially granted third city status of Russia. But it doesn’t stop there, Kazan is also the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Of its 2.8million people, about 2million are ethnic Tatars (compared to 1.4million ethnic Russians), most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Consequently, this rather individual nation-within-a-nation is fiercely proud and passionate – and must be relishing its opportunity to laud it over their Slavic cousins in Rubin’s 30,000 capacity Central Stadium.

Tatarstan’s motto is “Buldırabız!” – “We can!” So it’s just as well that Rubin have: 40 points, 39 goals scored and just 13 conceded in 19 matches this season back the claim up.

But, for this provincial club, heading the sixth best UEFA-ranked league in Europe is no fluke. Well, as long as you only count back as far as 2008, when a premier league winning side was assembled for the first time in their history.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Rubin really have exploded out of anonymity, only appearing at Russia’s top table as recently as 2003.

Ever since their early days as a workers’ team from the Gorbunova factory, Ruby had only ever been a middling club.

Boasting zero major honours, they couldn’t even hold down a name with any consistency, playing as Leninsky Kazan, Wings of Soviets Kazan and Iskra Kazan before settling on Rubin as late as 1958 (though in the light of the many swift – and often seismic – changes that Russia has experienced over the years, 1958 could be considered an age ago).

Many a year passed with Rubin dutifully carrying out their tactics and training ground routines (to no great effect) in lower leagues of convoluted regional division, until well after even the Soviets had given up.

1996 AND ALL THAT

By 1996 Boris Yeltsin’s Russia was imploding. Despised Ooligarchs including Roman Abramovich, Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, divvied Russia up between themselves, while football fans witnessed the national side crash out of Euro96, in England. Life was far from caviar and champagne for the everyman.

But for Ruby, 1996 was an annus mirabilis. In the age of “gangster capitalism” (a clumsy sobriquet that Footy Matters’ lawyers make clear should absolutely not apply to any money-wielding Russian bizness men), a time when sharp-suited rogues and shell-suited thugs ruled, a knight in shining armour arrived at the doors of Kazan’s Central Stadium.

RUBIN HAVING A MAYOR

Kamil Iskhakov, then Mayor of Kazan, became the new patron of the club still in the Russian equivalent (albeit a regionalised “Central” division) of League One.

In the 1997 season, Rubin amassed 102 points, scoring 88 times, to become champions and secure promotion. After five years Rubin were again promoted to the RPL, as champions.

Their first ever RPL season saw the arrival of many foreigners. Though initially met with scepticism, they heralded a new dawn for a club taking its first steps in the multicultural world of modern European top-flight football. Rubin finished third.

Five seasons later and they clinched their first ever RPL title, helped by Iskhakov’s (no longer Mayor) continued spending – aided by local sponsors, TAIF, a petrochemicals company making use of Tatarstan’s oil and gas.

In total, over £48million has been spent on transfers since 2003, with nearly £29million being lavished in 2007 and 2008 alone.

As you read this Ruby are flying high again, this time defending their hard earned title.

And it has been earned, despite the millions. Since 2003 Zenit spent over £100million, CSKA £67million and Spartak £84.9million. Lokomotiv spent £84.8million and they’ve failed to win the league at all.

As Ruby clinched their historic title last year, Football Dynamo, the definitive tome on post-perestroika era Russian football by Marc Bennetts, was published. It included just a single mention of Rubin Kazan. Today, they are just weeks from a Champions League debut in a glamour-group with Barcelona, Internazionale and Dynamo Kyiv. 

In the six years since they burst into the RPL Rubin Kazan have been writing their own story. One that shows no sign of ending soon? – Exactly!