Swedes drink Russian city dry

Swedish football fans descending on Nizhny Novgorod caused beer supplies to run critically low and even run out completely in the city centre as they celebrated their team’s first opening win in 12 years.

As reported by The Local Sweden, the pressure of some 7,000 Swedish fans on the bars in the city centre celebrating their side’s 1-0 over South Korea was too much and many venues ran out of beer to serve.

The Swedish Football Association’s head of security, Martin Fredman, told Swedish paper Sportbladet that some bars had even begun running out the day before.

“The city has never had to arrange something on this scale before, so they’ve been completely taken by surprise,” he said.

Although the administrative capital of the Volga District, Nizhny (as it is often shortened to) was a ‘closed city’ from 1945 to 1990 which outsiders – at least non-Russians – were forbidden from visiting as the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast was and still is home to the nuclear research facility at Sarov.

Let’s hope the bar operators are better prepared ahead of the next game to be held in the city, which will be Argentina v Croatia on Thursday 21 June.