Spartak Moscow striker Nikita Bazhenov said he more than understood the decision to postpone his side’s clash with Russian Premier League leaders Zenit St. Petersburg over the thick smog that has gripped Moscow.
“Of course we wanted the game to go ahead,” he was quoted as saying by sportbox.ru on Saturday. “But now is not the time to play football. It’s hard enough to simply go out on the street”.
“When you open a window at our training camp there is a smell of burning. It’s completely impossible to breath,” he added.
As well as the Spartak-Zenit match, the Dynamo Moscow-CSKA Moscow was also put off. Both games were due to be played on Sunday.
Russia’s friendly with Bulgaria on August 11 has also been moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg over the smog, which has been caused by peat bog and forest fires raging near the capital.
Carbon monoxide levels were some 6 times higher than normal in Moscow on Saturday, with some estimates saying the amount of pollutants in the air was 16 above the norm. RIA Novosti
