Some of them however may have second thoughts or even cancel their travel plans after a number of recent media reports, including a BBC documentary, painted Russian fans all shades of evil.
Nevertheless, it appears that Australia's largest dedicated football travel provider, Green & Gold Army, does not intend to change its plans to bring the country’s fans to Russia.
Aaron Zoanetti, Green & Gold Army’s director, told Sputnik Radio that Australians are unlikely to be concerned about these alleged reports of violent Russian ultras.
"I don’t think that Australians would be concerned about travelling to Russia from fear of violence from Russian ultras. I just don’t think that comes into our mindset. We think about spending a lot of money to go and support our country in the World Cup," he said.
Zoanetti also added that while he actually lives in London at the moment and has therefore quite a few of the reports about violent Russian hooligans, the negative media coverage hasn't had much coverage in Australia.
"There’s no doubt that some of Russian fans travelled to France with the goal to cause violence; there’s no doubt about that and that is a concern for any football fan if people are attending a tournament for that purpose. But in Australia the level of media coverage of those events wasn’t significant, so while some Europeans might be put off by those reports, the reports didn’t really make it to the news in Australia," Zoanetti explained.
He pointed out however that football hooliganism is hardly a phenomenon that exists in Russia alone, and that this problem exists in many countries all over the world.
"You know, I’m not singling out Russians because I think the issue is being highlighted as a Russian issue when it’s not a Russian issue. This problem exists, you know, in many countries," Zoanetti remarked.
He also added that from an Australian perspective, football events are no place for violence and hopefully “people who want to go to tournaments for that reason find another outlet for their violence which doesn’t involve football.”
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held at venues in more than 10 Russian cities in June and July 2018. The event will be the first-ever World Cup to take place in Eastern Europe.
